Beckn Protocol

Protocolo Federado

An open, interoperable, decentralized protocol for digital commerce enabling any buyer-facing application (BAP) to discover and transact with any seller-facing platform (BPP) across any domain — mobility, food, healthcare, energy, education — without platform lock-in. Defines asynchronous API call-callback pairs (search/on_search, select/on_select, confirm/on_confirm, etc.) mediated by Beckn Gateways that multicast discovery across registered networks. No central marketplace operator; any conformant implementation can participate.

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Detalles

Licencia Permissive (Apache-2.0); https://github.com/beckn/protocol-specifications — OpenAPI YAML spec; https://github.com/beckn/protocol-specifications-v2 — v2.0 specification
Estado de Desarrollo 🟢 Activo
Detalle del Estado de Desarrollo Released / Active (v2.0.0-rc1 End of Support on frozen branch; v2.0 active specification; ONDC operational in 600+ Indian cities; global deployments in energy, healthcare, mobility)
Propietario FIDE (Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy) — stewards the protocol and community as of 2025; originally created by Sujith Nair and team at Beckn Foundation; Core Working Group governs specification evolution
Órgano de Gobierno FIDE (Foundation for Interoperability in Digital Economy)
País India (originated; ONDC deployment; globally applicable)
Año de Inicio 2020
Stack Language-agnostic (JSON over HTTP/HTTPS; OpenAPI specification; reference implementations in Node.js/TypeScript; Beckn ONIX — reference implementation stack — available for deployment)
Financiamiento Foundation / Government (FIDE as steward; ONDC backed by Indian government via DPIIT; international deployments via public and private sector partnerships)
Última Investigación 1 jul 2026

Dominios de Caso de Uso

Comunicación

Protocolo Federado Atributos

Orígenes Open commerce infrastructure (motivated by UPI's success as an open payments protocol; designed to replicate that model for any kind of commerce — "the UPI for commerce"; Sujith Nair background in India's Aadhaar and UPI digital infrastructure)
Base de Datos N/A (protocol specifies API semantics, not storage; each BAP and BPP manages its own data)
Lenguaje de Consulta REST-like async API (search/on_search discovery; select/on_select, init/on_init, confirm/on_confirm, status/on_status, track/on_track, cancel/on_cancel, rating/on_rating, support/on_support call-callback pairs)
Formatos de Datos JSON (all message payloads); OpenAPI schema; ONDC domain-specific extensions layered on core spec; cryptographically signed messages (request signing for authenticity and non-repudiation)
Edición Colaborativa en Vivo N/A (commerce transaction protocol; not a collaborative editing tool)
Edición de Texto Enriquecido N/A
Soporte Móvil Yes (any HTTP client; BAP apps are commonly mobile-first; Beckn ONIX supports mobile consumer apps)
Soporte Web Yes (HTTP/HTTPS native; web BAP applications are primary deployment surface)
Aplicaciones Nativas Yes (native mobile apps as BAPs; BPP server applications; Beckn Gateway infrastructure)
Términos Free / Open source (Apache-2.0; no licensing fees; Beckn ONIX reference implementation freely available)
Fondos Not separately disclosed (ONDC is government-backed; FIDE operates as foundation; Beckn Foundation and associated entities supported by ecosystem participants)
Basado En HTTP/HTTPS (transport); JSON/OpenAPI (data format); cryptographic signing (request authentication); conceptually inspired by UPI (Universal Payments Interface) model applied to commerce
Direccionamiento por Contenido No (resources addressed by URL and catalog IDs, not content hashes)
Cifrado de Extremo a Extremo (E2EE) No (messages are signed for authenticity and non-repudiation but not end-to-end encrypted between BAP and BPP; transport security via HTTPS)
Firma Ed25519 (HTTP request signing for authentication and non-repudiation; cryptographic signatures provide court-admissible proof of transaction intent per Indian e-governance guidelines)
Permisos Key-based (subscriber registration in network registry; signed requests authenticate participants; BAP and BPP authorized by registry lookup)
Compatibilidad con la Web Semántica N/A (JSON API protocol; no RDF, JSON-LD, or semantic web features in core spec)
Modelo de Federación Hub-and-Spoke (Beckn Gateways multicast search requests to registered BPPs; otherwise BAP and BPP communicate peer-to-peer via direct callback URLs; network registries list participants)
Requisitos de Instancia / Servidor Moderate — BAP and BPP require HTTP server with callback endpoint; Beckn Gateway (BG) is more demanding as it multicasts all discovery requests; subscriber registry required per network; Beckn ONIX reference stack simplifies deployment
Portabilidad de Cuenta Full portability (provider/buyer identities are not locked to any gateway or registry; any conformant BAP/BPP can switch network participation by re-registering; identity anchored to public key + subscriber URL)
Arquitectura de Descubrimiento / Relé Gateway-mediated discovery (BAP sends search to Beckn Gateway; Gateway multicasts to all registered BPPs matching the domain; responses return directly to BAP via callback; no global firehose)
Modelo de Autoridad del Servidor Minimal / Network-governed (each BAP and BPP is independently operated; Gateways facilitate discovery without controlling transaction content; network registries set participation rules; no single operator governs all participants)
Madurez del Protocolo / Estandarización De Facto Standard (v2.0 specification active; deployed at national scale via ONDC in India (600+ cities, millions of transactions); international deployments in energy, mobility, healthcare; Apache-2.0; Core Working Group governance; not submitted to IETF or ISO)
Soberanía de Datos Distributed (each participant stores its own data; no central platform holds transaction data; buyers' personal data governed by each BAP's privacy policy)