The expected re-definition of the international system of units as well as the advancing developments in the field of digitalization are fundamental for highly stable silicon mass standards and electronic transfer of its inherent metrological information. Flagships are physical standards made of highly enriched isotopic monocrystalline silicon 28 with a nominal mass of 1 kilogram. Starting from the future fundamentally fixed Planck-Constant, the number of atoms and thus the "new mass" can be directly realized by these spheres. Furthermore, years of experience in manufacturing, handling and use of silicon spheres have caused the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt to exploit the outstanding advantages of natural silicon when producing spheres for the realization and dissemination of the unit kg. The unique advantages will be of benefit for metrology institutes as well as for industrial applications. With the aim of building up a private-sector infrastructure, both, know-how and manufacturing technology have been transferred to industry. Current developments also deal with machine-readable Digital Calibration Certificates which contain all relevant information of the calibration. They will be provided with each of the silicon spheres.