Blockchain Papers

Ricardo Gonçalves, Inês A. Ferreira, Radu Godina, Pedro Pinto · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Yanjin Cheng, Hao Hao, Shi-Peng Tao, Yanjun Zhou

Regulating and supervising the energy vehicle (EV) power battery recycling market, improving the utilization rate of EV power battery recycling, and guaranteeing the safety and control of all aspects of recycling treatment require the establishment of an effective traceability system. The decentralization and tamper-proof characteristics of the blockchain can ensure the safety and reliability of relevant data while realizing traceability management. This study establishes the Stackelberg game model to compare and analyze the effects of different government mechanisms on the profits of each subject before and after participating in power battery traceability management. The study further uses the model to explore strategies to improve the enthusiasm of EV power battery recycling subjects to participate in traceability management. The results show that (1) the participation of each recycling subject in EV power battery blockchain traceability can help move more spent power batteries into formal recycling channels; (2) the government should adopt appropriate mechanisms to promote its participation in EV power battery blockchain traceability, the best result being when the government adopts a subsidy mechanism for consumers; and (3) the profit of the EV power battery manufacturer is inversely proportional to the target recycling rate set by the government. Furthermore, the pursuit of a very high target recycling rate is not conducive to the normal implementation of initial EV power battery blockchain traceability management. Therefore, it is crucial for the government to set a reasonable target recycling rate.

George Hatzivasilis, Sotiris Ioannidis, Konstantinos Fysarakis, George Spanoudakis · 5 authors

Eco-friendly systems are necessitated nowadays, as the global consumption is increasing. A data-driven aspect is prominent, involving the Internet of Things (IoT) as the main enabler of a Circular Economy (CE). Henceforth, IoT equipment records the system’s functionality, with machine learning (ML) optimizing green computing operations. Entities exchange and reuse CE assets. Transparency is vital as the beneficiaries must track the assets’ history. This article proposes a framework where blockchaining administrates the cooperative vision of CE-IoT. For the core operation, the blockchain ledger records the changes in the assets’ states via smart contracts that implement the CE business logic and are lightweight, complying with the IoT requirements. Moreover, a federated learning approach is proposed, where computationally intensive ML tasks are distributed via a second contract type. Thus, “green-miners” devote their resources not only for making money, but also for optimizing operations of real-systems, which results in actual resource savings.

Swikriti Khadke, Pragya Gupta, Shanmukh Rachakunta, Chandreswar Mahata · 16 authors

Global plastic waste is increasing rapidly. In general, densely populated regions generate tons of plastic waste daily, which is sometimes disposed of on land or diverged to sea. Most of the plastics created in the form of waste have complex degradation behavior and are non-biodegradable by nature. These remain intact in the environment for a long time span and potentially originate complications within terrestrial and marine life ecosystems. The strategic management of plastic waste and recycling can preserve environmental species and associated costs. The key contribution in this work focuses on ongoing efforts to utilize plastic waste by introducing blockchain during plastic waste recycling. It is proposed that the efficiency of plastic recycling can be improved enormously by using the blockchain phenomenon. Automation for the segregation and collection of plastic waste can effectively establish a globally recognizable tool using blockchain-based applications. Collection and sorting of plastic recycling are feasible by keeping track of plastic with unique codes or digital badges throughout the supply chain. This approach can support a collaborative digital consortium for efficient plastic waste management, which can bring together multiple stakeholders, plastic manufacturers, government entities, retailers, suppliers, waste collectors, and recyclers.

Mengyuan Cheng, Guoliang Liu, Yongshun Xu, Ming Chi

Blockchain is regarded as a potential technology for transforming the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, and the number of related publications is increasing rapidly. However, a systematic review of blockchain applications in the AEC industry is lacking. The objective of this study was to review the current status of blockchain applications via a bibliometric analysis combined with a systematic literature review. According to related articles collected from databases, the present status of blockchain was analysed with regard to the distribution of articles over publication years, journals, institutions, countries, cooperation networks between authors, keyword co-occurrence networks, and research methodologies. The results indicated that research on blockchain applications is still relatively new and fragmented with regard to several topics. Five areas of benefit were identified: (i) supply chain management, (ii) contract management, (iii) information management, (iv) stakeholder management, and (v) integration management. On the basis of the technology–organisation–environment framework, nine types of challenges were identified. Future research opportunities were proposed according to the research findings. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge and provides guidelines for further research on blockchain applications in the AEC industry.

