1. Investigation of the potential of blockchain technology to create traceability and transparency along a raw material value chain
- Author
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Weimer, Lucas, Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu, Serna, Rodrigo, Jansen, Alexander, Weimer, Lucas, Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu, Serna, Rodrigo, and Jansen, Alexander
- Abstract
Due to the constantly advancing globalization, a global network of trade, communications, immigration, and transportation is emerging. Such a network offers many opportunities, but also leads to problems. One of these problems is the trade with conflict minerals. The extraction and trade of conflict minerals lead to the financing of armed conflicts, the violation of human rights or other criminal activities. To solve this problem, systems and tools are required to identify such conflict raw materials and effectively exclude them from global value chains. This thesis deals with the question of how traceability and transparency along the value chain of raw materials can be improved. In particular, the possibility of using blockchain technology will be investigated. First, it is explained why the implementation of a tool to improve traceability and transparency will become absolutely necessary in the next few years before the blockchain technology itself is introduced and explained. In the further course, the terms traceability and transparency will be examined more closely to create a clear picture of what traceability and transparency mean at all. This is followed by a presentation of existing certification schemes, which provide an insight into which measures are already being taken to exclude conflict raw materials from the global value chains. The chapter methodology explains how the work is done, what assumptions are made and what a similar solution from another industry looks like. The final part presents the result and explains how traceability and transparency along the value chains of raw materials can be improved through the use of blockchain. In addition, the result will be viewed critically and some problems resulting from this will be explained.
- Published
- 2018