The rapid expansion of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has enabled open and permissionless token trading, but it has also led to a surge in fraudulent activities such as rug pulls, wash trading, and pump-and-dump schemes. This paper presents a novel fraud detection approach based on correlation analysis between token price and liquidity, leveraging the inherent relationship between these two market variables. In legitimate markets, price movements are typically supported by corresponding changes in liquidity, whereas fraudulent tokens often exhibit abnormal or decoupled behavior due to artificial price manipulation. To investigate this, we analyze time-series data of token price and liquidity across multiple decentralized exchanges and compute statistical correlation metrics alongside liquidity variation patterns. Experimental results show that legitimate tokens maintain strong positive correlations (r > 0.7) between price and liquidity, while fraudulent tokens exhibit weak or unstable correlations (r < 0.3), often accompanied by sudden liquidity withdrawals or artificial volume spikes. The proposed framework achieves high detection performance with an accuracy of 92.4%, precision of 90.1%, recall of 93.6%, and F1-score of 91.8%, demonstrating its effectiveness in identifying suspicious tokens at early stages. The findings confirm that deviations in priceâliquidity correlation serve as a reliable and computationally efficient indicator for fraud detection in DeFi ecosystems. This approach can be integrated with existing blockchain analytics tools to enhance real-time monitoring and improve investor protection.
The rise of counterfeit medicines poses serious health risks to the public and threatens the credibility of pharmaceutical companies. Blockchain technology is gaining attention for its potential to enhance the security and transparency of the pharmaceutical supply chain. This study compares the performance of two blockchain platforms, Ethereum and Nexus, in detecting and preventing counterfeit drugs. A virtual observation system was used to examine how Ethereum and Nexus addressed major challenges in counterfeit drug prevention. Two specialists with expertise in both blockchain technology and healthcare evaluated the platforms using two assessment tools: The Global Quality Scale (GQS) to measure overall effectiveness and the modified DISCERN scale to assess credibility of the information. Nexus outperformed Ethereum in both effectiveness and credibility. Evaluator 1 reported median GQS scores of 4.5 for Nexus and 3.8 for Ethereum, while Evaluator 2 reported scores of 4.2 and 3.8, respectively. These findings indicate that Nexus demonstrated higher efficiency in detecting fake drugs and ensuring supply chain integrity. Blockchain technology shows promise in strengthening pharmaceutical supply chain security. Between the two platforms studied, Nexus was found to be more effective than Ethereum in preventing counterfeit drugs. These results provide valuable insights for pharmaceutical stakeholders and policymakers seeking to implement blockchain-based solutions for drug tracking and security.
ABSTRACT We investigate why and how businesses and entrepreneurs adopt and implement blockchain technology to improve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of seafood supply chains. We conduct interviews with entrepreneurs and smallâ to mediumâsized enterprises (SMEs) â specifically fishers, aquaculturists and restaurants â using new blockchain platforms to increase the traceability and trackability of seafood in Australia. Drawing on innovation adoption theory, we examine drivers and barriers to trading seafood via these innovative platforms, compared to traditional trading routes â such as through wholesalers. Benefits for seafood buyers included greater freshness, less waste, valueâadding the customer experience and supporting locally sourced products. Benefits for sellers included price security and transparency, and the marketing and branding opportunities that the platforms enabled through social media. Challenges regarded distrust, competition, uncertain product availability and the tangibility of seafood, which â unlike cryptocurrency â requires transport, packaging and processing, meaning potential efficiencies could become constrained by supply chain logistics.
Duc Tran, Filisia Melissari, Samuel Le FÊon, Andreas Papadakis ¡ 9 authors
⢠The blockchain traceability system caused inconsiderate environmental impacts. ⢠Using blockchain system is profitable if consumers pay more for traceable products. ⢠Blockchain-based traceability systems can be applied to different production scale. ⢠Energy consumption for a mixed (private and public) blockchain is not high. The implementation of blockchain (BC) technology in food traceability has attracted the attention of both scholars and practitioners because this technology enhances transparency and efficiency. While previous studies have attempted to assess the technical performance of BC-based applications, comprehensive economic and environmental assessments of BC-based food traceability systems are lacking. This study performs a technical, environmental and economic assessment of BC-based food traceability using a private BC (Quorum) and a public BC (Ethereum). The case study is the production of protected designation of origin feta cheese in Greece. The proposed BC-based system was found to have insignificant environmental impacts when compared to the existing impacts of feta production. Furthermore, the implementation of BC-based food traceability was found to be profitable for dairy producers when consumersâ willingness to pay a price premium for BC-based traceable products is taken into account. Sensitivity analyses under different scaling-up scenarios, from a purely technical perspective (i.e. increase in transaction volume and frequency) to scaling production, emphasised the potential benefits of BC-based food traceability from a scalability perspective.
