Reducing Product Counterfeiting Using Blockchain Technology in E-Commerce Business

Due to the lack of traceability and proper authentication process, product counterfeiting is one of the main challenges in supply-chain management. In e-commerce business, merchants act as the central and only single controlling authority which leads to less trust and transparency. This creates a chance of product counterfeiting which can be reduced using blockchain with other supporting technologies. As products are delivered in multiple channels through many hands, there needs to be a way to identify original products and a proper product handover process. Many technologies are introduced to combat product counterfeiting such as barcode, QR code, NFC tag, hologram, etc. But these technologies are either expensive or lack full proof of product counterfeiting. Our research shows that a combination of destructible dynamic QR code, product location tracking along with blockchain technology can greatly reduce product counterfeiting in the e-commerce business. This paper proposes a novel approach of a product authentication system where a blockchain-based web application and a mobile application are introduced instead of a traditional product authentication system. Our evaluation shows that using this system, a consumer can easily identify whether a product is counterfeit or not.