Crypto Academy Week 6 Homework Post for [@gbenga] | All About Blockchain Security 2 Power Up 100%

Hello steemians,

The blockchain presents many applications other than bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Many blockchain projects now fall outside not only the monetary framework, but also the broader financial framework. Companies are particularly interested in the possibilities it offers to improve the quality of processes within supply chains. Let's take a look at what it is today and understand better what happens to finish the homework given by our dear professor @gbenga in the sixth week.

The needs of the supply chain Industry:

A supply chain connects many players: suppliers, carriers, manufacturers, distributors, service providers, warehouses, retailers, etc. Highly complex, today's supply chains face different issues that blockchain supply chain projects tend to address.

First of all, they struggle to ensure full product traceability, lack flexibility and speed and generate numerous external costs. The problems relating to compliance with the necessary health standards, illustrated by the recent scandals that have broken out in the agri-food and pharmaceutical sectors, give rise to general mistrust in both B2B and B2C relationships, expressing this need for traceability and authentication. growing in different parts.

• The number of intermediaries involved in the international transport logistics chain to ensure product inspection is very high. This generates significant costs which could be reduced by digitizing certain steps.
• Fraud is the scourge of supply chains. By coupling the authentication possibilities offered by distributed ledger technologies with the Internet of Things, it will be possible to authenticate each stage of the supply chain, without the possibility for anyone to modify this information a posteriori.
• Supply chains mobilize a large number of players: using a distributed system like a blockchain so that they can all have access to their information is relevant, but of course the level of cooperation must be maximum.

The massive adoption of blockchain in the supply chain, however, requires two more or less restrictive conditions:

• The full cooperation of industrial and government players who do not trust each other a priori;
• The use of new Internet of Things technologies to automate the collection and recording of product data in real time.

Blockchain and Supply Chain:

The value promise of blockchains and other distributed ledger protocols is therefore very important. For this the question that arises:

How to use an open blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum to certify a digital object?

You are probably aware that these networks use a mathematical process called a hash function to write transaction data into blocks and connect all the blocks together. There are different types, like SHA 256, used on Bitcoin. This is a one-way function, that is, it is impossible, knowing the result of this function, to deduce its antecedent.

In practice, this means that after you have had a data set hash, the resulting string will not allow you to infer the original data, but will allow you to verify its authenticity very easily. Once the hash is entered in the blockchain (the block structure allows some data to be included during a transaction), it cannot be falsified. The slightest modification of the original data results in a radical change of the hash: it is therefore easy to authenticate the corresponding certificate.

Obviously, using these certification processes based on blockchain protocols is much more complex in the case of a supply chain such as that of a food group. Many algorithms and protocols must be combined; and to give digital life to objects and allow them to communicate with a blockchain or other type of distributed ledger, it is necessary to rely on a complete technological infrastructure - smart sensors, machine-to-machine communication tools, oracles, databases , etc.

VeChain Project :

Based on blockchain technology, the company VeChain wishes to digitize assets to allow better interactions between the digital and physical world. For this, VeChain offers its users the ability to track any product and ensure its traceability. This helps to promote transparency and to know where the product comes from, what are its characteristics, if it is authentic ...

VeChain allows you to record all steps, information, raw materials, etc. that are used in the manufacture of a product.

Thanks to VeChain, a product can be traced throughout its life cycle, from production to marketing. Companies or consumers will be able to consult the data of an asset stored on the blockchain and this, in complete transparency, with the certainty that this data has at no time been falsified.

VeChain is involved in 4 “markets”:

• The fight against counterfeiting.
• Follow the products in the supply chain.
• Enable the management of a wide range of assets around the world.
• Provide more information about the products to consumers.

How does the VeChain work?

Product traceability is achieved through a labeling system with a chip or code that gives a specific identity to each product exchanged (NFC chips, RFID chips and QR codes). This process allows users, for example, at any time to scan product information via their smartphone and learn all the details (manufacture, materials used, storage, etc.). VeChain could even integrate the different buyers and consumers who have owned the product over time.

On a daily basis, VeChain could therefore fulfill a multitude of functions helping consumers and producers. A customer could easily check the history of a part and find out about its origin, its production conditions or its transport conditions. In the luxury goods market, it would become easy to verify the authenticity of the article thanks to a code which would certify the quality of the product and which would be impossible to remove without damaging it.

vechain whitepaper

Conclusion :

Although it is still a developing technology and must prove itself, the supply chain will be a privileged field of application, hence the need for supply managers to master the subject in depth. It is part of the logic of dematerialization that has emerged for several years and will make it possible to manage various operations such as orders, stock management, finances, etc.

The blockchain may not solve all the ills of the supply chain, but it will undoubtedly participate in its improvement.