Toward Blockchain-Enabled Supply Chain Anti-Counterfeiting and Traceability
Neo C. K. Yiu
Abstract
Existing product anti-counterfeiting and traceability solutions across today’s internationally spanning supply chain networks are indeed developed and implemented with centralized system architecture relying on centralized authorities or intermediaries. Vulnerabilities of centralized product anti-counterfeiting solutions could possibly lead to system failure or susceptibility of malicious modifications performed on product records or various potential attacks to the system components by dishonest participant nodes traversing along the supply chain. Blockchain technology has progressed from simply being a use case of immutable ledger for cryptocurrency transactions, to a programmable interactive environment of developing decentralized and reliable applications addressing different use cases globally. Key areas of decentralization, fundamental system requirements, and feasible mechanisms of developing decentralized product anti-counterfeiting and traceability ecosystems utilizing blockchain technology are identified in this research, via a series of security analyses performed against solutions currently implemented in supply chain industry with centralized architecture. The decentralized solution will be a secure and immutable scientific data provenance tracking and management platform where provenance records, providing compelling properties on data integrity of luxurious goods, are recorded and verified automatically across the supply chain.