Abstract
LRF Report Series no.2017.4
This report aims to provide a greater understanding of distributed ledgers and blockchain technologies and their underlying concepts in order to provide more clarity on the applications in which they might be used, with a specific focus on engineered systems. Several distributed ledger systems with differing design philosophies are described in order to demonstrate the range of capabilities of such technologies.
The report concludes that distributed ledger and blockchain technologies have a potentially wide range of applications related to engineered systems, particularly where a permanent and auditable record of activities is required. Examples already at various stages of development include the tracking of food products through a supply chain to provide transparency of their provenance and the verification of shipping container mass to avoid misloading of ships. Such examples demonstrate the scalability of the technology to applications, for instance, in assuring the provenance of engineering system components.
Additional information
Dr Gary Pogson (2017)