NightPass Tests Private EU Battery Passports on Midnight

ODATANO’s NightPass is running as a public demo on Midnight’s preproduction network. A visitor can create a test battery passport, anchor a record of its data and verify a claim without seeing the confidential value behind it. Midnight featured the early Build Club project in July. Its practical target is the EU battery passport requirement, which will apply to EV batteries, batteries for light means of transport and industrial batteries above 2 kWh placed on the market from February 18, 2027.

From Battery Data to a Verifiable Claim

NightPass is designed to give consumers, recyclers and authorities different views of the same battery passport according to their access rights. The underlying dataset stays offchain, while a cryptographic hash and verification records are anchored on Midnight.

The public demo takes a user through the process. It registers a passport identifier, anchors the passport record and submits a zero-knowledge proof. ODATANO’s published example verifies that a battery’s carbon footprint falls below a specified threshold without displaying the value used to generate the proof. The completed passport has a QR code, and its record and claim can be inspected in a public explorer.

ODATANO also describes a versioned passport that can be updated as a battery moves through its lifecycle. Its documented preproduction example follows a battery through updated records, repurposing and transfer to a new operator.

That matters for a passport intended to remain useful after the initial sale, including during second-life use and eventual recycling.

EU Rules Set Limits on What Stays Private

The EU requirement is more detailed than attaching a QR code to a battery. In August, the European Commission published guidance mapping 71 passport data points and identifying which apply to different battery categories from February 2027.

Some information must be publicly accessible, including applicable details about battery chemistry, carbon footprint and recycled content. Other information, such as detailed composition needed for dismantling, is available under restricted access. NightPass’s zero-knowledge proofs can support claims involving sensitive underlying data, but they cannot replace disclosures the regulation requires producers to make public.

The project’s recycled-cobalt example also has a separate deadline. The 16% minimum recycled cobalt share for covered EV and industrial batteries begins in August 2031. It is not a condition that takes effect with the battery passport requirement in February 2027.

A Midnight Demo With an Enterprise Path to Prove

NightPass extends ODATANO’s work connecting blockchain functions to enterprise software. Its Cardano tools address business-system integration; NightPass uses a separate Midnight component for private attestations.

ODATANO describes a route for connecting passport creation to SAP workflows, but the publicly accessible NightPass experience remains a demo using Midnight Preprod.

No production deployment with a battery manufacturer has been announced. What users can test today is specific: a passport identifier, an anchored record, a QR code and a verifiable claim whose underlying value is hidden. A commercial deployment would have to connect that process to a manufacturer’s actual battery data while delivering every public and restricted field required by the EU passport.