Weiguo Zhang, Linwei Guo, Yanlong Li

With the continuous expansion of China’s used car market., there are more and more accidents caused by the untrue information of used car quantity. And the current used car traceability system has some problems, such as incomplete information coverage and low reliability. The emergence of blockchain can improve this situation. It can be regarded as a decentralized, disintermediated and trusted public distributed ledger. Based on blockchain technology, this paper analyzes the needs of used cars from entering the market to selling, and establishes a transparent and reliable used car traceability system to realize the traceability of used cars from entering the market to selling, so as to further ensure the quality and safety of used cars.

Piera Centobelli, Roberto Cerchione, Pasquale Del Vecchio, Eugenio Oropallo · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Yagnyasenee Sen Gupta, Shyamapada Mukherjee, Rahul Dutta, Sukriti Bhattacharya

No abstract is available for this record.

Swagatika Sahoo, Arnab Mukherjee, Raju Halder

Purpose The rapid technological growth, changes in consumer demands, products’ built-in obsolescence, presence of more non-repairable parts, shorter lifespan, etc., lead to the generation of e-waste at an unprecedented rate. Although a number of research proposals and business products to manage e-waste exist in the literature, they lack in many aspects such as incomplete coverage of product’s life cycle, access control, payment channels (in few cases), incentive mechanisms, scalability issues, and missing experimental validation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel blockchain-based e-waste management system aiming to mitigate the above-mentioned downsides and limitations of the existing proposals. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a robust and reliable e-waste management system by leveraging the power of blockchain technology, which captures the complete life cycle of e-products commencing from their manufacturing as new products to their disposal as e-waste and their recycling back into raw materials. Findings While the use of blockchain technology increases accountability, transparency and trust in the system, the proposal overcomes various challenges and limitations of the existing systems by providing seamless interactions among various agencies. Originality/value This paper presents a prototype implementation of the system as a proof-of-concept using solidity on the Ethereum platform and this paper performs experimental evaluations to demonstrate its feasibility and effective performance in terms of execution gas cost and transaction throughput.

Ahmad A. Khanfar, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Morteza Ghobakhloo, Madugoda Gunaratnege Senali · 5 authors

Developing sustainable products and processes is essential for the survival of manufacturers in the current competitive market and the industry 4.0 era. The activities of manufacturers and their supply chain partners should be aligned with sustainable development goals. Manufacturers have faced many barriers and challenges in implementing sustainable practices along the entire supply chain due to globalisation, outsourcing, and offshoring. Blockchain technology has the potential to address the challenges of sustainability. This study aims to explain the applications of blockchain technology to sustainable manufacturing. We conducted a systematic literature review and explained the potential contributions of blockchain technology to the economic, environmental, and social performances of manufacturers and their supply chains. The findings of the study extend our understanding of the blockchain applications in sustainable manufacturing and sustainable supply chains. Furthermore, the study explains how blockchain can influence the sustainable performance of manufacturers by creating transparency, traceability, real-time information sharing, and security of the data capabilities.

