Blockchain Tokens for Agri-Food Supply Chain
by Ricardo Borges Dos Santos 1,* 
, Rodrigo Palucci Pantoni 2 , Nunzio Marco Torrisi 1
1 UFABC, Center of Mathematics, Computing and Cognition, Federal University of ABC, Campus São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo 09606-070, Brazil
2 Department of Eletrical Engineering and Computer Science, Federal Institute of São Paulo, Campus Sertãozinho, São Paulo 14169-263, Brazil
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Journal of Engineering Research and Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 2, Page # 15-23, 2023; DOI: 10.55708/js0202003
Keywords: Third Party Certification, Smart Contracts, Non-Fungible Tokens, Food Certification, Blockchain
Received: 1 December 2022, Accepted: 07 February 2023, Published Online: 22 February 2023
APA Style
Chicago/Turabian Style
IEEE Style
The aim of this research is to suggest and analyze a framework to give universal publicity to food properties certificates from any certification authorities. The focus is the certification of agro product instances, i.e. unique for every single harvest, using smart contracts and blockchain non fungible tokens minted by third-party authorities. The development and testing of a set of smart contracts used the newly established ERC-1155 Ethereum token standard to implement Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT)s. The ERC-1155 tokens allow for representing both the uniqueness, thus non-fungibility, between different harvests as well as the quantitative elements within a specific harvest, e.g. mass fractions of product from the same harvest, which can be interchanged, thus fungible. The framework was developed, deployed, and tested on the Ethereum test net blockchain and submitted to extensive testing. The blockchain data is accessible through general-purpose block scanners and can be read through an Android App used by regular consumers during a supermarket visit. The goal is to give consumers easy access to the Third-party Certificates (TPC) URLs available at the public Ethereum blockchain. The benefit for food safety of widespread TPC visibility through web applications can not be underestimated, since the use of blockchain tokens controlled by smart contracts injects trust in the traceability of the merchandise, reducing counterfeiting and green-washing. The broadcasting of the TPCs with the corresponding discipline of tokens transfer and smart contact restriction to possible abuses increases agro-food supply chain transparency. Trust and transparency foster sustainable buying habits by many consumers and transparency in the complete production and distribution links.
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