Blockchain and smart contract for IoT enabled smart agriculture

Blockchain

Blockchain is a disruptive technology that has been entitled as the “the most important technology since the internet itself” by an influential Silicon Valley Capitalist Marc Andreessen (Crosby et al., 2016). This extremely robust technology is well described by the naming of itself. Blockchain is nothing but a chain of connected and verified blocks where each block contains some transaction data (generally represented as Merkle tree) and the cryptographically hashed address of the previous block along with the timestamp (Zheng et al., 2017). The first block is named the genesis block. The structure of the blockchain is shown in Fig. 1.

The most popular and well-known usage of blockchain goes by the name of bitcoin. An unknown quantity of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto first published the whitepaper of bitcoin on 31st October 2008 (Nakamoto, 2008), and the first business implementation was in action in the following year. Timestamping the digital payments by the use of cryptographic hash is the paramount convenience of blockchain. On the other hand, blockchain solves some significant problems in digital payments. Double spending is the idea of spending the same digital payment token more than once. The dilemma of double spending is created by making false claims and distorting information to create a disguise (Hoepman, 2010). However, blockchain strictly handles this situation and does not allow any distortion in the data to be stored in the blockchain. This tamperproof mechanism is implemented through a distributed consensus algorithm (Nakamoto, 2008). Every transaction is validated by most of the users connected in that blockchain network. So falsifying information is nearly impossible in blockchain technology. After the first block (The genesis block), each and every block is added through distributed consensus along with the cryptographic footprint and timestamp (Nofer et al., 2017). This information is updated in every user node connected to the blockchain. So, double spending becomes infeasible with the usage of blockchain technology. Transaction in the blockchain is shown in Fig. 2.

Blockchain has specific characteristics which are not only applicable for securing digital payments but also suitable for abolishing third-party based trust models in businesses and organizations (Nofer et al., 2017). While using blockchain, third-party as a financial processor is no longer required. The process is automated through smart contracts and tamperproofed by the blockchain itself. Each transaction history is logged into the blockchain and accessible at any time in the future (Nofer et al., 2017). The research community is working on applying this technology for real-world problems that require more sophistication in the transaction and payment process. Blockchain seems to have great potential in the future of digital transactions for use cases like insurance (Raikwar et al., 2018; Lamberti et al., 2018) and banking (Eyal, 2017; Peters & Panayi, 2016). Blending real-world online payment systems with blockchain often bring about the problem of scalability in terms of the number of transactions and computational power. Studies now prove that implementing blockchain-based systems with a feasible number of payments and computational power can be done (Zhang et al., 2018) while also establishing scalability by reducing block weight and ledger size in global peers (Biswas et al., 2019). Another problem in digital platforms is the gap between payment and receiving goods or services in exchange, which is known as payment lead time. Chang, Chen & Lu (2019) showed a process of re-engineering the supply chain using the blockchain technology while reducing payment lead time in the digital payment system. Thus, blockchain presents splendid capability for online transactions in terms of security and transparency while eliminating the existing complications in digital payment systems.

Contrarily, blockchain shows immense prospect in the sectors that do not necessarily involve digital payments but uses the characteristics of blockchain, for instance, distinctions of types(public, private, permissioned), access control (centralized, decentralized), persistency, validity, identity control, transparency control(closeness or openness) and superior security (Zheng et al., 2018). A practical implementation of blockchain-based agri-food traceability has been shown by Caro et al. (2018). They showed how transparent, fault-tolerant, immutable, and audible tracing could be done using blockchain and IoT devices. Manupati et al. (2020) showed how the use of a distributed ledger system of blockchain reduces total cost as well as carbon emission in a multi-echelon supply chain. Blockchain has been used in storing and processing information. File security in the blockchain is far better than any other existing cloud storage system, while the transmission delay is significantly lower (Li, Wu & Chen, 2018). File loss rate in currently available cloud storage architectures can be up to 100%, where it is nearly 0% in the blockchain (Li, Wu & Chen, 2018). Decentralized storage (blockchain) of Interplanetary file system to store and share industrial spare parts data has been implemented by Hasan et al. (2020). Blockchain is one of the most secure ways of dealing with electronic transactions. However, the usage of blockchain in real-world systems that deal with raw data is shown by many researchers. Substantial security in the mobile cloud data of Electronic Patient Record Systems (EPRs) is shown by Nguyen et al. (2019) using blockchain technology. Implementing blockchain in real-world use cases shows excellent future potential, as discussed in this section.