Vineet Chouhan, Raj Bahadur Sharma, M. L. Vasita, Shubham Goswami

The blockchain technology (BCT) or distributed ledgers is an emergent technology that allows the autonomous and immutable preservation of checked data by offering a revolutionary forum of a modern, decentralized and transparent exchange system for industries and companies. The inherited characteristics of BCT foster trust by clarity and traceability in every transaction involving records, products and financial capital. Through initial concerns, governments and major companies have recently investigated the implementation and improvement of this BCT in different fields of use, including supply chain (SC) networks. Slowly, the community of this sector realizes how profoundly blockchain (BC) could affect their industry. BC’s ability to guarantee accuracy, quality control and authenticity of data, coupled with smart contractual partnerships, represents a major reconsideration of SC and supply chain management (SCM). It provides more and more logistic items with sensors that produce data in the SC, for example, on the shipment status. This data must be processed in an external, open manner. Current practices for the types of obstacles to implementing BCTs are implemented in the fields of interorganizational, intraorganizational, technological and external barriers. Procurement costs, shipping costs, inventory costs and quality costs are the four primary reasons that increased the expenses in the conventional supply chains. In this research, we have identified the barriers against the use or development of sustainable SCM, by taking views of 500 working professionals of various global SC-oriented companies. The study’s outcome by using linear regression reviled economic obstacles, cross barriers, structure barriers and communication threats. Related barriers are BC barriers in general. Similarly, it can limit the use of BCT for SC. To improve these problems and to improve sustainability, the SC should also decrease resource use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, check that the commodity is renewable in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, increase recycling, improve emissions sharing schemes (ETS) and improve governance using information management mechanism by understanding the barriers.

Hamid Damadi, Mohammadreza Namjoo

In this article, a new waste management system is proposed based on fog computing and blockchain technology. It has enough leverage to get the features and benefits of both technologies to reach a more practical and suitable solution to cope with some challenges of waste management systems such as lack of participation of citizens in the systems and absence of a trusted environment for the cooperation of companies. The proposed system provides a trustworthy environment for companies that are included in the chain of waste management to cooperate. Also, the system plans to make enough encouragement for citizens and other waste generators, such as businesses, industries, and hospitals, to play a more effective role of separating recyclable waste in source. Finally, municipalities could impose their policies to the system with smart contracts. Then, they can monitor and manage the system more easily and properly.

Authors unavailable

Blockchain technology facilitates trust and transparency in the decision-making process and enables the transaction's verifiability by reading immutable distributed ledgers. It has been innovatively applied this technology in the E-waste optimization for the recovery of precious metals using microwave heat treatment. This present paper presents the maximum recovery of precious and base metals from E-waste with a numerical technique called surface response methodology, and was compared with the actual experimental results. The main goal of this paper is to recover the precious metals like copper and gold with its adjacent metals from unwanted and discarded printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, and standards connectors, with the input variables of microwave power, maximum temperature, and aqua leaching ratio. The obtained empirical information of recovered metals was recorded in immutable distributed ledgers so that every member of the blockchain network can be read and verified through the stored records. These records were also utilized to minimize the error and maximize the precious metal outcomes. The result with blockchain network also shows that identical resemblance between the experimental and statistical predicted data obtained with surface methodology. Further, Smart Contracts has been created and deployed to store and retrieve empirical records in the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain Platform and then measured the performance using Hyperledger Caliper Benchmark

Weisheng Lu, Xiao Li, Fan Xue, Rui Zhao · 6 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Shiyuan Xu, Xue Chen, Yunhua He

Purchases of electric vehicles have been increasing in recent years. These vehicles differ from traditional fossil-fuel-based vehicles especially in the time consumed to keep them running. Electric-Vehicle-charging Service Providers (EVSPs) must arrange reasonable charging times for users in advance. Most EVSP services are based on third-party platforms, but reliance on third-party platforms creates a lack of security, leaving users vulnerable to attacks and user-privacy leakages. In this paper, we propose an anonymous blockchain-based system for charging-connected electric vehicles that eliminates third-party platforms through blockchain technology and the establishment of a multi-party security system between electric vehicles and EVSPs. In our proposed system, digital certificates are obtained by completing distributed Public Key Infrastructure (distributed-PKI) identity registration, with the user registration kept separate from the verification process, which eliminates dependence on the EVSP for information security. In the verification process, we adopt smart contracts to solve problems associated with centralized verification and opaque services. Furthermore, we utilize zero-knowledge proof and ring-signature superposition to realize completely anonymous verification, which ensures undeniability and unforgeability with no detriment to anonymity. The evaluation results show that the user anonymity, information authenticity, and system security of our system fulfill the necessary requirements.

