Chronicled Inc have successfully completed a technical pilot where it successfully showed that Serialized Global Trade Item Numbers (SGTINs) can be transferred anonymously using a cryptographic method.
SGTINs are used to identify items as they move through global supply chains made up of different custodians and legal jurisdictions.
Chronicled used an applied cryptographic verification model known as Zero Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge (zk-SNARK), which was developed at UC Berkeley and MIT. This method allows multiple independent parties to verify an item and its provenance without having to directly interact with each other or a centralised database.
As well as removing trust barriers and increasing supply chain efficiency, the company also views the pilot as a significant step towards its goal of preventing counterfeit products entering the supply chain.
No data leakage
As we have previously reported, Chronicled have chosen to focus their initial efforts on the global pharmaceutical supply chain.
The pilot allows the transfer of possession and/or ownership of SGTINs on blockchain without making company identity, shipping information and transaction volumes available to the various parties involved.
The system also utilises smart contracts to allow regulators to properly audit the history and identity of any item after the fact, without any of the parties needing to know and without having to use their own monitoring systems.
The pilot was carried out using a Parity client on Ethereum, but the system is compatible with other blockchain systems such as Hyperledger.
Chronicled CEO, Ryan Orr, said:
“Our team has been working hard on this key privacy issue, and as a result Chronicled is now the first to successfully demonstrate this cryptographically secure method of anonymous physical asset identity transfer.”
“As an immediate next step, we plan to continue to work with industry partners to implement current supply chain workflows using this technology while optimizing for volume, aggregation, returns, recalls, and performance considerations.”
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