With the fast development of the industrial Internet, its interconnectivity poses new challenges for the cooperation of industrial entities. Cooperation among these entities is built on trust, and trust is based on high-quality industrial products at reasonable prices. A traceability system can play an essential role in objectively reflecting the production process and promoting this trust. However, traditional traceability systems often have data privacy issues. Because traceability data are collected or generated during the production process (namely, production-related data), they could be considered privacy data. Several researchers have introduced privacy protection schemes into the traceability system, such as authentication or encryption. Nevertheless, when a privacy protection scheme is established, the original data are disclosed to the legal user of the system, but the data may still be leaked intentionally or unintentionally. Except for data privacy issues, a traditional traceability system can be vulnerable to network attacks, data unavailability, and reliability issues. The authors conducted a study to overcome these shortcomings, and this paper reports the results. We built a traceability prototype system using a blockchain protocol and a zero-knowledge proof method. First, we built a blockchain to record key production process data, aiming to maintain data reliability and availability. Second, through an analysis of traceability purpose using production knowledge, the traceability purpose could be divided into multiple provable statements. By introducing privacy protection through a zero-knowledge proof, the traceability process was converted to proving relative statements. Finally, the statements were validated by a smart contract that provided openness and reliability during the traceability process. Analysis has shown that our approach could meet the requirements for high security and privacy. In addition, the paper also discusses the calculation cost of the traceability process to show our work’s viability. The traceability system described in this paper creates new possibilities for constructing a healthy and reliable trust relationship between production entities to provide further support in the development of the industrial Internet.
Advances in information technology (IT) and operation technology (OT) accelerate the development of manufacturing systems (MS) consisting of integrated circuits (ICs), modules, and systems, toward Industry 4.0. However, the existing MS does not support comprehensive identity forensics for the whole system, limiting its ability to adapt to equipment authentication difficulties. Furthermore, the development of trust imposed during their crosswise collaborations with suppliers and other manufacturers in the supply chain is poorly maintained. In this paper, a trust chain framework with a comprehensive identification mechanism is implemented for the designed MS system, which is based and created on the private blockchain in conjunction with decentralized database systems to boost the flexibility, traceability, and identification of the IC-module-system. Practical implementations are developed using a functional prototype. First, the decentralized application (DApp) and the smart contracts are proposed for constructing the new trust chain under the proposed comprehensive identification mechanism by using blockchain technology. In addition, the blockchain addresses of IC, module, and system are automatically registered to InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), individually. In addition, their corresponding hierarchical CID (content identifier) values are organized by using Merkle DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), which is employed via the hierarchical content identifier mechanism (HCIDM) proposed in this paper. Based on insights obtained from this analysis, the trust chain based on HCIDM can be applied to any MS system, for example, this trust chain could be used to prevent the counterfeit modules and ICs employed in the monitoring system of a semiconductor factory environment. The evaluation results show that the proposed scheme could work in practice under the much lower costs, compared to the public blockchain, with a total cost of 0.002094 Ether. Finally, this research is developed an innovation trust chain mechanism that could be provided the system-level security for any MS toward Industrial 4.0 in order to meet the requirements of both manufacturing innovation and product innovation in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Open access
Blockchain Technology Applications and Security
Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security
The fashion industry is considered unsustainable as products are made and disposed quickly causing damage to the environment due to huge amounts of water consumption, pollution, and large carbon emissions. To fight this growing problem, more and more companies in the fashion industry are required to show proof of sustainability which can be a very difficult task as this industry needs global supply chains for their activities, and these are very fragmented and have serious transparency and traceability issues. Thus, there is very poor data quality control, disruptions are hard to communicate and searching for data is very difficult as it often gets lost. A potential solution to these issues is the application of an emerging technology known as Blockchain. Blockchain is a distributed shared ledger technology where all data can be stored in the same network in a secure and immutable way and be accessed by every stakeholder in the supply chain. This article seeks to explore how Blockchain technology can be implemented to improve the sustainability of the production processes of the fashion industry’s supply chain.
Abstract Blockchain operates on a highly secured framework, and its decentralized consensus has benefits for supply chain sustainability. Scholars have recognized the growing importance of sustainability in supply chains and studied the potential of blockchain for sustainable supply chain management. However, no study has taken stock of high-quality research in this area. To address this gap, this paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of high-quality research on blockchain for sustainable supply chain management. To do so, this paper conducts a systematic literature review using a bibliometric analysis of 146 high-quality articles on blockchain for sustainable supply chain management that have been published in journals ranked “A*”, “A”, and “B” by the Australian Business Deans Council and retrieved from the Scopus database. In doing so, this paper unpacks the most prominent journals, authors, institutions, and countries that have contributed to three major themes in the field, namely blockchain for sustainable business activities, decision support systems using blockchain, and blockchain for intelligent transportation system. This paper also reveals the use of blockchain for sustainable supply chain management across four major sectors, namely food, healthcare, manufacturing, and infrastructure, and concludes with suggestions for future research in each sector.
