Trustless Accountable Data Sharing for Supply Chains: A Reference Architecture and MoreMedDiet Proof-of-Concept
2026-08-31 • Emerging Technologies
Emerging Technologies
AI summaryⓘ
The authors address the problem of sharing sensitive data across supply chain partners who do not fully trust each other. They created a system that uses permissioned blockchains, IoT data collection, and privacy tools to let participants verify information without revealing too much. They demonstrated their approach using a project that promotes sustainable food supply chains and showed how it supports data security, transparency, and regulatory needs. Their prototype also uses digital identities and verifiable credentials to control access efficiently, achieving fast performance suitable for real-world use.
supply chainpermissioned distributed ledgerIoTprivacy mechanismssmart contractsSelf-Sovereign Identity (SSI)W3C Verifiable CredentialsHyperledger Fabricdata governancequality assurance
Authors
Michal Kit, Montassar Naghmouchi, Maryline Laurent, Badis Hammi, Hella Kaffel Ben Ayed, Mohamed Amine Hamdi, Jihene Khoualdi, Ilhem Abdelhedi Abdelmoula, Sami Sboui
Abstract
Modern supply chains are increasingly dependent on the exchange of sensitive business data between heterogeneous stakeholders who do not trust each other. %under partial trust. Conventional integration approaches typically rely on centralized intermediaries or require extensive data disclosure, which hinders collaboration, compliance, and innovation. We propose a generic reference architecture for privacy preserving, trustless data sharing in supply chains. The architecture combines permissioned distributed ledgers, IoT-based evidence ingestion, and modular privacy mechanisms to enable controlled transparency: stakeholders can extract verifiable insights and support audits while minimizing data exposure. We instantiate the architecture in the context of the MoreMedDiet project, which promotes sustainable farm-to-fork food systems and adoption of the Mediterranean diet. By mapping the MoreMedDiet use case into our architecture, we demonstrate how channel topologies, IoT-to-ledger data flows, and smart contract-based quality assurance (QA) can support secure data exchange, transparency, interoperability, and regulatory alignment. Our proof-of-concept illustrates how Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) and W3C Verifiable Credentials (VCs) can provide portable and auditable access governance over Hyperledger Fabric channels. The resulting design offers a reusable blueprint for multi-actor supply chains, including agri-food and pharmaceutical domains. Moreover, the performance achieved -- presenting a verified credential to the next stakeholder in the supply chain in 130 ms -- is promising and demonstrates the potential applicability of the approach in real-world supply chain environments.