Qori Labs

A research initiative in Cusco, Peru, in service of producer communities and the buyers who rely on their word

Can you prove a delivery you’ll never see?

Every origin story starts at a scale in the mountains: a farmer, a collector and a number on a slip. Everything a buyer is asked to prove depends on that moment. We’re researching how to make it provable, with records the farmers own.

Participants read the findings first. First field season: the 2027 harvest.

Figure 1. Our working answer, in four pictures.
  1. At the scale, the farmer and the collector both read 412.5 kg of coffee.

  2. Two copies of the same receipt: the farmer’s and the collector’s.

  3. That evening, one code for the day’s receipts goes to the co-op office and a board member.

  4. Months later, all three still agree. When a lot passes every check in the Method, it’s Proven.

If anyone changes a receipt afterwards, they stop agreeing. Try it. A receipt can’t show the weight was right in the first place, which is why the scale is checked with a test weight at the start and end of each day.

Our mission

To make the first moment of every supply chain provable: held by the people who grow, trusted by the people who buy.

  • In service of communities. Producers own the records, and help shape the rules.
  • Open by default. Methods are published. Records never are.
  • Honest about limits. Every finding says what it can’t show.

The problem beneath the problems

Buyers are asked to prove many things. Trace each one back, and it arrives at the same place.

  • Due diligence under EU deforestation rules
  • Backing up the claim on the label
  • Answering an auditor or a customer
  • Paying premiums to the right farms
  • Spotting volume that couldn’t have grown there
  • Trusting documents AI can now fake

What happened at the scale?

The moment every claim depends on, and the one the paperwork never sees.

Why paperwork can’t answer it

  • The certificate says the farm meets the standard.It doesn’t say your lot came from it.
  • The map shows where the farms are.It doesn’t show whose coffee is in the sack.
  • The invoice says 18,000 kg.Nobody asked whether those farms could grow that much.
  • The documents arrived last week, signed and stamped.They may have been written by a machine in a few seconds.

Meanwhile, EU rules on deforestation-free products make importers of coffee and cacao answer for where each lot was grown, and claims on packaging face tougher rules in both the EU and the UK.

One question, four lines of inquiry

To answer “Can you prove a delivery you’ll never see?”, the research tests four smaller questions. Here is where each one stands.

  1. 1

    Can the farmer hold the proof?

    1. Done: Designed
    2. Done: Tested in simulation
    3. Not yet: Tested in the field, 2027
    4. Not yet: Findings published

    So farChecking farmers at random misses a single altered slip most of the time. In simulation, checking 8 of 39 farmers missed it about four times in five. So each farmer’s own copy is what protects each delivery.

  2. 2

    Can a record survive the people who keep it?

    1. Done: Designed
    2. Done: Tested in simulation
    3. Not yet: Tested in the field, 2027
    4. Not yet: Findings published

    So farIn simulation, the evening code caught every rewrite we tried. We also found a hiding place: swapping in another farmer when slips go missing. So a chosen farmer is never swapped.

  3. 3

    Does it work where there’s no signal?

    1. Done: Designed
    2. Not yet: Tested in simulation
    3. Not yet: Tested in the field, 2027
    4. Not yet: Findings published

    So farDesigned for one text message a day from a basic phone. Planned next: simulating lost and late messages, then the field.

  4. 4

    Can you check it yourself?

    1. Done: Designed
    2. Done: Tested in simulation
    3. Not yet: Tested in the field, 2027
    4. Not yet: Findings published

    So farAnyone can recalculate the codes with free tools. Try it on the worked example.

The same four moments, in detail

It works like a shop till: two receipts, a text at closing time, and a total that must add up. Here is one sack of coffee, from the scale to your file.

  1. 1 At the scale

    A farmer delivers coffee.

    The collector weighs the sack, and both of them see the number. At the start and end of each day, the scale is checked with a test weight.

    10 kg412.5 kgFarmerCollector
  2. 2 Two copies, one record

    One receipt, two copies.

    The weight goes on a receipt with two copies: the farmer’s copy, and the collector’s copy, which stays in the co-op’s receipt book (the book belongs to the co-op, not the collector). Receipt numbers are printed before the harvest, so none can be added later.

    412.5kg412.5kgFarmer’s copyCollector’s copy

    The same receipt goes into the phone.

    The collector scans the receipt and records the kilos. The phone shows the weight in large numbers, so the farmer can check it. It’s designed to work without internet.

    412.5 kgDesigned for no signal
  3. 3 That evening

    In the evening, the phone seals the day.

    Every receipt in the book becomes one short code. The same receipts always give the same code. Change a single number, and the code comes out completely different.

    One text message takes tonight’s code to the co-op office and a board member. It carries no names and no payments.

    9T0D-E5Y2OfficeBoard

    Try it: change one number

    Receipt QL-7F3K-29XD412.5 kg
    Tonight’s code9T0D-E5Y2

    Same receipts, same code.

  4. 4 Months later

    Months later, a reviewer checks.

    The book must still produce the codes the office kept. Farmers chosen at random compare their own copies, and the kilos must add up. Mistakes are fixed by adding a correction, never by rubbing out.