The transition from paper-based to digital records has significantly enhanced healthcare practices, including the management of farm animal health.Electronic Health Records (EHRs), referred to as Animal Medical Records (AMRs), are essential for improving clinical workflows, supporting evidence-based decisions, and advancing veterinary research.However, the adoption of digital records introduces challenges related to data security, quality, and interoperability.This paper explores the use of blockchain technology to address these challenges.We propose a blockchain-based system for managing AMRs that leverages Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and smart contracts to ensure data integrity, transparency, and accessibility.The system is evaluated through a proof-of-concept deployment on four EVM-supported platforms: BNB Smart Chain, Celo, Fantom, and Polygon.Our findings indicate that blockchain technology can enhance the security and efficiency of managing electronic health records for farm animals.
The demand of the halal food products is increasing rapidly around the world. The consumption of halal food product is just not among the Muslims but also among non-Muslims, due to the purity of the halal food products. However, there are several challenges that are faced by the halal food consumers. The challenges raise a doubt among the halal food consumers about the authenticity of the product being halal. Therefore, a solution that can address these issues and can establish trust between consumers and producers. Blockchain technology can provide a distributed ledger of an immutable record of the information. Artificial intelligence supports developing a solution for pattern identification. The proposed research utilizes blockchain an artificial intelligence-based system for developing a system that ensure the authenticity of the halal food products by providing the traceability related to all the operations and processes of the supply chain and sourcing the raw material. The proposed system has been tested with a local supermarket. The results and tests of the developed solution seemed effective and the testers expressed interest in real-world implementation of the proposed system.
This study presents a blockchain-based traceability system designed specifically for the olive oil supply chain, addressing key challenges in transparency, quality assurance, and fraud prevention. The system integrates Internet of Things (IoT) technology with a decentralized blockchain framework to provide real-time monitoring of critical quality metrics. A practical web application, linked to the Ethereum blockchain, enables stakeholders to track each stage of the supply chain via tamper-proof records. Key functionalities include smart contracts that automate quality checks, ensuring data integrity and providing immediate verification of product authenticity. Initial user feedback highlights the system's potential to enhance transparency and reduce fraud risks in the olive oil market, supporting consumer trust and regulatory compliance. This approach offers a scalable solution adaptable to other high-value agricultural products, demonstrating the blockchain's transformative potential for secure and transparent food traceability.
Manuel Luna, SimĂłn FernĂĄndez-VĂĄzquez, Emilio TereĂąes Castelao, Ălvaro Arias FernĂĄndez
In light of the current global scenario, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder expectations for the aquaculture supply chain are more demanding than ever. The latest EU strategies for aquaculture aim to ensure its economic, environmental, and social long-term sustainability through green, technological, and social transformations. This objective is as ambitious as it is complex, involving not only the enhancement of key sustainability aspects but also the assurance of transparency, trust, and security standards across the entire supply chain. In this context, the present paper proposes a novel blockchain framework, along with the strategic implementation of smart contracts, specifically designed to effectively address the prevalent environmental challenges within the aquaculture supply chain.
This study highlights both theoretical as well as practical contributions to improving traceability in supply chain management with special focus on the fish supply chain. As a theoretical contribution, it highlights how blockchain technology can contribute to improving supply chain transparency in various sectors by providing real-time visibility. Concerning practical contributions, this study adopted a case study approach in the Philippines to track and trace the fish supply chain from bait to plate. It deploys a project titled âTracyâ, a blockchain-based information technology artifact to support fishermen in the Philippines, who are facing numerous challenges in the seafood industry such as different standards and regulations, requirements for international exports, catch certification, etc. This study specifically contributes to developing a smartphone app through the Tracy project that allows fishermen to view the history of their fish captures and exchanges (such as the name of the fish species, weight, and length of the fish, date of capture, and vessel name). The update of transaction histories, the identity of the fishermen, and the amount of fish that has to be sold are additional updates also made possible by this app. This research study concludes with overall study outcomes and limitations with future research.
