Abstract
This chapter will first introduce the reader to blockchain technology and the different types of blockchain systems. The underlying principle on how it achieves consensus and guarantees immutability of records in a completely distributed manner is explained. Some use cases where blockchain can address challenging issues in manufacturing environment are given. A particular use case of end-to-end track-and-trace including the manufacturing process on the shop floor is then explained, and showcased in [28] by implementing the blockchain-based track-and-trace system with Hyperledger Fabric 2.0. Additional challenges that need to be tackled pertaining to transaction speed and volume are described. To catalyze the adoption, seamless integration of different blockchain systems is needed. This will involve integrating a number of different blockchain protocols. A discussions and recommended considerations for blockchain interoperability, which allow exchange of information/tokens across different systems running different protocols are then given. Finally, this chapter ends with a summary where some of the best practices for a successful blockchain deployment are discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
It is planned to upgrade the Raft consensus algorithm to a fully byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) ordering service in the future.
- 2.
For legacy PLC systems that are non-compliant to OPC protocol, additional hardware such as IoT edge device and IoT gateway can be used to tap the relevant signals for track-and-trace and connect to the blockchain interface.
- 3.
A non-trusted connector can be used because if the connector receives a new money package (prepare package), it cannot steal as the connector does not know the pre-image of the hashed timelock. Only after the money package reaches the receiver, the receiver reveals the pre-image.
- 4.
It is only applicable for fungible assets (cf. fungible asset definition in Sect. 13.4.2.2).
- 5.
On-ledger HTLCs do not bear risk of any party not settling outstanding money packages, whereas in trustline, one party bears the risk that the other party is not settling the outstanding balance. Hence, trustlines are only suitable for trusted parties or business relationships that have other mechanisms in place to incentivise honest behavior.
- 6.
There is active development going on which will expand the capabilities of all the projects mentioned in this chapter. The reader is encouraged to cross-check the current capabilities of the mentioned projects.
- 7.
Because most public blockchains have a probabilistic finality, an atomic exchange might not be atomic anymore if the transaction was included into a stale block. The longer the private blockchain waits, the less likely it is that the corresponding exchange transaction becomes stale in the public blockchain.
- 8.
There is an alternative approach for an outside entity A to verify the state of a connected blockchain if this connected blockchain uses Merkle Trees to store its blockchain state. An outside entity A can store the Merkle Tree roots from the headers of committed blocks of a connected blockchain locally to verify any state claims about the connected blockchain. Any untrusted entity can then provide a state of the connected blockchain, such as a specific account balance on the connected blockchain, because the outside entity A can act as a lightweight client and use concepts like simple payment verification (SPV) to verify that the state claim provided by the untrusted entity is valid. SPV can be done without checking the entire blockchain history. Polkadot uses this approach in its Relay Chain and the BTCRelay on the Ethereum blockchain uses this approach as well. Private blockchains do not always keep track of their state through Merkle trees and signatures produced by nodes participating in such private blockchains are rarely understood by outside parties not participating in the network. For that reason, the design principle of Cactus is to rely on the canonical validator node signatures for verifying proofs of blockchain states. Since Cactus should be able to incorporate any type of blockchain in the future, Cactus cannot use the approach based on Merkle Trees.
- 9.
A networkwide ledger view means that all network nodes have to be considered to derive the state of the blockchain which means that it is not the state of just one single blockchain node.
- 10.
The validator nodes in Hyperledger Cactus have similarities with trusted third party intermediaries. The terminology trusted third party intermediaries, federation/notary schemes are used when a blockchain can retrieve the state of another blockchain through these intermediaries.
- 11.
There might be use cases where it is desired to duplicate a NFA on different ledgers. Nonetheless, we stick to the terminology that a NFA cannot be duplicated on a different ledger in this chapter, because a NFA can be represented as a data packages on different ledgers in such cases. Data is a superset of NFAs.
- 12.
In case of data, the data can be copied from blockchain A to blockchain B. It is optional if the data is removed from the world state of blockchain A after copying.
- 13.
The process in blockchain A and the process in blockchain B can be seen to happen consecutively in ledger interactions, as opposed to concurrently in atomic swaps.
- 14.
An action can be either a read/write transaction that is performed on blockchain A or an event that is emitted by blockchain A.
- 15.
Alternatively, any address from that asset which cannot be recovered anymore can be used. A verifiable proof for the irreversible characteristic of that address should be given.
- 16.
Bitcoin total supply only consists of block rewards. Ethereum total supply consists of block rewards of mining regular blocks as well as mining uncle blocks and roughly 72,000,000 ETH generated in the genesis block that were distributed to participants of the Ethereum presale [7].
- 17.
The terminology relay is used when a chain can retrieve the state of another blockchain through read, write, or event listening operations directly rather than relying on third party intermediaries. The terminology is also used in the central Relay Chain in Polkadot. Relays are considered more complicated to implement than trusted third party intermediaries/federation/notary schemes.
- 18.
In general, these caveats apply to any process transferring tokens/coins to another address not just escrow contracts.
- 19.
There are externally owned accounts (EOAs) and contract accounts (CAs) on the Ethereum mainnet.
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Kurniawan, E., Benda, D., Sun, S., Tan, S.G., Chin, A. (2021). Blockchain for Secure and Transparent Track-and-Trace in Manufacturing. In: Toro, C., Wang, W., Akhtar, H. (eds) Implementing Industry 4.0. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol 202. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67270-6_13
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