Decentralized Anti-Counterfeit Tracking With Single-Use Codes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Centralized anti-counterfeit solutions in supply chain tracking are vulnerable to single points of failure and lack transparency, making it difficult for consumers and producers to trust the authenticity of products, particularly in decentralized supply chains.
Innovation Solution
A decentralized anti-counterfeit system using single-use codes, where secret codes are packaged with products in tamper-evident packaging, encrypted, and recorded on a decentralized database like blockchain, enabling verification through one-way encrypted codes to authenticate product ownership.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If centralized anti-counterfeit solutions are used for supply chain tracking, then product authentication can be performed, but the system becomes vulnerable to single points of failure and lacks transparency
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the centralized authentication authority into multiple independent decentralized nodes (blockchain participants). Each node maintains its own copy of the product authentication records, eliminating the single point of failure while maintaining authentication capability through distributed consensus.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates multiple copies of the authentication ledger across different blockchain nodes. Instead of relying on a single centralized database, the authentication records are replicated and stored across the decentralized network, ensuring continuity even if individual nodes fail.
2Device complexity
If centralized databases are used to store product information, then data management is simplified, but transparency and trust among supply chain participants are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain system provides transparent feedback to all supply chain participants about product authentication status, ownership history, and verification results. This public ledger mechanism ensures that information is not lost or hidden, but rather shared openly across the decentralized network.
Solution Approach 2:
The decentralized database serves multiple functions simultaneously: it stores product authentication records, maintains ownership history, enables verification queries, and provides audit trails. This multi-functionality is achieved through a single universal blockchain ledger that all participants can access and verify.
3Reliability
If single-use codes are implemented for product authentication, then counterfeiting is prevented, but the verification process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces complex mechanical verification mechanisms with cryptographic hashing and blockchain verification. The one-way encrypted codes use cryptographic functions to create unique identifiers that can be verified through mathematical operations on the blockchain, eliminating the need for complex physical verification systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements single-use authentication codes that are discarded after verification. Each code is designed to be used once and then invalidated, preventing reuse by counterfeiters. The disposable nature of these codes simplifies the verification process while maintaining high security, as each code has a limited lifecycle.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for providing a decentralized anti-counterfeit solution for supply chain tracking are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: electronically store a product identifier that identifies a physical product; generate a secret code that is packaged with the physical product in a tamper-evident manner; generate a one-way encrypted code based on the secret code and the product identifier; create an asset that includes code executable by a decentralized database; record the asset on a decentralized database; record the one-way encrypted code in the asset; receive a request for verification regarding a given physical product; generate a given one-way encrypted code based on the request; determine whether the given one-way encrypted code is a match of the one-way encrypted code as recorded in the asset; responsive to a match, return a notification to the given user and remove the one-way encrypted code from the asset.