Using Blockchain to Ensure Supply Chain Traceability

Abstract

Supply chains can span a huge number of countries, cross many borders, and require interoperation of a multitude of organizations. This vastness impacts business competitiveness since it adds complexity and can difficult securing traceability, chain of custody, and transparency. The authors propose that assuring chain of custody and traceability via blockchain allows organizations to demonstrate product provenance, integrity, and compliance. This work proposes that to effect true traceability the more complete approach is to connect both the supply chain actors (SCAs) and products identifications using digital certificates. A blockchain is used to manage the traceability of products and validation of the identities. Importing, verifying, and storing the certificates uses an off-chain data storage solution for products certificates. To create, validate the certificates, and setup the chain of trust, a public key infrastructure (PKI) was designed as part of the proposal. The results were architectural artifacts, including an Ethereum smart contract and a PKI-based certificate authentication system.