Food product safety and quality are considered to be of the utmost significance on a global scale. Highly publicized food safety incidents have significantly increased public interest in food traceability, defined as âthe ability to track any food, feed, food-producing animal or substance that will be used for consumption, through all stages of production, processing, and distributionâ (European Union). The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that governments, producers, and consumers work together to ensure food safety, which calls for the dissemination of pertinent information throughout complex food value networks. Therefore, it is in the best interest of profit-driven businesses to implement information systems for tracking food goods, a significant byproduct of which is the likelihood of increased profitability. This paper aims to explore the ample possibilities for such implementations that are now available thanks to blockchain technology. In particular, the goal is to explore the dynamics of this technology and identify how it helps to create good customer relationships. For this purpose, the case of Lavazza, an important Italian roasted coffee company that has recently introduced a blockchain-tracked product to the market, is analyzed in detail, including all the steps that made the application of the technology possible and how it was finally communicated to the consumer. The case study offers a concrete example that resulted from both stakeholdersâ internal need for greater traceability and consumersâ external need for greater transparency regarding the companyâs sourcing processes. In this pilot project, collaboration among all the entities that are part of the chain was essential to delivering a formative, customized, and ultimately, easy-to-understand experience to the end consumer. Finally, Lavazza is an example of a company that decided to challenge itself by following a trend that will be increasingly present in future socioeconomic scenarios.
Urbanization has led to increasing fish consumption, resulting in high demand for fish and fish products. Challenges in this sector, include fraudulent fish supply, overfishing, unscientific handling, quality concerns, etc. Blockchain-based systems in the seafood sector could provide traceability access to the seafood for the consumers and authorities to know if the seafood consumed/sold is legal, ethical, hygienic, economic, etc. Blockchain platforms like Ethereum promote secure digital collaboration of the actors across the supply chain eliminating the intermediaries. The literature documents a very limited number of blockchains that operate in the fisheries sector. Pacifical Atato is designed to promote and develop yellowfin tuna supply chains of Pacific island nations. Project Provenance Limited seeks to bring an end to the unsustainable fishing practices. Tuna distribution through transparent, novel chains is the goal of TraSeable solutions. Treum explored the investments to develop the supply chains of fisheries in the South Pacific. IBMâs Food Trust traces food supplies, including farmed shrimp from India, and is affiliated with retailers like Walmart, Nestle, etc. OpenSC is a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) project that ensures ethical product sourcing and uses QR (Quick Response) code scanning and RFID (Radio Frequency Technology) to track fish.
Jochen Heussner, Michael Paul Kramer, Jon Henrich Hanf
Wine fraud and counterfeiting is a problem that spans from entry level wines to cult bottles. It poses significant challenges such as impacting consumer trust and causing financial losses. The study explores potential blockchain-based applications used to prevent wine fraud. Responding to the research questions regarding how blockchain technology can help prevent wine fraud and what potential benefits and limitations may exist in this context, we performed a literature review and conducted an exploratory use case analysis of over 100 solutions. Our findings unveiled that only a few operationalized use cases exist. These are predominantly based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are employed for verification of authenticity purposes. We also found that the adoption is at an early stage. While the benefits of using blockchain are promising, further research should be performed to address its potential limitations within the organizational, technical, as well as legal and regulatory realms.