This paper considers a dynamic platform-based, closed-loop supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and an online platform. As an online distributor of the manufacturer, the platform expands the market scale by exerting the platform power. At the same time, to solve the problem of inconsistency between the actual recycling amount and the theoretical recycling amount in the recycling process of waste electronic products, the whole-process supervision of waste products is carried out with the help of blockchain technology, which is difficult to tamper with and is traceable. With the help of differential game theory, four differential game models of manufacturer recycling and platform recycling with and without blockchain are established. The state feedback strategies are derived from Bellman’s continuous dynamic programming theory. Through analytical results and comparative analysis, the adoption conditions of blockchain and the impact of blockchain on the selection of recycling models are obtained. The results illustrated that the introduction of blockchain technology effectively improves the real recycling rate of waste electronics, building trust in consumers, which benefits corporations in certain conditions. However, it amplifies the double marginal effect of the CLSC. Nevertheless, the implementation of blockchain is still beneficial to consumers, as the adverse impact of the double marginal effect is compensated by the improvement in consumer surplus. In addition, the study shows that the implementation of the blockchain incentivizes members, who benefit on the same recycling model when the fixed cost of the blockchain and the share ratio of the residual value of waste electronics are between certain thresholds. That is, both the manufacturer and the platform are better off in a manufacturer recycling model enabled by blockchain. Moreover, in this model, the social welfare and the recycling rate of waste electronics are increased, which enable the CLSC to achieve benefits related to economy, environment, and society.
Applications of the blockchain technology in supply chains have attracted extensive attention in both academia and industries. However, little research has investigated the effects of the blockchain technology on firms’ operational strategies. In this paper, we investigate the impacts of the traceability enabled by the blockchain technology on a producer’s decision whether to outsource delivery to a third-party logistics firm. We find that without the blockchain technology, the logistics firm has a moral hazard—an incentive to set the delivery quality at the lowest level even though improving the delivery quality is for free. The traceability enabled by the blockchain technology can resolve the logistics firm’s moral hazard and encourage the producer to improve the production quality. Furthermore, when the delivery is cost-efficient for the producer, the traceability enabled by the blockchain technology motivates the producer to outsource the delivery to the logistics firm; otherwise, the producer’s outsourcing decision is not affected. When quality cost is low, the blockchain technology makes the logistics firm improve its delivery quality significantly and encourages the producer to improve the production quality. When the quality cost is moderate, only under certain conditions, the blockchain technology has effects on both parties’ decisions.
Blockchain Technology (BCT) has effectively evolved in reverse logistics (RL) to speed up its operation by decentralising, tracing, and monitoring the goods delivered to the end consumers. This study outlines the current research fashion of BCT applicability in RL from 2015 to 22. A wide range of 226 research papers is selected from the SCOPUS database to conduct the bibliometric and network analysis for offering a comprehensive literature review on research clusters and fashions of BCT in RL. Some primary research clusters such as infrastructure development, sustainable manufacturing, logistics, circular supply chain, and waste management are identified. The network analysis has helped identify pioneer authors, journals, and countries actively involved in BCT research in RL. The content analysis findings indicate the evolution of BCT in various themes of RL. The articles also develop a result systematisation framework to concisely offer the outcomes of this research. Further, the current study provides recommendations for future research work for academic and industry practitioners based on the existing literature.
Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the application of blockchain technology (BCT) in recycling. This research applies a multiple case study approach with six pioneer organisations, based on secondary data. We found that BCT is an effective approach to promote recycling performance: it can provide tokenisation, waste flow tracking and recycling chain integration. The benefits include ‘Eco‐friendly’, ‘Stimulate participation’, ‘Social inclusion’, ‘Transparent recycling chains’ and ‘Extended producer responsibility accountability’. However, the majority of existing BCT‐based initiatives are in the pilot stage and face cognitive, technology, internal and external barriers. Our research is one of the first studies on blockchain‐based recycling. We applied the network theory of ‘Reachability’, ‘Richness’ and ‘Receptivity’ and ‘network formation’ barriers to propose a conceptual framework of BCT‐based recycling, which serves as a practical reference for the recycling industry.