The essential idea of blockchain was to create a robust online transaction system. Blockchain’s fundamental aspects have presented so many sturdy prospects of excellent technical support over distributed systems in terms of security and transparency. However, blockchain does not have an integrated system for automatically processing the data in a distributed system. We can achieve this by integrating a smart contract with blockchain.

Smart contract

With the help of blockchain, we can assuredly discard intermediaries, but the promises and trust boundaries between the contributing parties frequently present the requirement of what is called a smart contract (Macrinici, Cartofeanu & Gao, 2018). Like traditional contracts, the smart contract is also a collection of organizational terms and conditions that regulate the trust between the parties involved within the scope of that contract. The only difference is that a smart contract is coded with a programing language. The rules, terms, and conditions are implemented via controlled coding, reflecting the exact agreement approved by all the parties (Szabo, 1997).

The idea of smart contracts was there from the 1980s, but the only thing it lacked was the removal of intermediaries. Nick Szabo first published the whitepaper of smart contracts in 1996. According to Szabo,

“The basic idea of smart contracts is that many kinds of contractual clauses (such as liens, bonding, delineation of property rights, etc.) can be embedded in the hardware and software we deal with, in such a way as to make breach of contract expensive (if desired, sometimes prohibitively so) for the breacher.” (Szabo, 1996)

So, the main objective of smart contract was to embed the contractual clauses inside a combination of hardware and software so that breaching becomes difficult, and the cost of a contractual breach becomes prohibitive, ultimately increasing the safety of contracts and decreasing the possibility of an attack. The idea of smart contracts and the real-life implementation of it was popularized in 2016 by Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a decentralized Turing-complete blockchain which has integrated tools and environment for implementing smart contracts (Tikhomirov, 2017). The gap that Ethereum has filled has made Nick Szabo’s statement possible in a real-life scenario. Szabo described smart contracts as a “contractual breach cost increasing mechanism” that reflects the actual contract. As Ethereum itself is a blockchain, storing the contract inside the blockchain makes it tremendously challenging to break in and tamper with the contract. A typical smart contract building and its execution steps are shown in Fig. 3.

A smart contract, in other words, is the automation mechanism of blockchain technology. This very idea of storing the contract inside the blockchain has opened the door to several other implementation possibilities of blockchain in real-world problems. Chang, Chen & Lu (2019) uses smart contracts as their core of system design to automate the processes involved within the system. The automation includes the real-time tracing of products in a supply chain and overall control over all the steps involved. Hasan et al. (2020) integrates smart contracts in their industrial spare parts traceability research work to implement the necessary function, modifiers, and events inside their proposed system, which mainly controls the logical flows that automate the process by using the smart contract.

The essential need for trust establishment between parties can be achieved through smart contracts by securing the contract inside the blockchain (Bader et al., 2019) has proposed an implementation of a smart contract-based car insurance ecosystem named CAIPY in which the smart contracts implement step by step process of the insurance policy as well as interacts with the tamperproof IoT devices for keeping information about the car condition. Intellectual rights management can be done using smart contracts. Zhao & O’Mahony (2018) show the implementation of a music copyright management system named BMCProtector that uses blockchain and smart contracts. The smart contract in their system implements the necessary function starting from music creation till royalty distribution. As the contract has been distributed inside blockchain, it is almost impossible to break in and change it, which justifies absolute security while deploying a smart contract inside the blockchain environment (Bader et al., 2019; Zhao & O’Mahony, 2018).

Coding a smart contract often comes across some common terms like attribute, function, event, and modifier. These terms are described below.

• Attributes: Attributes are the variables which holds the values in the memory. Solidity programing language allows attributes for different primitive data types (int, char, string, double), mapping, address, and enumerators.

• Functions: Function represents a mechanism or a task inside the system. Once a function is called, the task that has been written inside the function body will be executed.

• Modifiers: Modifiers represent the access power of the actors or components. While the contract owner has supreme modification power, other actors or components can be given some specific modification or access power by the contract.

