A blockchain-based confidentiality-preserving approach to traceability in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 involves major changes in manufacturing process management. Both the Internet of Things and cloud computing allow online interactions between third parties, such as providers, customers and suppliers, with the traceability system of a factory. Several blockchain-based approaches have been proposed to increase confidence in traceability data and reinforce trust. However, the transparency brought may be at the cost of risks to factory's confidential data exposure. This paper investigates the way these critical data, which are necessary to post-assembly audit, could be included into traceability data, and validated through the related transactions by the third parties, without compromising their confidentiality. Accordingly, this proposal includes the description of a blockchain-based traceability system and its implementation using the Multichain platform. In addition to its confidentiality-preserving feature, we discuss the way energy consumption and storage volume induced could be managed so as to favor its effective adoption by manufacturing factories.