Mobashar Mubarik, Raja Zuraidah Raja Mohd Rasi, Muhammad Faraz Mubarak, Rashid Ashraf

Purpose This study investigates the impact of blockchain technology on green supply chain practices with the aim to promote pro-environmental settings in supply chains of manufacturing firms. Moreover, mediating role of environmental orientation is examined between blockchain technology and green supply chain practices. Also, moderating role of technological orientation in this connection is undertaken. Design/methodology/approach The authors have applied a quantitative methodology in which a questionnaire was developed from literature. After that, data are collected from manufacturing firms of Malaysia. The data collected are analysed by using PLS-SEM in which multiple regression and moderation are applied. Findings The results of this study confirm the positive impact of blockchain on green supply chain practices. Also, the mediating role of environmental orientation is revealed in this relationship. Moreover, technological orientation is confirmed as a moderator which strengthens the relationship between blockchain technology and green supply chain practices. Research limitations/implications This study has collected data from manufacturing firms of Malaysia. However, the authors have not undertaken service sector firms. Thus, they recommend future researchers to consider service sector firms in this context. Moreover, they have taken SMEs for this study and have neglected large firms. Therefore, in future, large firms could be taken to test the current study's perspective in them. Furthermore, this study suggests to the policymaker and managers, especially of manufacturing concerns, to infuse Industry 4.0 technologies such as blockchain technology because of its manifold benefits. Practical implications This study suggests to the policymaker and managers, especially of manufacturing concerns, to infuse Industry 4.0 technologies such as blockchain technology because of its manifold benefits. First, it will enhance the integration across the streams of the supply chain; secondly, it will improve the demand and supply planning which will eliminate the extra production and will enable firms to adopt just-in-time production by saving various costs associated otherwise. Importantly, these processes are against the pro-environmental behaviour which is pivotal to achieve green supply chain practices. Originality/value This study contributes by joining the technological perspective of Industry 4.0 technologies and sustainability perspective of green supply chain in manufacturing concerns. In addition, the related concepts of technological orientation and environmental orientation are also undertaken to further adjoin the former fields. As a practical contribution, this study will, first, enhance the integration across the streams of supply chain; secondly it will improve the demand and supply planning which will eliminates the extra production and will enable firms to adopt just-in-time production by saving various costs associated otherwise. It is also suggested to instil pro-environmental behaviour or environmental orientation in the employees at all levels of firm. Moreover, technological orientation should also be improved by emphasizing on the importance of technology for environmentally friendly and green supply chain practices.

Nir Kshetri

No abstract is available for this record.

Mario Felipe Munoz, Kaiwen Zhang, Aamir Shahzad, Mustapha Ouhimmou

When it comes to sustainability, many certification systems live and die by their capacity to track a volume from source to destination. This is because customers (and consequently, auditors) are increasingly concerned with where products are sourced ("Are these local materials?") and what is their environmental impact is ("How much CO2 did this generate?"). The Forest Sustainability Council (FSC) created various frameworks to meet these demands. The FSC is responsible for tracking and labelling all the wood volumes that its members use. Though widely respected, their certifications rely on trusted third parties and extensive record keeping. Thus, they do not efficiently address problems like bribery and "creative" inventory practices.Blockchain technology is an attractive solution because it increases traceability, auditability and access to information. However, blockchain systems have limitations. Notably, they are inefficient for storing large amounts of data. The standard workaround is to use a multiple-database approach where large files are kept off-chain, creating a trade-off between lower transaction fees and lower availability, among other factors.In contrast with these approaches, we propose LogLog: an entirely on-chain system for tracking wood volumes throughout a supply chain and enforcing FSC certification standards. LogLog is ERC-1155 compliant and meets the base requirements for a forestry supply chain.We created two reference implementations of our design using Solidity and deployed them over the Ethereum blockchain. Our evaluation uses realistic parameters and suggests our prototype is a viable alternative to current multiple-database systems in contexts where data integrity is a strict requirement.

