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Our Story

Four years building the infrastructure. ESPR just gave it a deadline.

DeStore didn't pivot to Digital Product Passports because of a regulation. We were building this before most brands had heard of ESPR. This is the record of how we got here.

An opal miner. A 150-year-old industry. A question about provenance.

DeStore was founded by Josiah Kotzur — an opal miner from Yowah, Southwest Queensland. The opal trade is one of the oldest in Australia. It is also one of the least trusted. Provenance is verbal. Ownership is paper. Value disappears the moment a stone changes hands.

The question that started everything was simple: what if a physical object could carry its full story — origin, authentication, ownership chain — permanently, in a form no one could alter or delete?

Building the answer required infrastructure that didn't exist. So we built it. Under the name PolkaRock, then MetaRock — Metarock Pty Ltd is still the legal entity behind DeStore today.

Every product has a story. We're building the infrastructure that lets it travel with the product — from the moment it's made, to every owner who comes after.
— Josiah Kotzur, Co-Founder & CEO, DeStore Network

From a Queensland opal to ESPR-ready DPP infrastructure for the EU

2021 — PolkaRock
First to build real-world asset provenance on Polkadot
PolkaRock launched as one of the first projects to anchor physical objects — opals, stones, real-world assets — to permanent records on Polkadot using the RMRK standard. Built on Darwinia Network. Indexed by SubQuery. The foundation of everything that followed.
2022 — MetaRock
A portal for physical products to carry permanent digital identity
We renamed to MetaRock and broadened the thesis: every physical object deserves a permanent, portable record. Not just opals. Every product. We partnered with Laava Smart Fingerprint to bring cryptographic authentication to phygital assets — one of the first projects globally to combine smart fingerprint authentication with on-chain provenance.
2022 — Discovery Channel
The world's first opal sold with a digital provenance record on international television
The Discovery Channel captured DeStore's first live sale — an Australian opal anchored to a permanent on-chain record and sold on international television. The concept was proven in the most public way possible: a physical product's full story, permanently attached, sold in front of a global audience.
2022 — Polkadot Ecosystem
Building within one of the world's most ambitious blockchain ecosystems
DeStore became a recognised project within the Polkadot ecosystem — building on Astar Network (Polkadot's EVM parachain), accepted into Astar's Build2Earn program, and working alongside projects backed by Gavin Wood and the Web3 Foundation. We applied for Web3 Foundation grants and contributed to the Kusama ecosystem distribution program.
2022 — Rebranded to DeStore
Metarock Pty Ltd becomes DeStore Network
We rebranded to DeStore Network to reflect what the product had become: decentralised commerce infrastructure. Not a marketplace. Not an app. Infrastructure — for any brand, any product, any channel. Metarock Pty Ltd remains the legal entity operating DeStore.
2022 — Sony × Astar
Selected for Sony's Innovation Incubator. First Sony product anchored to a permanent record.
Sony's innovation incubator, run in partnership with Astar Network, selected DeStore as one of a small number of global projects to build alongside a major consumer electronics brand. DeStore gave a Sony speaker a permanent provenance record — the first time a major consumer brand anchored a physical product to a tamper-evident public ledger. This was not a pilot. It shipped.
2023 — DPP Pioneer
Writing the standards before the regulation arrived
While most brands had never heard of Digital Product Passports, DeStore was publishing the frameworks. "The Digital Product Passport: Shaping Tomorrow's Standards" — published March 2023 — was one of the earliest plain-language documents defining what DPPs should be and how they should work. We were subject matter experts on the infrastructure before it became regulation.
2024 — Infrastructure Rebuild
Purpose-built for GS1 Digital Link and the ESPR deadline
As the EU's ESPR regulation moved from proposal to law with a confirmed July 2027 deadline, we rebuilt DeStore from the ground up — migrating from Polkadot to Base (Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2), integrating GS1 Digital Link as the QR standard, and building the AI-powered catalogue migration tool that takes any brand from raw product data to fully compliant, scannable GS1 Digital Link QR codes in 48 hours.
2026 — Now
Australia's dedicated GS1 Digital Link and DPP issuance platform
DeStore is Australia's dedicated GS1 Digital Link and DPP infrastructure platform, purpose-built for brands exporting to the EU. We are accepting early migration assessments for brands in apparel, footwear, skincare, homewares, and electronics. Platform launching soon — register now to be first in line.
ESPR gave brands a deadline. We were building this infrastructure regardless.

We are practitioners, not resellers

Four years of building gives you perspective that no white paper can. We understand GS1 Digital Link at the standard level — not just the implementation. We understand the difference between a DPP that passes an audit and one that creates genuine brand value. We understand what questions regulators are actually asking.

We don't advise. We build. When the platform launches, every migration comes with a fixed price, fast turnaround, and a money-back guarantee.

GS1 Digital Link
Deep expertise in the GS1 Digital Link standard — URI syntax, resolver architecture, GTIN encoding, and the Sunrise 2027 retail POS transition. We issue compliant QR codes, not approximations of them.
Digital Product Passports
We published DPP frameworks before ESPR was law. We understand what data the regulation requires by product category, how records must be structured, and how to anchor them in a form that satisfies independent verification.
Blockchain Authentication
Four years building on Polkadot, Astar, Darwinia, Base, and Ethereum mainnet. We use blockchain infrastructure where it adds genuine value: permanent, independently verifiable records that no vendor can alter or delete.
Circular Trade Infrastructure
We are not building compliance software. We are building the infrastructure layer that makes circular commerce work — records that travel with the product across every owner, every resale, every lifecycle event.
AI Catalogue Migration
Traditional GS1 migration takes 6–12 months and costs $80,000+. Our AI reads your existing product data in any format, maps every ESPR-required field, and issues compliant GS1 Digital Link QR codes for your entire catalogue in 48 hours.

Built alongside the organisations that define the standards

DeStore has built directly within the ecosystems that matter — not as a downstream reseller, but as a contributor and implementation partner.

Infrastructure
Sony
Selected for Sony × Astar Innovation Incubator. First Sony product to receive a permanent on-chain provenance record.
Authentication
Laava
Strategic partnership since 2022. Laava Smart Fingerprint authentication is integrated into every DeStore DPP — cryptographic verification at the point of scan.
Blockchain
Polkadot
Built within the Polkadot ecosystem from 2021. One of the first projects to anchor real-world assets to permanent records on Polkadot's infrastructure.
Indexing
SubQuery
Official partnership. DeStore Powers Decentralised Commerce with SubQuery's data indexing tools — announced 2022.
Current Infrastructure
Ethereum · Base
DPPs issued on Base (Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2), batch-anchored to Ethereum mainnet. Tamper-evident. Permanently verifiable. No vendor lock-in.
Standards
GS1 Australia
GS1 Digital Link QR codes issued to the ISO/IEC standard. Every code is retailer-scannable at POS and resolves to your brand's DPP via GS1's global resolver network.
Astar Network
Darwinia Network
Kusama
Web3 Foundation
InArch DAO
OriginTrail
Future Fulfilment
AEM Algorithm
ACDC Labs
MetaDojo
Discovery Channel
Sony Innovation Incubator
Polkadot Ecosystem
Astar Build2Earn
Web3 Foundation Grants
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