From chip manufacture to decommission — every interaction, every role, and every fee trigger across the full ShieldVIN lifecycle. Click any phase to expand the detail.
The three Secure Element chips — EN-1 (engine), CN-2 (chassis), TN-3 (telematics) — are manufactured to the VSE-1 hardware standard and supplied to OEM manufacturing plants. Each chip generates its own independent Ed25519 keypair in hardware at factory provisioning. The private key never leaves the chip. The public key is recorded by the chip manufacturer and transferred securely to ShieldVIN's provisioning registry for subsequent VIT minting.
The OEM joins the ShieldVIN VGM-1 governance consortium, establishing the commercial and technical relationship required before any vehicle can be minted. This is a one-time setup per manufacturer, with per-plant configuration for each factory code. The Manufacturer Portal is provisioned and staff credentials are issued.
At the end of the production line, once the vehicle's three SE chips are installed and verified, the OEM's manufacturing system calls the ShieldVIN VAP-1 minting endpoint. A Vehicle Identity Token (VIT) is created on Midnight Network — permanently linking the physical vehicle's three hardware keys to its VIN and build record. This is the moment the vehicle acquires a cryptographic identity.
The vehicle is transported from the OEM factory to an authorised dealer. The Dealer Portal is notified of incoming stock. The vehicle identity is visible to the dealer from the moment of VIT minting — dealers can verify vehicle identity via the Dealer Portal at any point during their stock holding period.
At point of sale, the dealer executes an ownership transfer via the Dealer Portal. The first buyer's ownership commitment is written to the Midnight Network VIT. The buyer receives a vehicle identity certificate and access to their vehicle record via the Owner Portal. The dealer's subscription covers this operation — no per-transfer fee to either party.
The owner registers the vehicle with the relevant government authority (DVLA in the UK, DMV in the US, etc.). The government queries the ShieldVIN API to verify the vehicle's identity and ownership chain before issuing registration documentation. This is billed under an enterprise government contract — not per-query.
Insurers and finance lenders query the ShieldVIN Verification API when underwriting a new policy or approving a vehicle finance application. Both roles receive the same verified data: vehicle identity, ownership depth, service history count, and verified mileage. Each query is billed individually at the API query rate. Mileage is verified on-chain — not self-reported — making this a uniquely trustworthy input for premium calculation and loan-to-value assessment.
Each time a vehicle is serviced, the service centre records the event on-chain via the Dealer/Service Portal. This increments the serviceCount and — critically — records the verified odometer reading (lastRecordedMileage) and service timestamp on Midnight Network. Because the mileage can only be written by a credentialled service provider and the smart contract enforces that mileage cannot decrease, this creates a tamper-resistant verified mileage history. Odometer fraud — one of the most common used vehicle scams — becomes provably impossible for ShieldVIN-registered vehicles.
A used vehicle sold through a dealer follows a similar process to the first sale. The dealer verifies the vehicle's identity and full history before accepting it as trade-in or stock. At point of sale to the new owner, the ownership transfer is executed on-chain. The verified mileage and complete service count are displayed to the buyer as part of the handover documentation — providing a level of provenance that no paper service record can match.
Private vehicle sales between individuals (classified ads, direct sales) are the highest-risk fraud environment. ShieldVIN resolves this by giving the buyer a cryptographic identity check and giving the seller a trustworthy, shareable vehicle history. The transfer is completed via the Owner Portal for both parties — no dealer or broker required. A flat $5 fee applies to the private ownership transfer (Stream 4 revenue).
Law enforcement agencies — police, border agencies, customs — use the Government Portal (or a dedicated mobile law enforcement client) for roadside vehicle checks and investigation queries. A cached status check returns in under 1 second for routine checkpoints. A live ZK proof (≤30 seconds) is used when the physical identity of the vehicle needs to be cryptographically confirmed against its chips. If a vehicle is flagged as stolen, the officer can see the VIN; otherwise the VIN is withheld from the proof.
When an OEM issues a product recall, the recall flag is set on every affected VIT simultaneously via the Manufacturer Portal. This instantly makes the recall visible to every stakeholder who queries those vehicles — dealers, government agencies, insurers, and the owner via their portal. The OEM pays a per-VIN recall event fee to ShieldVIN. The DUST cost of writing to Midnight Network is handled internally by ShieldVIN and is not passed to the OEM.
In the rare event that a Secure Element chip fails due to hardware fault, collision damage, or an OEM-initiated recall of a specific chip batch, a controlled node key rotation procedure is required. This is a multi-party process governed by the VAP-1 hardware-recovery.md specification. The two surviving nodes must co-sign the recovery nonce to prove physical continuity with the registered vehicle. The OEM authorises the replacement chip's new public key. ShieldVIN updates the VIT on-chain.
When a vehicle is written off, scrapped, or declared a total loss, the VIT is decommissioned. Status is permanently set to DECOMMISSIONED on Midnight Network. This prevents a scrapped vehicle's VIN from being reassigned to a salvage or cloned vehicle. The decommission can be triggered by a government authority, by the OEM (for warranty write-offs), or by an insurer following a total-loss claim — each via their respective portal with an appropriate role credential.