Chiara Magrini, Jana Nicolas, Holger Berg, A. Bellini · 8 authors

Nowadays, high expectations are set for a digitally enabled circular economy (CE), to enhance resource efficiency. Tracing, tracking, and storing information is most important for this. In this paper, the application of Internet of Things (IoT) and Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) are hence discussed by presenting the case of professional Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) in Italy. Within the context of CE, prevention of electronic waste (WEEE) is extremely relevant as it is a fast-growing waste stream, and the products contain environmentally damaging substances as well as valuable and rare materials. The use of a proper combination of IoT and blockchain can help the producers to keep control on products until EEE end-of-life, while promoting CE strategies and supporting decision-making. Based on the outcomes of five interviews conducted in 2019 to companies of the EEE sector, potential improvements in the EEE end-of-use management are discussed. After providing the definition of requirements for both the technical solution and its testing are provided, three solution variations and the related business models are created and presented, as well as considerations on their environmental and economic impacts. The study shows how digital technologies can support the appropriate and circular management of EEE products and WEEE.

Rajvir Kaur

The emergence of Blockchain technology as Bitcoin, has completely transformed the process of exchanging financial capital, without an intermediary. The huge success of Bitcoin contributed to the rapid advancement and increase interest of the public in Blockchain technology. As people started digging more into the technology underlying Bitcoin, they started realizing that the blockchain capacity is not just confined to cryptocurrencies. It has the potential to impact a much wider domain of applications to solve many of the issues and challenges in real-world scenarios. One such scenario is product traceability in food supply chain (FSC). Traditional traceability systems are vulnerable to various issues and challenges such as lack of data transparency, confidentiality, centralized data storage, mistrust between the parties, product delay which needs to be addressed. This paper proposes a solution for product traceability in FSCs using Hyperledger Fabric (HLF), a permissioned blockchain framework. We keep a track of food products journey from source to destination. All the information associated with food products shipment recorded securely and immutably in a distributed ledger, which is sync and verified with all the participants in the FSC in real-time but can be accessed by the authorized participants only. For managing access rights to the blockchain network resources, access control rules are defined by embedding them in smart contracts. Moreover, REST API allows clients to interact with blockchain network is secured using, OAuth 2.0 authentication strategy. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the designed blockchain-based system for FSC.

G.T.S. Ho, Yuk Ming Tang, Kun Yat Tsang, Valerie Tang · 5 authors

No abstract is available for this record.

Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan, Shima Ghasemzadeh Moghaddam, Sajedeh Dehghan Manshadi

No abstract is available for this record.

Cho Nwe Zin Latt, Sandi Rahmadika, Kyung-Hyune Rhee

The Myanmar rice cycle’s existing system is still relying on a third party to manage every rice data information from several organizations. It is inconvenient to supervise simultaneously due to the unreliability of information provided by organizations. Thus, the rice cycle’s original data is challenging to be utterly trusted since irresponsible parties can manipulate the current state of information. Moreover, the applied system does not preserve a proper incentive for the involved parties. In this paper, we leverage the Ethereum blockchain to be adopted to tackle the aforementioned issues. The main objective is to build trust between parties in the Myanmar rice cycle system. Our proposed scheme allows customers to check and trace information about the rice cycle information without worrying about the integrity of the data. Furthermore, the authorized parties are also rewarded by the government through Ethereum smart contract features. Eventually, our scheme achieves traceability in the rice chain system and leads to the complete digitization and automation of the rice cycle information.

Filipe Calvão, Matthew Archer

Digital data — including technologically-mediated data generated by blockchain-enabled traceability — is performing an increasingly integral role in extractive operations, but scarce attention has been paid to the structuring effect of these digital technologies or the socio-economic spatiality of data-driven mining operations. Drawing on extensive qualitative research (interviews, participant observation, and two sets of survey data among actors relevant to these mineral supply chains), this article advances the notion of “digital extraction” to describe the collection, analysis, and instrumentalization of digital data generated under the banner of blockchain-based due diligence, chain of custody certifications, and various transparency mechanisms, situated alongside and in support of mineral extraction. The article mobilizes concepts from political geography and political ecology to argue that digital technologies of traceability in extractive processes potentially create new forms of control and exclusion or exacerbate existing social, political, and territorial dispossession through asymmetric relations of power and knowledge in mineral supply chains. Despite industry efforts to make mineral supply chains more sustainable by resorting to digital certification and traceability, the strategic uses of uncertainty, ignorance, and ambiguity undergirding blockchain-enabled traceability systems fail to challenge existing inequalities in resource use and access or fulfill the promise of transparency and accountability.