• Events: Event aids the purpose of storing anything in the transaction log of blockchain. When an event takes place or is emitted, the data passed on the event as an argument gets logged in the transaction logs of the blockchain. By this mechanism, historical data of the system is stored which can be retrieved later. This event trigger mechanism makes the system auditable.

From the above discussion about the usage of blockchain and smart contract in various fields and use cases, it is quite clear that the combination of blockchain and smart contract results in an ingenious, automated, and highly secured system. While blockchain provides a robust platform to store and track the system’s data, a smart contract implements the business logic and controls the access distribution. In our project, several necessary data come from outside the system. We intend to use IoT sensors for this purpose.

Blockchain, IoT, and smart contract for traceability and process development

A smart contract, united with blockchain and integration of IoT devices, has been proven as a smart, secure, and reliable course of action to trace and monitor over processes and operations. Without these technologies, the current scenario lacks a well-proved medium for tracing or monitoring systems while contributing significantly to the quality control and development of the process with robust security. Smart contracts have opened a door towards this development with all the necessary digital means of support intending to automate the tracing process and establish a trustless rigid contract between parties involved. One of the major drawbacks in the traditional process management and traceability is that the data can be manipulated at any stage, and there is no security that the business rules will be strictly followed in the future.

To secure data inside the blockchain, accumulation must be done in the first place. IoT devices have already been proven excellent for monitoring and collecting data with low power and minimum cost (Pavithra & Balakrishnan, 2015; Tapashetti, Vegiraju & Ogunfunmi, 2016; Baranwal, Nitika & Pateriya, 2016). Effective and cost-friendly home automation using IoT devices has been implemented by Pavithra & Balakrishnan (2015). A low-cost air quality monitor system that collects data from open-air and analyzes the data is an adequate use of IoT devices which has been shown by Tapashetti, Vegiraju & Ogunfunmi (2016). Although IoT-based devices have many issues regarding information security (Miloslavskaya & Tolstoy, 2019; Vashi et al., 2017), using blockchain as the secured backbone solves these issues (Mohanty et al., 2020).

Traceability of a supply chain or production using IoT, blockchain, and smart contracts can resolve many business processes to make them smooth and save our valuable time. The research community also has much interest in integrating those technologies to solve some life-associated problems. Kim et al. (2018) showed how to design a food traceability system using IoT, integrate with blockchain, and smart contract. Lin et al. (2018) showed how blockchain and IoT based food traceability models could be introduced in the smart agriculture ecosystem. A case study conducted by Lucena et al. (2018) shows that the grain quality assurance tracking using a real scenario with a blockchain-based business network, which will append the valuation around 15% of GM-free soy in the grain exporter business network in Brazil. Tracing supply chain or a process contributes towards the quality of management of these processes (Chen et al., 2017) proposed a four-layered architecture to improve supply chain management’s quality by adopting blockchain, where IoT devices (GPS & Sensors) are applied in the very initial layer. All these researches indicate a positive future of blockchain in the management of supply chains and processes.

The most crucial feature of blockchain is immutability, which can safeguard these accumulated data as no data can be manipulated inside the blockchain without altering the whole sequence or history (Galvez, Mejuto & Simal-Gandara, 2018; Casino, Dasaklis & Patsakis, 2019). Moreover, real-time tracing of any process can be done using blockchain (Tian, 2017). Complex and sophisticated industrial processes can be automated and tracked by real-time data using blockchain technology (Westerkamp, Victor & Kupper, 2018). Modern-day enterprises require symmetric information flow along the way, proper regulation, and availability of legacy information. To date, blockchain provides the perfect solution to these requirements (Kim et al., 2019). The advantages of blockchain and smart contracts are being applied to sectors like precast construction (Wang et al., 2020), medical services (Chen et al., 2018), and transportation (Humayun et al., 2020) sector. Wang et al. (2020) uses blockchain to improve the current scenario in precast construction where low fragmentation and scarcity of real-time data becomes a problem. They automated the data sharing process and ensured information traceability and transparency in precast construction. The research community has shown the profound prospects of blockchain ranging from medical record keeping with absolute security (Chen et al., 2018) to intelligent logistic support for transportation systems (Humayun et al., 2020).

