On the Blockchain Selection in Agri-Food Tracking Systems: Student Paper

In recent years, blockchain technology has spread widely in the agri-food sector. In particular, several blockchain-based tracking systems have been proposed. Most of these projects use mature technologies, such as Ethereum and Hyper-ledger. However, other blockchains were proposed recently (some particularly suited to IoT, commonly used in agri-food tracking systems). In the literature, several methodologies are proposed to guide the choice of the type of blockchain. These methodologies are generic, and a gap remains between the criteria used to guide the selection of the type of blockchain and how concrete use cases influence them. Building upon existing methodologies, this paper presents a specific approach for agri-food tracking. Once the parameters of the use case that impact the blockchain's performance have been identified, the methodology allows the association of these parameters with the criteria for identifying the types of blockchain to use (e.g., public permissionless) and the most suitable consensus algorithm. The output tuple \ [types], [algorithms], [functions]), therefore, allows the choice of the blockchain that best suits the usage scenario.