The design of an open, secure and scalable blockchain-based architecture to exchange trade documents in trade lanes

Abstract

Customs authorities are responsible for secure cross-border activities and collection of duties. To that extent, customs authorities perform risk assessment. The customs declaration on which risk assessment is based often lacks detailed data or is incorrect. Therefore, customs authorities are in need of new ways to improve risk assessment. One way to improve risk assessment is exchange of other trade documents (e.g., Bill of Lading or pro forma invoice) the customs declaration is based on. The documents can be used for piggybacking that involves the cross-validation of documents to determine correctness of the declaration. Blockchain technology can in potential support exchange of trade documents. However, challenges related to openness, security and scalability need to be addressed to come up with effective solutions. Therefore, this research develops an open, secure and scalable blockchain-based architecture that supports exchange of trade documents. Using a Design Science Research approach, several use cases to exchange documents are developed, requirements based on previous research on the exchange of trade documents (e.g., data pipeline concept) are derived, core blockchain architecture components are derived and a design that support the use cases is developed. The research finds that a open, secure and scalable blockchain-based architecture can support exchange of trade documents. However, slight differences in the design of each use case show that blockchain technology is not a black box. Generalization is therefore not straightforward. In-depth analysis of use cases is needed to come up with effective solutions. Future research should focus on the development of a Proof-of-Concept of the blockchain-based architecture design to test whether actual exchange of trade documents is supported.