Decentralized Accessibility of e-commerce Products through Blockchain Technology

TL;DR

This paper introduces PRODCHAIN, a blockchain framework with cryptographic processes and a novel consensus mechanism, Proof of Accomplishment, to enhance traceability and sustainability in e-commerce supply chains.

Contribution

It presents a generic blockchain solution with a new consensus process and analyzes its efficiency for product traceability in e-commerce.

Findings

PRODCHAIN improves traceability and transparency in e-commerce supply chains.

Experimental results show acceptable latency and throughput on Ethereum.

The framework supports social and financial sustainability in product distribution.

Abstract

A distributed and transparent ledger system is considered for various e-commerce products including health medicines, electronics, security appliances, food products and many more to ensure technological and e-commerce sustainability. This solution, named as 'PRODCHAIN', is a generic blockchain framework with lattice-based cryptographic processes for reducing the complexity for tracing the e-commerce products. Moreover, we have introduced a rating based consensus process called Proof of Accomplishment (PoA). The solution has been analyzed and experimental studies are performed on Ethereum network. The results are discussed in terms of latency and throughput which prove the efficiency of PRODCHAIN in e-commerce products and services. The presented solution is beneficial for improving the traceability of the products ensuring the social and financial sustainability. This work will help the researchers to gain knowledge about the blockchain implications for supply chain possibilities in future developments for society.