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.

Comunidad

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

Capacidades

Federación de protocolos Autoalojable Federación entre instancias

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)