Use of Blockchain Technology to Fight Trade in Counterfeit Goods

Product piracy, which remains a major problem in world trade, affects every actor in the supply chain. In order to combat product piracy, legal and administrative measures are taken as well as measures from production to sale, while product identification and tracking play an important role. Labeling technologies such as RFID / NFC tags and QR codes are often used for this. However, data stored in RFID / NFC tags and QR codes can be manipulated. This weakness of the technologies mentioned could be remedied with blockchain technology. Based on this idea, this thesis examines which solutions can support the features of blockchain technology in the fight against piracy. In the first part of this work the reader is given a certain framework for product piracy, in the second part current measures of manufacturers against product piracy are explained. The third chapter explains the basic functions of blockchain technology. The last part describes different usage scenarios of blockchain technology to prevent product piracy. By comparing these scenarios, common and different characteristics of blockchain projects are identified.