A Review of Blockchain Solutions in Supply Chain Traceability

Abstract

The supply chain plays an important role in daily life, and its traceability ensures product quality and safety. Therefore, an efficient and reliable solution to improve supply chain traceability is urgently needed. Because of its advantages of being decentralized, tamper-proof, and transparent, the emerging blockchain technology should address the problems of unreliable data and low tracking efficiency in traditional traceability systems. This paper explores blockchain-based supply chain traceability solutions, reviews recent research, and identifies challenges. First, the basics of blockchain are introduced, and the traditional traceability model and stakeholder needs are described. Then, the existing publications and enterprise applications are reviewed and analyzed in detail. Using blockchain is found to bring many benefits. It is also found that the current academic solutions are mostly based on mainstream blockchain platforms and lack specific and comprehensive evaluation. Finally, challenges and future research questions are discussed. Future research could focus on designing targeted consensus mechanisms, designing appropriate access control, the role of regulators in the supply chain, etc. This review shows that blockchain has great potential to address traceability issues, but many challenges remain.