From Standard to Open Source Stack: Implementing Trusted Data Transactions with the Gaia-X Framework and the Data Transfer Agent

At Gaia-X Tech-X 2026 in Athens, experts took the stage to tackle one pressing question in European data exchange: how do you make a data exchange genuinely trustworthy, not just technically, but legally and operationally? Benoît Tabutiaux, CTO at IMT Transfert – TeraLab, Frédéric Bellaiche, VP Technology & Research at Dawex, joined Christoph Strnadl, CTO at Gaia-X, and walked attendees through a concrete blueprint mapping the new TDT harmonised European standard to the Gaia-X Framework and the open-source Data Transfer Agent. The Trusted Data Transactions (TDT) standard, formally EN 18235, is a harmonised European standard developed at the European Commission and CEN/CENELEC level, directly mandated by Article 33 of the European Data Act. While Gaia-X covers the trust infrastructure, a focused set of requirements calls for dedicated work and attention: The Data Transfer Agent (DTA) is an open-source software component purpose-built to enable trusted data transactions in data spaces, by offering a lightweight, containerised agent that any organisation, regardless of size, can easily deploy and operate with trust. Combining the Gaia-X Trust Framework with the DTA closes the remaining gaps: Aimed at addressing the realities of industrial data spaces, removing integration complexity and associated deployment costs, DTA is designed from the ground up with a modular, scalable architecture. Ultimately, this translates into concrete operational benefits: easy deployment across on-premise, SaaS, or edge environments; straightforward monitoring and auditability; seamless updates; and the ability to participate in multiple data spaces simultaneously without vendor lock-in.