    A chosen farmer is never swapped for another, and when gaps cluster, the check widens. In simulation, the evening code caught every rewrite.

    Try it: one delivery, two checks

    Sample

    1. Do the two copies of receipt QL-7F3K-29XD agree?

    Farmer’s copy

    412.5 kg

    agree

    Collector’s copy

    412.5 kg

    2. Does the collector’s book still give the code the office got that evening?

    Code the co-op office got that evening

    9T0D-E5Y2

    agree

    Code the book gives today

    9T0D-E5Y2

    This receipt checks out. The two copies agree, and the book still gives the code the office got that evening.

    Show how the codes are made

    Each copy is written the same way (same field order, same number format), and its fingerprint is the SHA-256 of that text, calculated in your browser. The evening code is a short form of the fingerprint of the whole day’s book.

    Farmer’s copy

    {"code":"QL-7F3K-29XD","correction":null,"date":"2026-07-08","farm":"F-014","kg":"412.5","point":"A-03"}
    caf155c0868350d82265483dad22e1003b62416ad7ab47cd774250c9cba50105

    Collector’s copy

    {"code":"QL-7F3K-29XD","correction":null,"date":"2026-07-08","farm":"F-014","kg":"412.5","point":"A-03"}
    caf155c0868350d82265483dad22e1003b62416ad7ab47cd774250c9cba50105

    You get a verdict on the lot that you can check yourself.

    One page for your file, for the whole lot: Proven, or Not Proven and why, with its limits. Anyone can recheck the codes with free tools.

    Try it on the worked example

The code shows whether a record changed after it was made. It can’t show the weight was right in the first place. That’s why the scale is checked with a test weight at the start and end of each day, and the farmer checks the kilos before leaving.

For the curious: how the code is made

The code comes from SHA-256, a public method used around the world to protect websites and software updates. It isn’t encryption: it hides nothing, and anyone can make the same code from the same receipts. What nobody can do is change a receipt and keep the same code.

Each evening’s code also includes the evening before, so one message protects the whole season. The method has the full detail.

What the research produces

A short verdict for each lot: specific, signed and honest about its gaps. A buyer can keep it with its own records, and a producer can see exactly what was claimed.

Lot QL-0001

Coffee, parchment, 1,350.0 kg from three deliveries

Sample
  • ProvenFor each of the three deliveries, the farmer’s copy matches the collector’s.
  • ProvenThe collection book still gives every evening code the co-op office received.
  • ProvenThe deliveries add up to the lot: 1,350.0 kg.
  • ProvenThe scale read a test weight correctly at the start and end of each collection day.
  • Not ProvenWhere the farms are. No field visit is on record yet.
  • Not ProvenThat the land is legally held. No land papers have been reviewed.

Not covered by this verdict: deforestation, payments and quality.

A seal shows a record hasn’t changed since it was made. It can’t show the record was true when it was made, which is why the copies, the kilos and the scale are checked too.

It works alongside what you already have: farm maps show where farms are, certificates show how they’re run, and receipts show which farms’ deliveries made your lot.

In service of communities

This research is done with producer communities, not on them. Six principles guide it.

  • Producers own the records.

    Every farmer keeps a copy of every receipt. Records stay with the producers and their co-op.

  • Consent is a process, not a signature.

    Nothing is shared without written consent, and consent can be withdrawn at any time.

  • Findings go to communities first.

    Everyone who takes part reads the findings first, and producers read them in Spanish.

  • Producers never pay to be recorded.

    And no one’s records are ever sold.

  • Every word is tested with the people it describes.

    Before a term reaches producers, we check how it sounds to them.

  • A person signs.

    Software helps check the evidence. A named person is accountable for every verdict.

These principles draw on the CARE principles for Indigenous data governance, as set out in David Bentley’s Framework Protocol (2025).

Sus registros son suyos. Para productores, en español

Where the research is

Qori Labs is research, not a finished product. Here is the plan, and where we are in it.

  1. Now

    October to December 2026

    Talking to buyers about how they prove origin today, visiting co-ops near Cusco, and testing the method in simulation.

  2. A first pilot

    Early 2027

    Agreeing one free pilot with one co-op and one buyer that already works with it.

  3. Findings

    March 2027

    A short research summary. Everyone who takes part reads it first.

  4. First field season

    2027 harvest

    The first deliveries recorded at the source, both copies kept, sealed every evening.

Who’s behind it

Qori Labs is run by David Bentley, a British systems engineer who lives in Peru’s Sacred Valley, near Cusco. He builds offline tools for places without signal, has field-tested them in a highland community at about 4,300 metres, and has published eight papers and draft standards on offline evidence and community data governance. When you write, you reach David.

About Qori Labs

Based
Sacred Valley, Cusco, Peru
Published
Eight papers on Zenodo, 2025 to 2026
Run by
Higher Self Forge Ltd, England and Wales
Independent
Not part of UNSAAC or LAAD

Help answer the question

Tell us how you prove where your coffee or cacao came from today. If you work with producer communities, we’d like to hear from you too. A reply by email or a 20-minute call is enough, and everyone who takes part reads the findings first.

The first phase is free, and ‘no thanks’ is a perfectly good answer.