Neo C. K. Yiu

Neo C. K. Yiu

Blockchain is a continuously developing technology that has made digital transactions and related computing operations more transparent and secure through globally distributed and decentralized management of states, as well as the strong immutability of blocks mined and transactions validated in a network enabled by the blockchain technology. This manuscript is aimed at elaborating the concept of blockchain technology alongside its coordination and implementation with other emerging technologies, such as smart contract, which works with different blockchain frameworks, as well as enabling anonymous transactions and decentralized consensus amongst different untrusting parties. The discussion of blockchain forks is also covered in this manuscript, depicting fork events created in the blockchain process, their brief history, types, and impacts upon the blockchain development and operation.

Neo C. K. Yiu

A variety of innovative software solutions, addressing product anti-counterfeiting and record provenance of the wider supply chain industry, have been implemented. However, these solutions have been developed with centralized system architecture which could be susceptible to malicious modifications on states of product records and various potential security attacks leading to system failure and downtime. Blockchain technology has been enabling decentralized trust with a network of distributed peer nodes to maintain consistent shared states via a decentralized consensus reached, with which an idea of developing decentralized and reliable solutions has been basing on. A Decentralized NFC-Enabled Anti-Counterfeiting System (dNAS) was therefore proposed and developed, decentralizing a legacy anti-counterfeiting system of supply chain industry utilizing enterprise blockchain protocols and enterprise consortium, to facilitate trustworthy data provenance retrieval, verification and management, as well as strengthening capability of product anti-counterfeiting and traceability in supply chain industry. The adoption of enterprise blockchain protocols and implementations has been surging in supply chain industry given its advantages in scalability, governance and compatibility with existing supply chain systems and networks, but development and adoption of decentralized solutions could also impose additional implications to supply chain integrity, in terms of security, privacy and confidentiality. In this research, an empirical analysis performed against decentralized solutions, including dNAS, summarizes the effectiveness, limitations and future opportunities of developing decentralized solutions built around existing enterprise blockchain protocols and implementations for supply chain anti-counterfeiting and traceability.

Neo C. K. Yiu

An interesting research problem in supply chain industry is evaluating and determining provenance of physical goods - demonstrating authenticity of luxury goods. Yet, there have been a few innovative software solutions addressing product anti-counterfeiting and record provenance of today's goods that are produced and transported in complex and internationally-spanning supply chain networks. However, these supply chain systems have been implemented with centralized system architecture, relying on centralized authorities or any form of intermediaries, and leading to issues such as single-point processing, storage and failure, which could be susceptible to malicious modifications of product records or various potential attacks to system components by dishonest participant nodes traversing along the supply chain. Blockchain technology has evolved from being merely a decentralized, distributed and immutable ledger of cryptocurrency transactions to a programmable interactive environment for building decentralized and reliable applications addressing different use cases and existing problems in the world. In this research, the Decentralized NFC-Enabled Anti-Counterfeiting System (dNAS) is proposed and developed, decentralizing a legacy anti-counterfeiting system of supply chain industry using Blockchain technology, to facilitate trustworthy data provenance retrieval, verification and management, as well as strengthening capability of product anti-counterfeiting in supply chain industry. The proposed dNAS utilizes decentralized blockchain network on a consensus protocol compatible with the concept of enterprise consortium, programmable smart contracts and a distributed file storage system to develop a secure and immutable scientific data provenance tracking and management platform on which provenance records, providing compelling properties on data integrity, are validated automatically.

Neo C. K. Yiu

Innovative solutions addressing product anti-counterfeiting and record provenance have been deployed across today's internationally spanning supply chain networks. These product anti-counterfeiting solutions are developed and implemented with centralized system architecture relying on centralized authorities or any form of 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 merely with 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. In this research, so as to facilitate trustworthy data provenance retrieval, verification and management, as well as strengthening capability of product anti-counterfeiting, key areas of decentralization and feasible mechanisms of developing decentralized and distributed product anti-counterfeiting and traceability ecosystems utilizing blockchain technology, are identified via a series of security and threat analyses performed mainly against NFC-Enabled Anti-Counterfeiting System (NAS) which is one of the solutions currently implemented in the industry with centralized architecture. A set of fundamental system requirements are set out for developing a blockchain-enabled autonomous and decentralized solution for supply chain anti-counterfeiting and traceability, as a secure and immutable scientific data provenance tracking and management platform in which provenance records, providing compelling properties on data integrity of luxurious goods, are recorded and verified automatically, for supply chain industry.