Scalable Supply Chain Product Source Verification Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Abstract

Ensuring the authenticity and integrity of products in a supply chain while maintaining privacy is a significant challenge. Traditional blockchain-based verification systems often expose sensitive information, such as location, batch ID, and manufacturer identity. To address this, we propose a zk-Rollup-based privacy-preserving identity and transaction verification system that leverages Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to ensure trust without revealing confidential data. Our architecture includes a producer and a manufacturer, where the producer generates verifiable proofs of product origin, and the manufacturer appends metadata such as manufacturing date and expiry. A centralized server aggregates producer and manufacturer data, generating zk-SNARK proofs for each transaction. The system employs zk-Rollups for efficient transaction batching, significantly reducing on-chain gas fees and improving scalability. Additionally, all data is end-to-end encrypted using SHA-256, ensuring robust security. Users and third parties can verify proof validity using a QR code-based authentication mechanism, which queries the server endpoint without exposing private details. Performance evaluations demonstrate significant improvements in proof generation time, verification latency, and cost efficiency. Our proposed solution enables secure and scalable supply chain verification, preserving privacy while maintaining transparency and trust. The results indicate that zk-Rollups reduce gas fees by a factor of 10x, making the system feasible for real-world applications. Future work will focus on further optimizing proof generation and exploring decentralized identity solutions for enhanced security.