Smart Contract-Based Secured Business-to-Consumer Supply Chain Systems

Abstract

Blockchain technology platform Ethereum (open-source platform) has rapidly evolved and provides interfaces that allow users to develop variety of Blockchain applications using its "Solidity" programming language. Due to its security and privacy, and smart contract execution capabilities, Ethereum became a favorite option for banking and other application domains. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of Ethereum capabilities for online Supply Chain systems in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) business model. This work aims to research Ethereum platform capabilities and language, including smart contracts and their advantages over regular contracts. We develop illustrative application to demonstrate smart contracts in the B2C Supply Chain system. The application demonstrates the role of a smart contracts in executing order transactions, from placing an order to receiving the shipment. Furthermore, we add to the application a third component to track and update shipping information between suppliers and consumers.