A framework combining the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain can help achieve system automation and credibility, and the corresponding technologies have been applied in many industries, especially in the area of agricultural product traceability. In particular, IoT devices (radio frequency identification (RFID), geographic information system (GIS), global positioning system (GPS), etc.) can automate the collection of information pertaining to the key aspects of traceability. The data are collected and input to the blockchain system for processing, storage, and query. A distributed, decentralized, and nontamperable blockchain can ensure the security of the data entering the system. However, IoT devices may generate abnormal data in the process of data collection. In this context, it is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the source data of the traceability system. Considering the whole-process traceability chain of agricultural products, this paper analyzes the whole-process information of a tea supply chain from planting to sales, constructs the system architecture and each function, and designs and implements a machine learning- (ML-) blockchain-IoT-based tea credible traceability system (MBITTS). Based on IoT technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors, this article proposes a new method that combines blockchain and ML to enhance the accuracy of blockchain source data. In addition, system data storage and indexing methods and scanning and recovery mechanisms are proposed. Compared with the existing agricultural product (tea) traceability system based on blockchain, the introduction of the ML data verification mechanism can ensure the accuracy (up to 99%) of information on the chain. The proposed solution provides a basis to ensure the safety, reliability, and efficiency of agricultural traceability systems.
There is a growing demand for transparency along the agri-food chain, both from customers and governments. The adoption of blockchain technology to enable secure traceability for the management of the agri-food chain, provide information such as the provenance of a food product and prevent food fraud, is emerging rapidly, due to the inherent trust and inalterability provided by this technology. However, developing the right smart contracts for these use cases is even more of a challenge than it is for those used in other fields. Several management systems for the agri-food chain based on blockchain technology and smart contract have been proposed, all however ad-hoc for a specific product or production process and difficult to generalize. In this paper, we propose a new approach to easily customize and compose general Ethereum-based smart contracts designed for the agri-food industrial domain, to be able to reuse the code and modules and automate the process to shorten development times, while keeping it safe and reliable. Starting from the definition of the real production process, we aim to automatically generate both the smart contracts to manage the system and the user interfaces to interact with them, thus producing a system that works semi-automatically. Additionally, we describe a honey production case study to show how our approach works. Future work will first extend the scope of the approach to other supply chains, furthermore, while the current platform used is Ethereum, in the future our approach will be easily extended to other blockchain platforms.
This work presents how a digital identity management system can support food supply chains in guaranteeing the quality of the products marketed and the compliance of the several supply-chainâs nodes to standards and technical regulations. Specific goal of this work is to present a system that provides full visibility of process/food certifications, which nowadays are issued by accredited and approved certification bodies (issuers) and delivered and stored in paper version by the several participants (holders) of the supply chain. The system is designed and implemented by combining the latest most innovative and disruptive technologies in the marketâSelf Sovereign Identity system, Blockchain, and Inter Planetary File System. The crucial aspects that it aims to hit are the storage and access of food/process certifications, and the proper eligibility verification of these certifications exploiting the concepts of the Self Sovereign Identity-based models. The proposed system, realized by using standards that are WWW Consortium-compatible and the Ethereum Blockchain, ensures eligibility, transparency, and traceability of the certifications along a food supply chain, and could be an innovation model/idea that the companies that adopt the Open Innovation paradigm might want to pursue.
Abstract Food safety plays an essential role in our daily lives, and it becomes serious with the development of worldwide trade. To tackle the food safety issues, many advanced technologies have been developed to monitor the process of the food industry (FI) to ensure food safety, including the process of food production, processing, transporting, storage, and retailing. These technologies are often referred to as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and blockchain, which have been widely applied in many research areas. In this review, we introduce these technologies and their applications in the food safety domain. Firstly, basic concepts of these technologies are presented. Then, applications for food safety from a data perspective based on these technologies are analyzed. Finally, future challenges of the applications of AI, big data, and blockchain are discussed.
Supply chain management, product provenance and quality certification are among the first and most popular applications of blockchain technology, due to the inherent trust and inalterability provided by the blockchain technology. However, the proposed supply chain management systems based on blockchain and smart contract technology tend to be specific to the particular production and production process. In this paper we present a general-purpose approach for the agri-food supply chain management, proposing a system that can be configured for most agri-food productions. The primary purpose is to provide a methodology to facilitate and make more efficient the development of such applications. It is based on general smart contracts and apps interacting with the same smart contracts, which are configured, starting from the description of the specific system to be managed, given using json files. A case study on olive oil production is described, to show how our approach works.
