Standardization News

Certificates of Authentication for Supply Chain Documentation

New standard guide for verification of a COA used for enhancing the traceability of products through their supply chains is the first ASTM standard referencing distributed ledger blockchain technology.

ASTM International’s digital information in the supply chain committee (F49) has developed a pioneering standard guide for verifying Certificates of Authentication (COA) used to verify product-related documents through the goods movement process, incorporating blockchain technology. The new standard (D8558) is the first of its kind to reference a distributed ledger blockchain solution for this purpose.

Mike Coner, CEO of Blockticity and vice chairman of the F49.06 subcommittee, cites a 2020 report prepared by the federal research division of the U.S. Library of Congress stating that 20% of global supply chain products have altered COA paperwork. A fake document discovered during a random audit can result in fines and shipment delays. "This standard addresses this issue by using blockchain to create tamper-evident copies of COAs. This allows for quicker audits and faster inspections, ensuring that documents in hand match the original blockchain-recorded documents," Coner explained.

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