Blockchain possesses excellent potential in terms of transparency in food-related processes (Kamilaris, Fonts & Prenafeta-Boldv, 2019). Better traceability of a food supply chain using blockchain has been shown by Wang et al. (2019). Their system implements a response mechanism for various events for an improved, validated, and guaranteed transaction. In a survey paper, Lin et al. (2020) showed how blockchain and IoT-based systems contribute to food safety, food security, food quality monitoring, and control to support small-scale farmers. Legacy information is vital for making decisions about a product as food can be categorized and sometimes prohibited for several reasons. Tan, Gligor & Ngah (2020) proposed a traceability system for halal food chains to ensure that the food processing steps follow strict measurements so that the food remains halal from frame to fork.

Quality control and quality improvement is a must for sectors like agriculture. The existence of humankind is significantly related to the sustainable food supply. The use of technologies like IoT, blockchain, and smart contracts will facilitate the improvement of the current scenario in agriculture. These improvements are inevitable to have a traceable, rigid, and secure agricultural process while gaining more control over the whole process.

System overview

We propose the usage of IoT enabled smart actors for a better mechanism of necessary data flow across the system. IoT devices will be used to monitor the quality and condition of the products stored in the large storehouses. They will also monitor and send data about the pricing of agricultural goods and services for both pre-harvesting and post-harvesting periods. IoT devices will also provide information during the cultivation process. Blockchain is used to safely store this monitored data while a Smart Contract will be used to automate the process, trigger events, and set the necessary implementation of terms and conditions for all the parties. The general system overview is shown in Fig. 4.

As exhibited in Fig. 4, the main actors in the system are the storage warehouses, supply shops, producers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. At the very beginning, the administrative body deploys the contract within blockchain network, which is marked as step 1. Then, in step 2, topic-subscription mechanism is implemented along the whole chain of storage and distribution. This enables the IoT devices to get connected to the server. In the following steps starting from step 3 and ending at step 8, data is being accumulated from IoT devices and is stored to the MQTT server while some sophisticated data is stored in the blockchain. Periodical checks are done by the smart contracts for security, traceability, and quality maintenance purpose. The system actors are connected to an Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) (Hunkeler, Truong & Stanford-Clark 2008) cloud storage by creating a topic-based subscription-publish system. The standard HTTP connection requires the establishment of a connection each time a request is made to the server, but MQTT does not require that (Wukkadada et al., 2018). As it is a topic subscription-based system, it only needs one valid subscription to the topic created in the server. MQTT performs faster than HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for IoT sensor data accumulation, and it is also lightweight compared to standard HTTP (Wukkadada et al., 2018). Our system will not store each and every data to the blockchain as there is a storage limitation in blockchain. Data, in general, will be stored and made available via MQTT servers, but sophisticated data will only be dealt with blockchain. MQTT aids the purpose of storing, sharing, and publishing data that enables aggregation of data among all the parties within our system.

System design

The system consists of actors like seed storages, supply shops, producers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. Another actor here is the contract deployer. Several components will achieve the interaction mechanism between the actors and the system. The role of each actor and components is demonstrated in the sections below.

Components

Several components will be used to implement the system requirements like immutability, availability, security, removing intermediate third-parties and automation. Blockchain, smart contract, IoT enabled environment, MQTT server is the fundamental components of our system. The components are described below.

A. Blockchain

Blockchain abets the authenticity and reliability of the system. The data accumulated in our system is primarily stored in the MQTT server. MQTT lacks security in some of its steps, where it does not encrypt the data (Andy, Rahardjo & Hanindhito, 2017). As one of our main motives for this work is to increase the transparency of the trackable data of agricultural products, tamperproofing the historical data is a must. We use blockchain specifically for this sole purpose. The diagram below (Fig. 5) shows the system interaction with the blockchain.

Several events are triggered during some essential steps of the agricultural process, and the data is logged into the transaction log of the blockchain. This data can never be changed or tampered with without breaking the chain of blocks. So, traceable data becomes secure with blockchain.

B. Smart contract

Smart contracts use a combination of attributes, functions, events, and modifiers to automate the processes and remove the dependency on intermediate third-parties. Where attributes represent storage variable, function represents the execution of a task, event represents the occurrence of selected statements, and modifier represents the authority of actors. Our system implements two smart contracts written in Solidity programing language and uses Ethereum based blockchain technology as the core apparatus of our work. The first contract is for storage, and the second contract is for distribution.

