DESIGNING THE ARCHITECTURE AND SOFTWARE COMPONENTS OF THE DOCKERISED BLOCKCHAIN MEDIATOR

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises are not adopting blockchain solutions in their supply chains and business processes due to the cost of implementing and deploying the solutions.  The architecture, which is described, is aimed at lowering the barrier for smaller-scale businesses to adopt distributed technologies in their supply chains.  Docker’s containerization capabilities are leveraged to achieve these goals due to improved horizontal scaling and providing a unified environment for the application deployment. This architecture leverages tools provided by the Docker to design scalable and robust system that is easily maintainable. Some of the key challenges are addressed by the proposed architecture, such as high development costs, incompatibility with existing systems, and complicated setup processes, which are required for every participant in the supply chain. This research describes how utilizing Docker system capabilities can help enable smaller-scale businesses to adapt distributed solutions in their supply chains and cooperation with other companies by tackling the issues of traceability, transparency, and trust.  The main components of the architecture are a mediator server containerized within a Docker network, a blockchain node, and an NGINX proxy server container. They are implemented to process request data, store relevant information, and secure it on the Ethereum blockchain ledger. The proposed architecture is also aimed at integrating smoothly with existing company applications to reduce adoption costs. Security of the data in the Ethereum ledger is achieved via security measures such as cryptography mechanisms and hashing already integrated into the Ethereum platform.