Mahtab Kouhizadeh, Qingyun Zhu, Lojain Alkhuzaim, Joseph Sarkis
Abstract Overconsumption of resources has become a global issue. To deal with resource depletion and mitigate these impending crises, the circular economy (CE) holds some promise. A wide range of performance measurements for CE have emerged over the years. However, with increasing complexity of supply chains, appropriate and potentially new performance measurements are needed for effective CE management. Blockchain is an innovative technology that may advance CE development. This chapter provides an overview of the potential linkages between blockchain technology and CE from sustainability perspectives – the specific focus will be on the performance measurement of reverse logistics activities. One of the main findings indicates that both blockchain and CE performance measurements – especially reverse logistics processes – are still evolving in both theory and practical developments. Future directions with a critical analysis including research and theoretical applications will conclude this chapter.
Jien Song, Yang Yang, Jie Mei, Gaofeng Zhou · 12 authors
The need to accelerate the innovation and application of the supply chain has been suggested by the State Council of China. To solve the problem of data isolation caused by privacy protection in the power material supply chain, a data traceability and sharing mechanism based on blockchain is designed in this paper. Firstly, the existing problems of the power material supply chain are introduced, and the applicability of blockchain in the power material supply chain in view of these problems is analyzed. Secondly, blockchain-based power material supply deployment and application structures are proposed. Then, considering the problem of data isolation in the material inspection and distribution links between suppliers and the material company, a data traceability mechanism based on blockchain is designed to provide evidence for the data authenticity and a proxy re-encryption method is used to ensure security and privacy in data sharing. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed data traceability and sharing mechanism is verified using the Hyperledger Fabric platform for power material case studies. The simulation results show that the combination of proxy re-encryption and blockchain technology in the power material supply chain can confirm the validity of the historical data and keep the private data of the material company confidential, so as to realize the traceability and sharing of the power material supply data.
Abstract As a concern with manufacturing industries, circular economy (CE) practices—often labeled “circular manufacturing (CM)”—are industrial tasks through which several circular economy principles have been integrated. Among these circular manufacturing strategies, “3R” (recycle, refurbish/remanufacture, and reuse/redistribute) is the key strategy that assists the manufacturing industry with closing the loop for sustainability. An effective inclusion and management of 3R lead a firm to a greater likelihood of successfully integrating CE and CM. In recent years, remanufacturing has gained greater prominence, especially with the emergence of technology, including cyber‐physical systems. These technologies assist the remanufacturing firm with efficient take‐back systems through tracking. However, data transferred through these technologies among value chain partners in remanufacturing are not reliable. Due to the lack of trust and transparency, value chain partners are hesitant to participate in remanufacturing supply chains. To address the limitation of technologies in remanufacturing, blockchain has been introduced to secure the data. Despite the advantages of blockchain technology, practitioners face difficulties in integrating these blockchain technologies into the remanufacturing context. Several earlier studies addressed the challenges of implementing blockchain, but no earlier studies have specifically examined remanufacturing industries, which are entirely different from forward supply chain industries. Concerning the fact, this study identifies the barriers that exist with the implementation of blockchain technology in the application of the remanufacturing sector. A framework has been proposed and validated in a Danish automotive parts remanufacturing company. Multi‐criteria decision‐making method has been used to identify the effective and most influential barriers among common barriers. Results reveal that “scaling of technology” ( B6 ) is the key barrier of BCT implementation in remanufacturing context. This study concludes with useful discussions based on the results along with the recommendations to eradicate those influential barriers and their respective impacts on SDGs (SDG4, SDG8, SDG9, and SDG17). Finally, this study sheds light on future enhancements on the integration of blockchain technology in remanufacturing to reap several benefits of circular manufacturing.
Md Masuduzzaman, Tariq Rahim, Anik Islam, Soo Young Shin
This article presents a deep learning (DL) model integrated automated and secure garbage management scheme using unmanned any vehicle (UxV) to minimize the human effort in terms of the traditional garbage management system. Different kinds of UxV (unmanned aerial vehicles, automated guided vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles, unmanned underwater vehicles, etc.) are utilized to establish an automated garbage management scheme to collect and place the garbage both from the ground and sea surfaces. However, due to the limited battery capacity and inadequate resources of different UxV, a lightweight DL model is developed to detect the garbage successfully with a higher accuracy rate. The proposed lightweight DL model uses two activation functions named MISH and rectified linear unit to enhance the feature extraction and detect the garbage. Moreover, a multiaccess edge computing (MEC) server is allocated in the proposed scheme to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) (i.e., reduce latency and improve security). Furthermore, a blockchain-based secure hazardous garbage (e.g., infectious, toxic, or radioactive materials) tracking technique is concluded in this scheme to identify the individual and reduce the potential harm to the environment. Experimental results demonstrate that the UxV can successfully detect the garbage using the proposed lightweight DL model within a minimum time frame and the obtained accuracy is higher than the other existing DL models. Besides, QoS has been investigated to verify the efficacy of the proposed scheme. Finally, a private blockchain network is established to demonstrate the performance of the proposed hazardous garbage tracking technique.
