In this article, we study the performance of blockchains by analyzing the common prefix depth, chain quality coefficient, and chain growth speed coefficient. These three parameters characterize the liveness and consistency of transactions which are important for the proper operation of the blockchain. We examine how these three parameters are affected under an adaptive double-spend attack (ADSA). To maintain the performance of a blockchain against ADSA, the user nodes can use a larger number, z, of confirmation blocks for validating a transaction. A comparison of the values of z needed to achieve a given target probability of successful attack is provided for ADSA and the traditional double-spend attack with different system models. The results indicate that a larger value of z is required under ADSA. A more realistic reward model for attackers is also introduced. It is found that the expected reward of an attacker decreases rapidly to zero as z is increased.
<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Manufacturers often face capital constraints when opening up online channel, at this time external financing and internal financing are usually considered. Previous literature has shown that internal financing, turns out to be a better option. To figure out how trade credit financing discount contract affects operations and performances of supply chain, this paper studies the pricing decision of a retailer-dominant dual-channel supply chain with manufacturer's capital constraints. The Stackelberg game models under centralized decision and decentralized decision are constructed. Moreover, this paper conducts research about the effects of revenue-sharing (RS) contract, direct channel price discount (DP) contract and retail channel price discount (RP) contract on the performance of supply chain. Numerical examples are provided to explore the comparison of the optimal pricing strategies and total profits under different contracts. The results show that the retailer prefers RS and DP contracts to RP contract. Among them, RS contract has a broader scope of coordination, while DP contract can achieve a higher profit. The results can serve as insights for decision-makers to choose the most appropriate financial discount contract.
Saidjahon Hayrutdinov, Mahmoud S. R. Saeed, Azamat Rajapov
The study proposes a supply chain contractual coordination model based on the product lifecycle information sharing effort and consumers' price sensitivity to a product with the Blockchain system. This paper examined the following five scenarios: (1) centralized supply chain with Blockchain system-based product lifecycle information sharing investment; (2) Stackelberg leader retailer processed and invested Blockchain system scenario; (3) retailer processed the Blockchain system cost-sharing scenario; (4) retailer processed Blockchain system investment through bargaining the revenue-sharing model; (5) Blockchain system investment under the cost and revenue-sharing contract. The study used the game theory reverse induction method to compare the Nash equilibrium solutions under different decision-making scenarios and discussed the chain member’s constraint condition of Blockchain system investment. We simulated and analysed the products’ lifecycle information sharing effort cost factor, the influence of price sensitivity coefficient, and expected profits of the supplier and retailer. The study results show that the product lifecycle information sharing effort under the Blockchain system increases the profit of the whole chain and decreases with the increase of customer’s price sensitivity coefficient.
M. Hrishikesh, Shirohiya Mayur, Hemadri L Sidnag, B Ravishankar · 5 authors
Rural workers today are facing unemployment issues due to unorganized work sector in the construction domain. Local contractors hire these workers on a first-come-first-serve daily wage basis until they fulfill their capacity. This method has been observed to be ineffective as it depends on the demographic of the location. This paper exhibits an implement of a Blockchain network, which ensures the supply chain visibility thus, seamlessly connecting all stakeholders of the supply chain network who are a part of the Blockchain ecosystem. This paper also exhibits the use of Mathematical metrics such as the cosine similarity index which helps us determine the closeness of two or more tensors and Operations Research which help us optimize the allocation of jobs. These computations are performed with the help of the smart contracts, which are incorporated in the Ethereum Blockchain network. The transactions are later verified, and blocks are created. This approach will incorporate a trust factor in the Blockchain transactions and tackle the growing concern of unemployment in the country.
Muhammad Asif Habib, Muhammad Bilal Sardar, Sohail Jabbar, C. M. Nadeem Faisal · 6 authors
The transaction issue in the area of supply chain management plays a vital role among stakeholders. For the reasonable processes of transportation and logistics in the supply chain, the sharing of the transaction is very crucial. The current supply chain management has several shortcomings in security and trust issues in the transaction process. Therefore, information is shared on paper-based and a semi digitalizes way. In this paper, we analyze a trust issue in supply chain and design a new propose scheme based on blockchain technology for resolving the problem in the supply chain and automate the whole payment process through a smart contract. The case study based validation is performed. The result shows that blockchain improves the transaction process.