Figure 6 shows the attributes, functions, events, and modifiers that the storage smart contracts hold, possess and implement.

The storage contract (Fig. 6) automates the data collection and event logging from the storage that we store in the blockchain. The contract can self-check for the data and compare it with the optimum values. Based on the result, the contract automatically logs events inside the blockchain, securing verifiable information for future buyers and quality measurements. The second contract is used to track the agriproducts after the production. One of the major problems that our system tries to solve is authenticity in trackability data of agriproducts and making it auditable to the general customers. The second contract can also be used to monitor the pricing. In every step from producer to customer, this contract will keep track of the dates along with the price and quantity sold.

Figure 7 shows the attributes, functions, events, and modifiers that the distribution smart contracts hold, possess and implement.

C. IoT enabled environment

IoT devices, mainly low power sensors, will be used to update regular real-time data from the environment. The diagram below (Fig. 8) shows how the integrated IoT devices interact with the MQTT server and show how the published data can be conveyed or routed towards users.

D. MQTT network protocol

For fabricating a collaborative behavior among the sensors, the blockchain, and the actors, we suggest using an Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) network protocol. MQTT is a network protocol that requires minimal bandwidth and consumes very low memory. IoT devices or the sensors will read data like temperature, humidity, and light exposure from the environment, and that data needs to be shared across the whole system eventually to the users. MQTT protocol provides such functionality that enables us to do that. MQTT provides a subscription and publishes based model. The system will have several topics on the MQTT server, and the clients will subscribe to specific topics for looking into the data and publishing data frequently to the server under that topic.

Implementation

The objective of our work is to show the applicability and opportunity of blockchain in the field of agriculture while ensuring traceability. The fundamental goal of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of blockchain and smart contracts can trace the agricultural products from field level production and continue tracing until the product reaches the consumer base. The system also monitors the pricing along the process. Figures 4, 5 and 7 shows clear interaction among the system components and actors. We considered the process into segments, the pre-harvesting period, and the post-harvest period. The working procedure in both segments is discussed below.

B. Post-harvest

In the post-harvest, the system tracks all the necessary information and logs events in the blockchain. Information includes departure dates, prices along the way, and quantity in every layer that the product crosses till it gets to the retail. Tracking starts by invoking initiateDistribution() method. This method takes information like product id, name, price, and quantity. The method sets the date as the current timestamp of the block and sets the trace enumerator to the producer. Distribution starts by invoking the startDistribution() method, and the previous information gets updates accordingly while setting the trace enumerator to Distributor. The same mechanism is applied to the other layers of agriproduct supply. Figure 11 shows how every information is timestamped within blockchain.

As we can see from Fig. 9, tracing data in our system starts from the production level. As farmers sell his product, the product information and the block timestamp are stored by emitting events in the blockchain so that these data remain secure and become verifiable. As the algorithm is the same in all the steps, only the producer level algorithm (Algorithm 3) is shown below to demonstrate the process.

Algorithm 3:

Product trace initiation algorithm.

Result: Product distribution starts.

1 Only producer account can start the distribution process.

2 if caller == owner then

3   Set the product CurrentTrace enumerator to producer ;

4   Set initiation date to the current timestamp of the block ;

5   Set name, id, price, quantity to the associated variables ;

6   emit DistributionInitiate method with producer address and a message describing the product distribution starting ;

7 else

8   Do Nothing ;

9 end

DOI: 10.7717/peerj-cs.407/table-5

The below algorithm (Algorithm 3) is applied to the other layers of distributed tracing. Only the relevant data and authority changes.

Testing

We provided the system architecture, and our implementation includes the smart contract interaction with Ethereum blockchain. Remix is a web-based IDE that provides Ethereum wallet as well as accounts loaded with dummy ether cryptocurrency and the environment to write smart contracts with the help of Solidity programing language. Remix also provides us the environment to run and deploy the contract inside the Ethereum blockchain, which matches our fundamental requirements and aims. In this section, we provide a demonstration of our contracts interacting with the blockchain, and we will also demonstrate the mechanism it follows.