Matthew Gregor Peterson, Todd R. Andel, Ryan Benton
Selfish mining is an attack against a blockchain where miners hide newly discovered blocks instead of publishing them to the rest of the network. The selfish miners continue to mine on their private chain while the honest miners waste resources mining on a shorter chain. According to the blockchain protocol, a longer chain takes precedent and shorter chains are discarded which allows the selfish miners to gain an advantage by keeping their chain secret. This attack can be used by malicious miners to earn a disproportionate share of the mining rewards or in conjunction with other attacks to steal money from cryptocurrency exchanges. Several of these attacks were launched in 2018 and 2019 with the attackers stealing as much as $18 Million. Developers made several different attempts to fix this issue, but the effectiveness of the fixes is currently unknown. Although this attack is possible against both Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake blockchains, this research concentrates on detection in Proof-of-Work blockchains. As is difficult to evaluate security advances in the real-time blockchain, it is imperative to focus on simulation to evaluate blockchain security properties. To this end, we extend a blockchain simulator and add the ability to simulate selfish mining attacks. Several existing simulators are examined before choosing SimBlock for this research. Our goal is to identify the factors that identify selfish mining. Using existing research, we choose several factors that could identify an attack in an unlaunched state, an active state, or historically. We plan to use simulated data to train a machine learning model to detect selfish mining. Using the modified simulator, we generate training and test data for unlaunched and active attacks. For historical attacks, we will use historical data from known selfish mining attacks. While some existing research has examined the detection of selfish mining, it only examines active attacks. In this paper, we seek to lay the groundwork for future research into detecting attacks that are unlaunched, active, or historical.
Jonathan Lenge, Kaninda Musumbu, Geisla Wanuku, Pascal Sungu
Traceability has become an essential element of supply chain management, especially in safety-sensitive sectors such as food, pharmaceuticals, etc. Upstream (manufacturers, producers, etc.) and downstream (distributors, wholesalers, etc.) supply chain actors need to store and process traceability information in order to provide proof of regulatory compliance to national authorities as well as the most demanding customers. Studies have shown that developing countries, especially on the African continent, are particularly prone to the commercialization of counterfeit products and the use of diverted consumables, thus reducing the confidence in the various products and services offered by commercial enterprises, not only towards consumers but also towards companies and other actors of the concerned sectors. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to examine the characteristics and functionalities of blockchain technology and to identify blockchain-based solutions to address consumer product traceability issues, as well as to highlight the benefits of implementing blockchain-based traceability systems by proposing a blockchain architecture to ensure traceability and transparency.
Vincent Carrières, Andrée-Anne Lemieux, Manuele Margni, Robert Pellerin · 5 authors
The efficiency of sustainability assessments of textile products is generally prevented because of a lack of available and reliable data across complex and globalized supply chains. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how blockchain traceability data can improve the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of textile products and to measure the actual value of exploiting this specific traceability data. To do so, a case study consisting of two LCAs modeling the production of wool top lots in China was conducted. A first LCA was conducted with generic data and the second with the added value of specific blockchain traceability data. Based on the second LCA, different wool top lot composition scenarios were then modeled to account for the environmental impact of different farming practices. Two main results were obtained: the environmental impact of wool top lots can vary up to +118% between two batches depending on their composition, and the specific data changes drastically from the impact calculated with generic data, with +36% calculated impact for the same wool composition of batches. Therefore, it was concluded that blockchain traceability data could be a strong asset for conducting LCA at the batch level by providing differentiated data on batch composition and origin and providing readily available specific data for a more representative assessment.
