TechFlow News: On February 5, according to official announcements, the blockchain infrastructure protocol project IOTA announced a partnership with Teesside University in the UK to deploy its IOTA TWIN technology on a Digital Trade Testbed platform, with real-world implementation at the Teesside Port and Airport—building faster, smarter, and more transparent infrastructure to accelerate UK trade development and unlock billions of pounds in economic value.
The Digital Trade Testbed is among the UK’s first real-world environments for testing and deploying digital trade solutions. It has received £3.5 million in funding from the UK government to support early-stage infrastructure development within the port-side enterprise zone.
As a neutral and interoperable infrastructure, TWIN aims to build a blockchain-based foundation connecting the global economy—orchestrating data, assets, and identity information—and integrates with existing trade infrastructure via open-source APIs, enabling freight forwarders, customs authorities, and supply chain participants to share verified information in real time.
Meanwhile, four UK government trade officials have been seconded to IOTA to jointly explore, using IOTA technology, how digital tools can streamline and enhance trade efficiency—accelerating progress toward IOTA’s core vision of becoming a trade-native digital infrastructure that powers the on-chain digital economy era.
