authentic.network wins G20 Innovation Award for Secured Digital Infrastructure
At the G20 MSME Digital Innovation Challenge in South Africa, authentic.network was awarded in the category Secured Digital Infrastructure – for a product code that any smartphone can verify and a copy cannot fake.
Chemnitz, 3 February 2026 –
authentic.network has been awarded at the G20 MSME Digital Innovation Challenge in the category Secured Digital Infrastructure. The award recognises the company's patented Crypto-Optical Technology: a security layer printed into a product's code that protects products, brands and consumers from counterfeiting, grey-market trade and fraud – and that anyone can check with a smartphone camera.
Each code is physically unique. Its security sits in the printed structure of the code itself, so a photograph, scan or reprint breaks that structure and fails verification, while the original passes. On the same code, brands run instant product authentication (with the authentic app also offline), track & trace, grey-market control and the EU Digital Product Passport.
About the G20 MSME Digital Innovation Challenge
The challenge is hosted by South Africa's Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) as part of the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (DIA), an international initiative recognising digital solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Winners were selected in six categories: Fintech, Digital Platforms & AI Tools, Secured Digital Infrastructure, Circular Economy, Connectivity, and Innovation for Development. The awards were presented during South Africa's G20 Presidency in November 2025.
Why the award matters
The award is an independent, international assessment of the technology that customers put on their products. The same Crypto-Optical Technology already protects products for LIQUI MOLY, BOSCH, STIHL and Chillington, and it prepares brands for the EU Digital Product Passport under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.
Trust in a physical product has to be verifiable by the person holding it – without an app, a reader or any special knowledge. That is what this award recognises.Frank Theeg, CEO, authentic.network
▶ Watch the presentation on YouTube
About authentic.network
authentic.network GmbH, Chemnitz, makes physical products verifiable. Its patented Crypto-Optical Technology prints a copy-evident security layer into a product's code; any smartphone camera tells an original from a counterfeit in about a second – no app, no reader, no special inks. Deployed by LIQUI MOLY on 40 million products a year in 150+ countries. G20 Innovation Award 2025, category Secured Digital Infrastructure.
Press contact: press@authentic.network · authentic.network/press