We explore the potential for a blockchain ledger to record supply chain provenances in an inherently trustworthy manner. The use of blockchain in this setting may allow for traceability of products through the supply chain without fear that an itemâs provenance is fraudulent or has been tampered with. We compare the desirable properties of a blockchain ledger to those of a traditional database. We also consider challenges to the trustworthiness of a provenance idiosyncratic to the context of supply chains. We present a case study in which we conduct a series of semi-structured interviews with members of the prawn aquaculture industry in Australia. This industry was chosen as it stands to gain from robust provenances due to international competition. We find that blockchain based technology is unlikely to deliver substantial gains to the industry when compared to alternatives. Rather, most gains are likely to arise from the industry becoming digitalized, which would be a precondition for any blockchain technology to be operational.
The seafood supply chain is largely opaque, which allows for overfishing, organized crime,and even human rights abuses. Illegally caught fish enter the supply chain at various points, andimportant data about the fish (e.g. species, provenance, catch method, etc...) can be lost orfabricated. Although some third-party auditors offer to trace an actorâs supply chain, these services are expensive and the data are siloed away, leaving only the third-partyâs guarantee. One option for seafood traceability lies in blockchain technology, which marries a network of computers to an immutable, add-only ledger of transactions. In a supply chain managed by digital ledger technology, the potential for transparency is far greater than in the status quo. However, because the global seafood supply chain is so fragmented, and adoption of blockchain technology requires stakeholder buy-in at all levels of the supply chain, there exists no reliable roadmap for implementation. This Capstone Research Project will use a start-up company â DockChain â as a proxy to examine how to incentivize actors in the seafood supply chain to adopt blockchain technology.DockChain is a blockchain-enabled restaurant distributor and direct-to-consumer seafood subscription service. Dockchain aims to use blockchain in order to connect local seafood consumers with San Diegan fishermen through the use of a distributed application, and QR codes. This application will allow seafood consumers to scan a QR code to access a story showing all relevant key data elements and critical tracking events, such as the identity of the harvester, and where the seafood had been processed and filleted. The business will have three phases of development in which it will focus on particular markets for adoption. The primary fish that DockChain will purvey will be opah, because of its potential as to grow in popularity. Although opah will be the primary fish the company deals, DockChain will be eager to distribute other fish as well.
Nuraslina Zainal Abidin, Firdaus Fanny Putera Perdana
Despite rooted from Islamic needs, Halal certification also attracts both Muslims and non-Muslims. In fact, the non-Muslim players are the ones dominating the industry. It is widely known that Halal food chain is quite vulnerable due to complications in maintaining Halal integrity, the necessity to prevent doubtful materials, lack of control of food norms, and the importance to retain high quality. The presence of Halal certification is a form of consumer protection and therefore, the integrity of Halal certification must be carefully monitored. There are some Halal violation cases and this can potentially affect the reputation of the Halal food products. Therefore, it is important to develop a system that integrates a verifiable, open, and safe shared database that is not run by a centralized operator. Blockchain technology is the one that offers such. The study presents a framework for blockchain technology for Halal product verification for manufactured food products. The results are desired to help the food industry players in maintaining a system that can improve the transparency and the integrity of their Halal food chain. The system also intends to ensure the affordability and accessibility of Halal certification for as many industry players as possible as blockchain technology is believed to remove the complications in the certification process and reduce paperwork related cost.
Zhihao Hao, Dianhui Mao, Bob Zhang, Min Zuo ¡ 5 authors
Current food traceability systems have a number of problems, such as data being easily tampered with and a lack of effective methods to intuitively analyze the causes of risks. Therefore, a novel method has been proposed that combines blockchain technology with visualization technology, which uses Hyperledger to build an information storage platform. Features such as distribution and tamper-resistance can guarantee the authenticity and validity of data. A data structure model is designed to implement the data storage of the blockchain. The food safety risks of unqualified detection data can be quantitatively analyzed, and a food safety risk assessment model is established according to failure rate and qualification deviation. Risk analysis used visual techniques, such as heat maps, to show the areas where unqualified products appeared, with a migration map and a force-directed graph used to trace these products. Moreover, the food sampling data were used as the experimental data set to test the validity of the method. Instead of difficult-to-understand and highly specialized food data sets, such as elements in food, food sampling data for the entire year of 2016 was used to analyze the risks of food incidents. A case study using aquatic products as an example was explored, where the results showed the risks intuitively. Furthermore, by analyzing the reasons and traceability processes effectively, it can be proven that the proposed method provides a basis to formulate a regulatory strategy for regions with risks.