International trading is an amalgamation of confusion and misdirection when it comes to the security of documents. There are banks, insurers, carriers, freight forwarders and agents involved. Parties exchange data and documents in an isolated peer to peer manner. There is no consistent view of the process or document versions. Individual interfaces between partner systems are costly. Manual handling of paper-based documents is inefficient and delivering paper documents via expressing courier services adds another significant cost factor. Blockchain for International trading aims to establish a new level of security and transparency. This framework complements an updated IOT (Internet of Things) -based data feed structure to guarantee the reliability and security of information received and captured. Along with the replication of functions similar to that of a distributed ledger, it transforms shipping processes, enabling digital document sharing, signing and approval. In short, applying blockchain techniques result in cost savings, time efficiency, as well as the elimination of fraud and stolen freight. Through Blockchain and different Industrial Engineering techniques, we aspire on implementing the required protocols in order to optimize the process.
Blockchain technology, as a bedrock for distributed ledgers, offers a platform for innovation for a new decentralized and transparent transaction machinery in industries and businesses, and the port is not an exception. The inbuilt features of this technology enrich trust through transparency and traceability within any transaction of data, goods, services, and financial resources. Notwithstanding initial doubts about this technology, lately government and large corporations have offered to adopt and enhance this technology in various fields of applications, from social and legal industries, and finance to design, maritime and port networks. In this paper, the authors review the current status of the Blockchain technology and some of its applications. The potential benefit of such a technology in port and maritime supply chain is then discussed, and a vision for the future Blockchain ready port and maritime supply chain are proposed. The importation of containerized vehicles is used as an example to demonstrate how such technology can be deployed in a global port industry. Finally, the requirements and challenges to adopt this technology in the future in relation to, port and maritime systems are discussed.
Purpose Maritime supply chains rely on electronic and paper-based processes, leading to efficiency bottlenecks. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theory for how implementing digitalization in the form of blockchain technology (BCT) can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of maritime supply chains. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper is grounded in dynamic capabilities, supply-chain management and digital supply-chain theories. Relevant literature is scrutinized to explain how BCT can improve supply-chain performance. Findings BCT mainly benefits supply-chain performance through the development of intangible capabilities, by leveraging the capabilities (resources) that maritime supply chains provide. Research limitations/implications This framework sets an analytical basis for future empirical research on BCT and maritime supply chains. As such, it can give only indications and aid in the theory-building process. Discussion on the value and effects of BCT on maritime supply chains is ongoing. Finally, the framework focuses on the application of one information technology in managing logistics activities, rather than taking a bundling approach. Practical implications Investments in digitalization improve the overall information sharing, coordination and visibility capabilities and performances of supply chains. Originality/value Although literature on BCT is extensive, this framework paper is the first to link BCT with dynamics capabilities and maritime supply-chain theory and will serve as a road map for future research and practice.
In this paper, a Blockchain-driven platform for supply chain finance, BCautoSCF (Zhi-lian-che-rong in Chinese), is introduced. It is successfully established as a reliable and efficient financing platform for the auto retail industry. Due to the Blockchain built-in trust mechanism, participants in the supply chain (SC) networks work extensively and transparently to run a reliable, convenient, and traceable business. Likewise, the traditional supply chain finance (SCF), partial automation of SCF workflows with fewer human errors and disruptions was achieved through smart contract in BCautoSCF. Such open and secure features suggest the feasibility of BCautoSCF in SCF. As the first Blockchain-driven SCF application for the auto retail industry in China, our contribution lies in studying these pain points existing in traditional SCF and proposing a novel Blockchain-driven design to reshape the business logic of SCF to develop an efficient and reliable financing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the auto retail industry to decrease the cost of financing and speed up the cash flows. Currently, there are over 600 active enterprise users that adopt BCautoSCF to run their financing business. Up to October 2019, the BCautoSCF provides services to 449 online/offline auto retailors, three B2B asset exchange platforms, nine fund providers, and 78 logistic services across 21 provinces in China. There are 3296 financing transactions successfully completed in BCautoSCF, and the amount of financing is ¥566,784,802.18. In the future, we will work towards supporting a full automation of SCF workflow by smart contracts, so that the efficiency of transaction will be further improved.
