IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2017 - 22

On 1 September 2016, a new project
called SmartLog was launched by Kouvola [29]. It uses smart contracts built
into shipping containers, which send
location-specific information to enterprise-resource-planning systems.

ENGAGEMENT OF THE CONSUMER
AND THE PROMOTION OF
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION

IBM has developed a new
blockchain-based service
that is designed to track
high-value items through
complex supply chains in a
secure cloud system.

ConsenSys is a blockchain company that
aims to put forward a "supply circle" [30]
wherein producers and consumers actively cooperate and collaborate with local
communities, thereby giving rise to the
concept of the prosumer. A smart contract
infrastructure provides local producers
with a trustless decentralized platform
whereby they share and exchange skills,
resources, and products. Following the
recent adoption by the French Senate
[31] of a law defining a "duty of vigilance" for France-headquartered multinational corporations regarding the
enforcement of human and environmental rights by foreign suppliers and subsidiaries, the idea of blockchain smart
contracts was put forward [31] to comply
with these new regulatory measures.

through a smart contract approach,
thereby providing a replacement to traditional trade finance documents [34].
Supply chain finance (notably through
trade finance) as a discretionary variable and cost driver in supply chain
management is relatively new. Therefore, as sketched out by Saigal [35],
blockchain technology could well prove
to be the virtual locus where supply
chain finance and supply chain management will intersect in the future. A pilot
project in Dubai [36], which associates
the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain protocol and IBM's cloud-computing
resources, aims to harmonize the trade
finance lifecycle and streamline the
trade finance process within a single
blockchain-based platform.

MARKETING AND BLOCKCHAIN

CONCLUSION

Matthew Winters [33], the chief executive officer at Veoo, explains how
smartphone users have become the
principal target for digital marketers.
About 94% of smartphone users who
currently use a mobile wallet have
reported that they are likely to save personalized mobile wallet offers and coupons, while 82% think that digital
coupons are more convenient than their
paper counterparts. Because blockchain
technology ensures anonymity, promotions and discounts could be sent to
users via a blockchain-enabled smartphone application without disclosing
users' personal information [14].

We have presented how the blockchain impacts the supply chain management areas of the CE industry.
Ongoing initiatives and startups have
been introduced with potential use
cases for the CE industry. All key
indicators are pointing to disruptive
change in various industries. In all
likelihood, the CE industry will greatly benefit from blockchain technology. It is obvious that the CE industry
is taking on a new dimension with
blockchain technology today.
As explained in this article, blockchain technology has the potential to
ensure supply chain traceability and
transparency, but it does not mean that
the time is ripe yet for applying blockchain technology to all supply chain
management areas of the CE industry. A
lack of awareness currently exists
around successful businesses using the
blockchain, due to its nascent stage in
the CE industry. There are a few trial
balloons, and we are still awaiting the

ALL-INCLUSIVE SUPPLY CHAIN
AND TRADE FINANCE PROOF
OF CONCEPT
In an effort to modernize trade finance
and bring blockchain capabilities thereto, the company Skuchain [9] is implementing a service of electronic letters
of credit and scrip payables finance
22 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

JULY 2017

first success stories. In addition, in many
cases, applying blockchain technology
into any area of the CE industry requires
the full cooperation of all stakeholders,
which represents a tall order and a real
challenge beyond the mere technological viewpoint.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work of Jong-Hyouk Lee was supported by the Basic Science Research
Program through the National Research
Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (NRF-2017R1A1A1A05001405).

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jong-Hyouk Lee (jonghyouk@smu
.ac.kr) earned a Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from Sungkyunkwan
University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
in 2010. He is a security engineer, leading the Protocol Engineering Lab at
Sangmyung University, Republic of
Korea. He is an associate editor of the
security and privacy areas of IEEE
Transactions on Consumer Electronics and IEEE Consumer Electronics
Magazine. He is a Senior Member of
the IEEE.
Marc Pilkington (Marc.Pilkington@
u-bourgogne.fr) is managing director of
the Moldova Blockchain Centre,
ASEM and an associate professor of
economics at the University of Burgundy Franche Comté, LEDi, where he was
appointed in 2012. His paper "Blockchain Technology: Principles and
Applications" is one of the most downloaded papers worldwide on blockchain technology. He is also a speaker
on bitcoin, blockchain technology, and
smart contracts.

REFERENCES
[1] Digital Transformation. (2016, June).
Understanding blockchain. [Online]. Available:
https://blog.econocom.com/en/blog/understanding-blockchain/
[2] Gartner. (2017, Feb. 7). Gartner Says 8.4
Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in
2017, Up 31 Percent From 2016. Gartner.
[Online]. Available: http://www.gartner.com/
newsroom/id/3598917
[3] Transparent Market Research. (2015, May).
Consumer electronics market-global industry
analysis, size, share, growth, trends and forecast 2014-2022. [Online]. Available: http://

http://www.ac.kr https://blog.econocom.com/en/blog/under http://www.gartner.com/ http://http://

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2017