Design and development of entangled distributed ledger technology-based cloud asset management platform for cold chain logistics enabled by zero-knowledge proof

Abstract

With a forecasted compound annual growth rate of double digits, the global cold chain has reached a golden age of rapid growth, while cold chain logistics is getting more and more attention. Furthermore, cold chain logistics has benefited from the development and implementation of the Internet of Things. However, the expanding scales of such technologies and devices are also a burden for the logistics company. Hence, flexible distribution of logistics resources and proper management of the logistics assets become the distinctive competence for cold chain logistics companies.

Moreover, with the expanding consumption of cold chain products, the traceability and transparency of cold chain logistics have been attached with increasing importance. The continuous monitoring of the asset is demanded during warehousing and transportation to ensure the quality of the products. Regulation of such data is essential. However, there is currently a lack of an effective way to disclose the data in a trusted environment.

The recent emerging distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are promising in solving these problems. However, further development and improvement are required to integrate such technologies into asset management. This research proposes and develops DLT-based cloud assets, which can be ubiquitously managed and immutable to manipulations. A corresponding management framework is then constructed for cold chain order delivery. Then, the entangled distributed ledgers are designed and developed, with the assistance of the proposed entangled DLT-enabled gateway, to achieve the lifecycle management of DLT-based cloud assets. After which, this thesis also implements cutting-edge technology, namely Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP), to empower the blind verification and fair exchange of the data under distributed ledgers. Finally, a case study from a real-life cold chain logistics company is presented to verify the proposed platform.

Several significant contributions of this thesis are summarized as follows. Firstly, this work proposed the concept of DLT-based cloud assets with the general management framework that enables cloud assets with distributed ledger technologies to ensure the immutability of data and truthfulness among stakeholders. It is also migratable to scenarios other than cold chain logistics. Secondly, the entangled DLT-enabled gateway is proposed as the middleware system between the legacy system and the distributed ledgers to achieve higher levels of flexibility and compatibility while reducing integration costs. Thirdly, this research innovatively proposes entangled distributed ledgers. By design and development of the entangling mechanisms, different types of distributed ledgers are integrated to unleash strengths and avoid weaknesses. Furthermore, this research is the very first to adopt ZKP technologies into the industry, of which the practice of ZKP reveals its enormous potential. Last but not least, insights are produced from this research and the case implementations, that could benefit both academics and practitioners in future works.