Blockchain technology has received significant attention recently, as it offers a reliable decentralized infrastructure for all kinds of business transactions. Software-producing organizations are increasingly considering blockchain technology for inclusion into their software products. Selecting the best fitting blockchain platform requires the assessment of its functionality, adaptability, and compatibility to the existing software product. Novice software developers and architects are not experts in every domain, so they should either consult external experts or acquire knowledge themselves. The decision-making process gets more complicated as the number of decision-makers, alternatives, and criteria increases. Hence, a decision model is required to externalize and organize knowledge regarding the blockchain platform selection context. Recently, we designed a decision support system to use such decision models to support decision-makers with their technology selection problems in software production. In this article, we introduce a decision model for the blockchain platform selection problem. The decision model has been evaluated through three real-world case studies at three software-producing organizations. The case-study participants asserted that the approach provides significantly more insight into the blockchain platform selection process, provides a richer prioritized option list than if they had done their research independently, and reduces the time and cost of the decision-making process.
In the past, it was difficult to check, identify, and trace product quality. Quality violation regularly takes place when consumers know product quality is overstated. In this paper, we examine the motivation for and implication of a supply chain that adopts blockchain technology to improve product quality in supply chains. We build up a stylish model in which a two-echelon supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer. The manufacturer decides whether or not to adopt blockchain and the retailer sells products to consumers. Our results imply that the manufacturer always provides a low-quality product without blockchain but when the quality-cost ratio is sufficiently high with the affordable blockchain adoption cost, blockchain technology could encourage the manufacturer to produce high-quality products.
Sen Liu, Yanan Hu, Xiao Zhang, Yanfeng Li · 5 authors
The emergence of blockchain technology has significantly changed the underlying infrastructure of existing information technology and will fundamentally affect the production modes of enterprises. However, because the application of blockchain is still in its infancy, it is difficult for an enterprise to develop a comprehensive assessment of various types of blockchain service providers in the market. Hence, enterprises need scientific decision tools to estimate which blockchain service provider is appropriate. However, few studies have focused on this phenomenon. Therefore, to address this challenge, this investigation proposes a novel integrated multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) method to help enterprises estimate which blockchain vendor is more appropriate by considering more comprehensive influence factors. The proposed method is defined in an intuitionistic fuzzy environment and integrates entropy and the best-worst method (BWM) for comprehensive weighting of decision makers (DMs), subjective criteria and objective criteria in the decision-making process to make the decision results more reliable and reasonable. A numerical example and comparison are provided to illustrate the practicability and usefulness of the method. This study enriches the theory and methodology of blockchain technology and MAGDM analysis.
Reda Moulouki, Dominique Bernard Kanga, Taif Fatima, Mohamed Azouazi
Rising global costs and the fragmented nature of the healthcare supply chain creates several challenges. The healthcare industry needs efficient solutions that can streamline supply chain operations and processes in a cost- effective manner. Leading healthcare players are exploring blockchain technologies to achieve efficiencies and gain better control over their supply chains. In this paper, we present the current state of the subject and summarize the benefits and the challenges of the distributed organization and management of supply chains management. Focusing on healthcare, and we discuss the applicability of blockchains in the supply chain domain in the healthcare.
Blockchain is a distributed open (Public) ledger that is used to record the transaction across many computers. Blockchain technology can be applied in any domain such as banking, healthcare, real estate, travel, food, and supply chain. In supply chain management to train the self-driving vehicle in blockchain technology also integrate the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Algorithms. In this paper we have proposed Reinforcement learning integrated heuristic search method (RLIH) for self-driving vehicle using blockchain in supply chain management by combining the advantage of reinforcement learning and heuristic search method. RLIH is developed using Decentralized app and result shows that proposed method outperform the existing heuristic search method in term of service time and data traffic.
Juan Ignacio Ibañez, Chris N. Bayer, Paolo Tasca, Jiahua Xu
During the last half century, the concept of shared ledger systems that offer a single source of truth has challenged traditional bookkeeping, leading to innovations such as the resource-event-agent (REA) accounting framework, triple-entry accounting (TEA), and blockchain. Despite these advancements, the historical development of shared ledger systems remains under-researched and unclear, with the influence of REA on TEA particularly overlooked. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting a genealogical analysis of shared ledger systems, with a focus on tracing the development of TEA and its historical byproduct of the REA framework designed by McCarthy. Through a comprehensive literature review and interviews with pioneers in REA, TEA, and blockchain, we uncover the missing link between REA and TEA. Our findings suggest that the current explosion of shared ledger systems results from the convergence of three parallel research streams, occasionally interacting with each other. We correct common misconceptions, acknowledge the influence of key individuals, and map out the overlapping paths of REA, TEA, and blockchain. By elucidating the historical evolution of shared ledger systems, this study contributes to the academic debate and fosters further discourse among researchers in REA, TEA, and blockchain, thereby enhancing the potential applications within these fields.