TrustChain: Trusted Blockchain-Based System for Supply Chain Traceability

Abstract

Counterfeit products pose a significant threat to consumers, businesses, and industries. Existing traditional anti-counterfeiting measures are ineffective. In this article, we propose TrustChain as a generic decentralized system that utilizes blockchain technology and decentralized storage systems to enhance product authenticity, traceability, and transparency in the supply chain process. Our system can offer companies and consumers a secure and transparent way to trace the source and history of products, promoting trust and reducing the negative consequences of counterfeit products in various industries. We implement the TrustChain system as a decentralized mobile application running on Android operating systems, integrating barcode technology to store and trace the history of products. We utilize the Ethereum Sepolia test network and develop a Solidity smart contract to facilitate the main activities in the system, including adding new products, transferring the ownership of existing products, and viewing the entire supply chain history of such products. We conduct an extensive evaluation to test the system functionalities and to ensure the lack of bugs and vulnerabilities in the developed smart contract. Our evaluation also estimates the cost associated with smart contracts and decentralized storage.