Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

Sustainable Development Report: Blockchain, the Web3 & the SDGs

This is an output paper of the applied research that was conducted between July 2018 - October 2019 funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and conducted by the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and RCE Vienna (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development).Series: Working Paper Series / Institute for Cryptoeconomics / Interdisciplinary Researc

SugarChain: Blockchain technology meets Agriculture -- The case study and analysis of the Indian sugarcane farming

Not only in our country and Asia, but the agriculture sector is also lagging all over the world while using new technologies and innovations. Farmers are not getting the accurate price and compensation of their products because of several reasons. The intermediate persons or say middlemen are controlling the prices and product delivery on their own. Due to lack of education, technological advancement, market knowledge, post-harvesting processes, and middleman involvement, farmers are always deprived of their actual pay and efforts. The use of blockchain technology can help such farmers to automate the process with high trust. We have presented our case study and analysis for the Indian sugarcane farming with data collected from farmers. The system implementation, testing, and result analysis has been shown based on the case study. The overall purpose of our research is to emphasize and motivate the agricultural products and benefit the farmers with the use of blockchain technology.Comment: 17 page

Blockchain-Supported Food Supply Chain Reference Architecture

Department of Management EngineeringA food security issue increased rapidly due to numerous food frauds and tragic incidents and overall growth in the scale of food supply chain network in the last years. Since the recent evolution of Blockchain technology, it promises high potential ability to guarantee and trace the originality of products in supply chain network The main purpose of this research work is to build general Blockchain-supported food supply chain reference architecture model along with supplementary guidelines which could be applied in real-life supply chain cases with or without customization or inspire their design of supply chain system. A case driven bottom-up approach is used to create the reference architecture with the help of BOAT framework as a base tool to align the case details. A total of three food supply chain cases were utilized for the development of reference architecture and third case study of Mongolian meat trade supply chain was examined with the proposed solution and finally evaluated by the local experts. I believe this reference framework will help fellow researchers and industry practitioners to use this as a base knowledge without beginning from the scratches because current literature lacks extremely in this field. In overall, I expect this work will contribute to the current literature in the followings: 1. To expand the implementation mechanism of Blockchain solutions in general supply chain cases especially in food supply chain. 2. To provide practical exemplary implementation of real life case scenarios 3. To provide detailed analysis of benefits and weaknesses of using Blockchain in food supply chainope

Blockchain For Food: Making Sense of Technology and the Impact on Biofortified Seeds

The global food system is under pressure and is in the early stages of a major transition towards more transparency, circularity, and personalisation. In the coming decades, there is an increasing need for more food production with fewer resources. Thus, increasing crop yields and nutritional value per crop is arguably an important factor in this global food transition. Biofortification can play an important role in feeding the world. Biofortified seeds create produce with increased nutritional values, mainly minerals and vitamins, while using the same or less resources as non-biofortified variants. However, a farmer cannot distinguish a biofortified seed from a regular seed. Due to the invisible nature of the enhanced seeds, counterfeit products are common, limiting wide-scale adoption of biofortified crops. Fraudulent seeds pose a major obstacle in the adoption of biofortified crops. A system that could guarantee the origin of the biofortified seeds is therefore required to ensure widespread adoption. This trust-ensuring immutable proof for the biofortified seeds, can be provided via blockchain technology

The intersection of blockchain technology and circular economy in the agri-food sector

A transition towards a circular economy within the agri-food sector requires the improvement of efficiency in resource utilization, the prevention of food loss or waste, whilst adopting regenerative agricultural practices. In addition to the technical challenges, the agri-food industry needs to address the food safety concerns resulting from biomass recycling processes. Increasingly, blockchain technology is gaining traction, moving towards more sustainable and precision agriculture. The blockchain is a decentralized, immutable, and shared database that records the provenance of digital assets, making it a suitable platform for traceability and food supply chain management. Despite its growing importance, the existing literature regarding these themes and the empirical evidence of blockchain-based solutions for a circular economy is rather fragmented. This paper offers a scoping review regarding the role of blockchain technology in the transition towards a circular food system. A total of 44 papers published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed to identify new scientific insights into the application of blockchains within the agricultural sector. The results indicate that blockchain technology has a great potential in reducing food loss through optimized eco-efficiency (e.g., digitalization and integration with the Internet of Things) and by alleviating asymmetric information (by increasing transparency and reducing dependence on intermediaries). However, in the case of recycling efficiency, despite its potential, there remains a paucity of evidence regarding the use of blockchain technology in improving the residual valorization processes. Furthermore, there is a stream of literature focusing on the ability of blockchain-enabled traceability (e.g., for organic production or supply chain management). Yet, the role of blockchain traceability in the monitoring of risks from recycled biomass and the reporting of the sustainability performance in the supply chain has received scant attention within research literature. These results provide insights for supply chain management operations with the view of shifting towards a circular economy whilst also suggesting an agenda for future research areas