In the post-harvesting period, seed information is inserted into the system and, with the help of IoT devices, corresponding autority or monitoring body can check for the current status of temperature, humidity, or light exposure periodically. Based on the self-checked data, the contract calls events to store the favorable condition or violation along with their type and condition. Where type is temperature, humidity, or light exposure and condition values can be indicated as below, over, or optimum (than the threshold). The figure below (Fig. 10) shows the successful entry of a seed (Fig. 10A) and demonstration of a self-check result (Fig. 10B).

Using the addSeed() method, necessary seed information is stored inside the blockchain for a secure safeguard of legacy data. For demonstration purpose, an entry of a batch of potato seed has been inserted into the blockchain as shown in Fig. 10A. All the registered seed storages will insert seed data as soon as seeds are brought for storage purpose.

Several conditioning reason will be monitored using IoT devices. Our system implement checks for crucial factors like temperature, humidity and light exposure. All these monitored data will be stored in clouds but for establishing an absolute trust-based decision making, it is important to know that these data are not corrupted or altered or hampered in any way. So, the storage smart contract conducts periodical self-checks for this contributing factors. Self-check data is analyzed and detailed information is stored via events in blockchain. Figure 10B shows a demonstration of the contract executing a self-check for temperature.

The optimum temperature was set to 38. When the contract checks with value 40 (read by IoT devices), it finds a violation in temperature value and instantly emits the TemperatureViolation() event. The event gets logged in the transactional history along with the address(which storage) and violation information (what kind of violation).

The contract also triggers violation event whenever any violation is encountered by the system. Based on the violation type and category of violation, event are logged into the blockchain. Log data are retrievable and farmers will be able to see and make decision based on these historical data of any particular storage. Trigger testing is shown in Fig. 11A. As depicted in Fig. 11A, the violationTrigger() method successfully logged the violation of temperature attribute in the blockchain.

In the post-harvest segment, the system tracks every product by storing data in each and every step of distribution, starting from the production level to retail. These information is essential for the customers to know the origin and distribution of products before buying it. From producer to distributor then wholesaler and finally retailer, every step does a similar fashion of interaction with the system. The producer level demonstration is shown in the Fig. 11B.

As shown in Fig. 11B, using the initiateDistribution() method, the process of distribution has been started. The log shows all the data related to the agriproduct from producer level. Product id, date, price, and current trace is logged into the blockchain. All the other steps of distribution does the same thing with relevant data from the product’s current trace, finally, the product reaching to retail shops.

A. Advantages

• Authorization is never compromised. Only the person allowed by the smart contract can execute or invoke a task.

• Monitored data has been secured and solidified in two ways. IoT devices automatically push data to the MQTT server and the blockchain periodically self-checks these data via smart contract and logs every event and violation.

• Data security within the blockchain is robust. Several types of data from pre-harvest and post-harvest segments are stored in the blockchain so that they remain unchanged as any data saved into the blockchain can hardly be changed or tampered.

• Authenticity has been made sure by the smart contracts. The smart contract automatically checks values in different segments and saves the result within the blockchain.

• A central source of information is created by the use of blockchain, and everyone can check the necessary data at any time.

• A smart contract removes the intermediate processor. In agriculture, there are so many intermediate person/factors which increases the market price drastically. However, a smart contract monitors all the prices and the flow of product from one level to another.

• Every date, times, and product id are stored in the blockchain. So, authentic, traceable data ensures the consumer’s right to know about the product’s origin.

• Central monitoring organizations can use this to control market prices and also to estimate supply-demand.

• The processes are automated and robust.

• There is no third-party support needed. Only the system alone can handle all the operations without any human interaction.

B. Challenges

• If, in any step, someone does something by mistake, changing or updating data in the blockchain is impossible. Immutability indeed is one of the biggest strengths of blockchain, but unlike the traditional database systems, blockchain, due to its reliable security schemes, does not allow us to modify the data of a verified transaction.

• Smart contracts are deployed to take control of the system and automate the steps. Once deployed inside the blockchain, it can never be changed.

• The initial settings of the blockchain environment take a reasonable amount of money.

• IoT devices are vulnerable to security issues.

• Data acquisition is dependent on IoT devices. If devices get damaged, data collection or check is not possible.

C. Cost estimations

The table above (Table 2) show the gas costs of different operations within our system.