Blockchain Papers

John G. Keogh, Abderahman Rejeb, Nida Khan, Kevin Dean · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Miaolei Deng, Pan Feng

The frequent occurrence of food safety accidents at the global level has triggered consumer sensitivity. Establishing a food traceability system can effectively guarantee food safety and increase consumer confidence and satisfaction. Existing food traceability systems often ignore environmental factors that affect food quality at all stages of the supply chain, and the authenticity of the information obtained through traceability is difficult to guarantee. In this study, a food supply chain traceability model was established based on blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. The model focused on the traceability of environmental data during the various stages of the food supply chain and combined a centralized database and blockchain for data storage. The lot identification data of the various supply chain stages were stored in a centralized database, while the environmental data were stored in a blockchain. Thereby, the authenticity and accuracy of the traceability data were ensured. The blockchain part of the model has been simulated in the Ethereum test environment, and the experiment has achieved traceability of temperature data.

Oona Arlene Buttafoco

The issue of food traceability is one that affects a great number of sectors and policy areas. Within the EU, there is increasing demand from consumers, businesses and institutions to have more direct access to information about how food is produced, transformed, and distributed. Currently, however, practices in the industry are very much open to human error. Databases are highly vulnerable to inaccuracies and hacking, as well as deliberate faults caused by corruption or fraudulent conduct. With food traceability being so closely related to trade and public health issues, there is arguably increasing incentive for the EU to seek alternative tools to increase transparency and accountability throughout supply chains. Consequently, this paper will examine a possible alternative to current practices by evaluating the applicability of 'blockchain' technology, namely a system of digitised, decentralised ledgers, which could allow key stakeholders to access information about the provenance of food immediately, comprehensively and securely. The analysis will focus specifically on Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), one of the most adulterated products in the food industry, identifying gaps and opportunities in current traceability systems. The research question tackled in this paper, therefore, may be formulated as follows: how and to what extent could blockchain technology constitute a sustainable solution for improving the traceability of EVOO within the EU? The paper begins with a brief overview of the issue and an explanation of the research methodology used, followed by an elaboration of key terms and concepts and a detailed explanation of the principles underlying blockchain technology. Subsequently, the key challenges and opportunities associated with blockchain-based traceability systems are examined through a case study, followed by an analysis aimed at assessing the sustainability of blockchain solutions for the EVOO sector. The conclusion, lastly, provides an overview of relevant findings and proposes a final assessment.

Abderahman Rejeb

Recently, Halal food has drawn remarkable attention of many consumers around the world. Besides to being unsafe, Halal food such as meat can encounter several issues throughout its supply chain and logistics. At any time, Halal integrity is not guaranteed and risks of becoming non-Halal is the major concern of all parties along the supply chain. To respond to Muslim consumers’ trust concerns in Halal food, many traceability systems were proposed in previous studies based on emerging technologies and recommended to be incorporated into Halal food supply chains. Nevertheless, all of these systems are centralized, opaque and not enough transparent. To mitigate these problems, blockchain technology is introduced as a ground-breaking innovation with greater decentralization, visibility and transparency. This paper makes a major contribution in suggesting Halal meat supply chain traceability system for real-time food tracing based on embedding Islamic dietary law into HACCP, blockchain and Internet of Things.

Miao Guo, XIAO JIN LIU, Wei Zhang

The traditional way of tracking food quality through the supply chain can be a difficult task. The most essential issue is food contamination. It often takes weeks even months to identify when and where a food product was contaminated. Another critical point is complex overlapping distribution and processing ecosystem involving farms, distributors, retailers and consumers, which makes it difficult to assure food provenance. Our SafeFood solution using blockchain and Internet of Things technologies can quickly track a food product's process from farm to storage shelf. In the context of food supply, a blockchain could be used to keep track and history of every single item processed throughout the supply chain. With the Hyperledger Fabric, all the food information is collected into the blockchain throughout every step in the supply chain to offer a more efficient way to figure out when and where food items were contaminated, which can help producers the limited contagions by public health officials . The benefits of more transparent food supply chain include: (1) increase the trust multiplied by each participant in food supply chain; (2) identify the source of compromised food and reduce the unnecessarily broad recall, (3) improve the co-ordination in food supply chain; (4) increase operation efficiency; (5) provide better food safety, more freshness and avoid food fraud for customer.

Christian Cachin

A blockchain is a public ledger for recording transactions, maintained by<br> many nodes without central authority through a distributed cryptographic<br> protocol. All nodes validate the information to be appended to the<br> blockchain, and a consensus protocol ensures that the nodes agree on a<br> unique order in which entries are appended. Consensus protocols for<br> tolerating Byzantine faults have received renewed attention because they<br> also address blockchain systems. However, amid the current hype around<br> blockchains, cryptocurrencies, fintech startups, and novel consensus<br> mechanisms, it is sometimes overlooked that assessing and gaining<br> confidence in the resilience of a protocol is a difficult task. We argue that developing consensus protocols is similar to engineering<br> cryptographic systems, and that blockchain developers should look towards<br> the established experience in cryptography and security with building<br> trustworthy systems. Otherwise, it might be dangerous to entrust<br> financial value to new protocols. Public discussion, expert reviews,<br> broad validation, and standards recommendations should be employed,<br> following the established practice in cryptography and security.<br>