Platform as Service Technologies for High-performance Blockchain-based Supply Chain Management Systems

China is one of the most important markets for Norwegian fish exports to consumers and for processing and redistribution. Regulations for international trade are continuously changing. Whereas in the past, problems were related to taxes and tariffs, today, they are more about sustainability, safety, quality, and fish health. This increased regulation comes with added complexity, where other national laws are not necessarily compliant with Norwegian legislation, leading to challenges concerning the interoperability of ICT systems of actors working in China and Norway's very different regulatory environments. To be prepared for future regulations and provide traceability throughout the cold chain, the PaaSforChain project focuses on studying how to track the fish from haul to table because there are problems regarding the traceability of physical, perishable goods where not all partners trust each other. For instance, there have been fraud cases where fish has been replaced or injected with foreign additives, so frequent manual controls have been deemed necessary. Moreover, during transportation and storage, the fish can be exposed to quality degradation through repeated defrosting cycles. To address these problems, we will utilize blockchain technology to securely store data such as certificates, fish quality information, and sensor data. The blockchain will coexist with databases to support the continuous streaming of data to utilize the best of both worlds. The platform interoperability developed in this project will collect both inter- and intra-markets in a transparent tracking platform of perishable goods. The project is jointly financed by the Research Council of Norway and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China via the Chinese-Norwegian Collaborative Projects on Digitalization. The project coordinator in Norway is the computer science department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The project partners in Norway are SINTEF Digital, DNV GL (renamed DNV in March 2021), and Hermes AS. The project coordinator in China is Nanjing University. The Chinese partners are Southeast University, Tsinghua University, Xinghuan (later renamed Transwarp Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.), and Nanjing Zhongcheng Blockchain Research Institute. As a Norway-China collaborative project, the project also aims to foster closer communication and integration between Norwegian and Chinese companies and societies via exchanging ethical, legal, cultural, and social perspectives. Technologies and knowledge nurtured from this project aim to significantly facilitate bilateral trade between Norway and China. The project has produced over 30 scientific papers and several patents covering blockchain’s impact on sustainability, blockchain application architecture, security and privacy assurance of blockchain application codes, high-performance data management and analysis, and consensus algorithms applicable in unstable network environments. One of the essential innovation results expected from the project is a high-performance blockchain-based supply chain prototype to support seafood export from Norway to China. The project team has researched and implemented the prototype using state-of-the-art blockchain technologies. To communicate and disseminate the project results, besides the scientific publications in journals and presentations at academic conferences, the project teams promoted project results through the website (https://www.ntnu.edu/paasforchain) and YouTube videos. The project team has organized the Trondheim Open Blockchain Meetup every year since 2020. The Meetup already has 120 members. The team also presented the project results at the Nor-fishing Exhibition 2022 in Trondheim, the BlockMatNet (Blockchain Network for the Norwegian food industry) workshop in Tromsø in 2023, demonstrated the prototype at the 5th Shenzhen International Fisheries and Seafood Exhibition in 2023 in China, the WorldSeafood Shanghai 2023, and the IEEE Blockchain 2023 conference. The project’s achievements are known to the industry. NTNU is invited to join a consortium to apply for EU Digital research funding and gets granted the TRACE4EU project https://trace4eu.eu/, in which the blockchain technologies will be used to trace seafood (e.g., red king crab) supply chain. SINTEF and Hermes are part of the EU-co-funded WATSON project (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101084265), continuing the work of using blockchain in fishery supply chains to increase transparency and reduce fraud. The project has educated many Master students, Ph.D. candidates, and postdoc fellows. The research relationship established between industrial and academic partners and between partners across the border will open opportunities for long-term collaborations in future projects.

The project has developed a blockchain-based application prototype based on Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, Vechain, and BitXHub technologies. The application can store the data related to the seafood supply chain from haul to table. Through the enhanced traceability and security enabled by blockchain technologies, the application will positively impact food safety, quality, and sustainability, provide more business opportunities, increase international trade, and create greater income growth and job creation. The project has produced over 30 scientific papers and several patents covering blockchain’s impact on sustainability, blockchain application architecture, security and privacy assurance of blockchain application codes, high-performance data management and analysis, and consensus algorithms applicable in unstable network environments. The new knowledge, methods, tools, and innovations will significantly advance blockchain technologies in theory and practice . A suitable data collection approach along the length of thefull supply chain reveals valuable details. Blockchain technologies make the data immutable and ensure ownership, cybersecurity, proof, and trust of quality for consumers. The project has communicated and disseminated the project results at several industrial and academic venues, including the Nor-fishing Exhibition 2022 at Trondheim, the BlockMatNet (Blockchain Network for the Norwegian food industry) workshop in 2023 at Tromsø, the 5th Shenzhen International Fisheries and Seafood Exhibition in 2023 in China, the WorldSeafood Shanghai Exhibition 2023, and IEEE Blockchain conference 2023. The project has also organized the Trondheim Open Blockchain Meetup every year since 2020. The project results are also communicated through videos on YouTube and the project’s websites in Norway and China. The communication and dissemination activities will raise interest, awareness, and knowledge of using blockchain in supply chain management and other relevant application domains. A follow-up EU Digital project, TRACE4EU (https://trace4eu.eu/), will exploit knowledge, technology, and tools rooted in this project to develop, integrate, and deploy seafood supply chains based on the European blockchain services infrastructure (EBSI). Another follow-up EU project, Watson (https://watsonproject.eu/), where Hermes and SINTEF are partners, will focus on how these technologies can detect or prevent food fraud and increase food safety. These exploitations will mature the technologies developed and pave the way for applying them in business. The project advanced the knowledge and competence of several researchers and educated Master students, Ph.D. candidates, and postdoc fellows. The partners increased mutual understanding through joint research and development in the project. Friendship will open opportunities for long-term cross-domain, cross-sector, and cross-border collaborations.

Seafood exporting from Norway to China is increasing rapidly. The seafood supply chains, like many other supply chains across countries and organizations, are often opaque and complex. Information is maintained in silos by separate supply chain actors in such a way that it is virtually impossible to fully or effectively trace a product from its origin to its fate. This obscured supply chain ecosystem allows some actors to access and exploit those supply chains without being subject to recognized legal and ethical standards. Distributed databases cannot solve this issue as records can be deleted, changed, and logs concurrently modified to reflect the manipulated values. Blockchain could boost the transparency of the aquaculture sector by providing a means to trace and record the entire supply chain. Current blockchain technologies focus mostly on FinTech or on simple supply chain. They are insufficient and immature to track perishables across large geographical expanses and across multiple countries and organizations. Different countries and organizations may use different blockchain technologies, follow different security and privacy regulations and standards, their systems may mismatch, and their operations may happen in an unstable network environment. We will address the challenges from architecture, security and privacy, high-performance data management, and consensus algorithm perspectives. We will use the seafood supply chain as a case study to implement a blockchain-based supply chain application prototype. We will provide guidelines, methods, and tools for developing interoperable, secure, and high-performance supply chain applications. Part of our code will be Open Source to facilitate uptake of the results. Results will advance blockchain technologies and will accelerate sustainable and ethical trade between Norway and China. We estimate that the application of the results can bring 750 million NOK extra income per year for Norway.