The architectural requirements from fundamental supply chain structures.
This is a document part of the Food traceability Fund11 proposal milestone 1.
Food Traceability by Cardano Proposal funded Project Catalyst Fund 11
Derive the architectural requirements from fundamental supply chain structures, characteristics of traceability systems and available object-related traceability standards.
Cristian Rojas
Industrial Engineer, Latam Cardano Community and Intersect MBO Member , Project Catalyst Proposer crjarove@gmail.com
Architecture Development
The document’s architecture is fundamentally based on the general structure of decentralized applications (dApps). It incorporates the interaction between interfaces, smart contracts, and the underlying blockchain.
Although the literature frequently uses the terms 'smart contract' and 'dApp' interchangeably, the key distinction is that dApps include a user interface, whereas smart contracts and tokens do not. In a blockchain context, smart contracts are software scripts deployed on the blockchain. On the other hand, dApps within a dApp ecosystem include a user interface and one or more smart contracts that interact with the blockchain.Since the architecture is designed to function as a dApp that utilizes the underlying blockchain solely as an operating system, the involved parties only need a blockchain wallet and do not need to supply server infrastructure to run blockchain nodes.
The next section will first outline the architectural requirements.
Fundamental requirements that this system will need:
This document establishes the architectural requirements based on essential supply chain structures, the features of traceability systems, existing object-related traceability standards, and the limitations of current advanced blockchain-based traceability architectures. The following list outlines the fundamental requirements of the architecture:
The GS1 Global Traceability Standard outlines a general structure for traceability systems, consisting of participating parties and objects at their core. The architecture needs to reflect this fundamental structure.
Each party has a specific role in the value-adding process and must be identifiable to ensure trust. Therefore, the architecture must identify each party and clearly assign their rights.
Interconnected supply chains can undergo structural transactions at any time, so the architecture must allow for the dynamic addition and removal of certain parties.
Objects in traceability systems must be identifiable and can undergo creations and deletions, aggregations and disaggregating, transformations, and transactions. Thus, the architecture must identify each object and be able to map their related events.
In emergent supply chains, objects travel through supply chains in a non-predefined manner. Consequently, the architecture must allow objects to undergo events in arbitrary sequences.
Stakeholders must gain supply chain visibility and offer supply chain transparency.
Throughout the entire supply chain, the architecture must ensure a traceable event history spanning the entire lifecycle of objects.