Anand K. Bapatla, Saraju P. Mohanty, Elias Kougianos, Deepak Puthal · 5 authors
Abstract Globalisation has facilitated different industries to eliminate geographical boundaries and equipped organisations to work collectively to produce goods. Pharmaceuticals is one such industry which has majorly benefited from globalisation to reduce costs and increase profitability at different aspects of research, development, manufacturing of drugs and finally distribution of drugs. Globalisation not only reduces costs and increases profits for the industry, it also makes essential medication available to all individuals even at remote areas of undeveloped, developing and developed countries. As the number of entities or participants grew in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC), the complexity and abstractness of the drug delivery from manufacturer to consumer has increased, which raised new concerns like counterfeit medication, incorrect, incomplete or no information about the drug reaching the consumer thus undermining customer confidence and most importantly distribution delays which can cause serious impact on the life of the consumer as well as business growth. Considering all these challenges, there is a dire need for a robust PSC which can eliminate blind parties and provide a transparent chain. A transparent PSC will eliminate data fragmentation between different participating entities by creating a trail of secure, single source of truth for the entire life cycle of a medicine, thereby eliminating the introduction of counterfeits and ensuring the consumer safety. This article proposes a novel Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based transparent supply chain for PSC and proof‐of‐concept is implemented to analyse the scalability and efficiency of the proposed architecture. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is one of the technologies which can provide such transparent PSC and Smart Contracts (SC) are the most commonly used component in such systems to implement business logic and access control mechanisms. The proposed PharmaChain model investigates all the interactions between the main entities in PSC and also addresses smart contract issues such as re‐entrance, randomness and lacking trustworthy data feed. Results are compared with other proposed solutions for PSC based on DLT.
Bill Wang, Zhiyu Lin, Michael Wang, Fangyi Wang · 6 authors
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, urgent surging demand for healthcare products such as personal protective equipment (PPE) has caused significant challenges for multi-tier supply chain management. Although a given firm may predominantly focus on an arms-length solution by targeting the first-tier supplier, the firm can still struggle with extended multi-tier suppliers it cannot choose which use unsustainable practices. One key goal is compliance across various dimensions with production, environmental and labour standards across the multi-tier supply chain, a goal that blockchain technology can be applied to manage. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this research develops a system architecture of blockchain-based multi-tier sustainable supply chain management in the PPE industry designed to identify and coordinate standards in production and social and environmental sustainability in multi-tier PPE supply chains. The architecture was validated by theoretical basis, expert opinions and technical solutions. We conclude with managerial implications for implementing blockchain technology to advance sustainable multi-tier supply chain practices.
In the age of machine learning, cryptocurrency mining, and seemingly infinite data storage capacity enabled by cloud computing, the environmental costs of ubiquitous computing in modern life are obscured by the sheer complexity of infrastructures and supply chains involved in even the simplest of digital transactions. How does computation contribute to the warming of the planet? As information technology (IT) capacity demands continue to trend upward, what are some of the ecological obstacles that must be overcome to accommodate an ever-expanding, carbon-hungry Cloud? How do these material impacts play out in everyday life, behind the scenes, where servers, fiber optic cables, and technicians facilitate cloud services? This case study draws on firsthand ethnographic research in data centersâsprawling libraries of computer servers that facilitate everything from email to commerceâto identify some of the far-reaching and tangled environmental impacts of computation and data-storage infrastructures. It surveys a range of empirical accounts of server technicians to illustrate on-the-ground examples of material and ecological factors that permeate everyday life in the Cloud. These examples include air conditioning and thermal management, water cycling, and the disposal of e-waste. By attending to the culture of workplace practice and the behaviors and training of technicians in data centers, this case study reveals that the Cloud is not fully automated, nor is it hyperrational; emotion, instinct, and human judgment are enlisted to keep servers running. This case study closes with a speculative vignette that scales up from various local impacts to a planetary framework, sketching some of the particular ways that computation contributes to climate change and the Anthropocene.
Yu Gong, Yan Wang, Regina Frei, Bill Wang · 5 authors
The threat to the environment and humanity caused by marine plastic debris has aroused global attention. This research aims to explore the feasibility of applying blockchain technology (BCT) in marine plastic debris management. A case study on three pioneer recycling organizations is conducted based on secondary data. The study found that BCT can be applied to solve some of the existing challenges of marine plastic debris management. A digital token system and identity recognition mechanism based on BCT can increase the public awareness for marine plastic debris governance. The derived digital wallets and distributed ledgers can effectively replace paper documents and cash transactions in the traditional recycling chain, and minimize global impact on local economies, thus improve efficiency and safety. Also, the traceability and high transparency of blockchain and the application of smart contracts can effectively build a global recycling network. In addition, the application of BCT can greatly improve the transparency of recycling value chains, and make them more accepting of supervision from society and consumers. This research is one of the first studies on BCT in marine plastic debris management and explores worldwide pioneering companies. In practice, this study can help companies analyse the defects in their own waste disposal models and help practitioners make decisions to adopt BCT. In academia, as one of the early exploratory studies on the application of BCT to the treatment of marine plastic debris, this study provides further empirical reference on BCT based business models and recycling chains, and can guide future research in this field.