QHB-DA: A Quantum Hybrid Blockchain-Based Data Authenticity Framework for Supply Chain in Industry 4.0

In the landscape of Industry 4.0, enhancing data traceability across the supply chain is imperative. With the development of quantum computers, blockchains traditionally used for traceability struggle to guarantee the authenticity of data. Furthermore, only chained blocks have been used in previous traceability systems, which has resulted in a full backup for each business unit in the supply chain, wasting storage resources significantly. Another problem is that there are differences in the data structure and consensus mechanisms of each unit, which makes maintenance difficult. To address these problems, it is encouraging to create a new blockchain with high scalability and resistance to quantum attacks. This article innovatively proposes a quantum hybrid blockchain (QHB)-based data authenticity framework (QHB-DA) with five layers, which not only accomplishes traceability, but also has assurance that data can withstand verification. In QHB-DA, blockchain utilizes a combination of directed-acyclic-graph and chained structures to reduce data redundancy, in which quantum hashes are performed to connect blocks. Algorithms ED-QKD and D2B-QSC are designed to keep the information from being leaked during transmission and format conversion. Through cost-benefit analysis, security analysis and empirical experiments, feasibility of quantum hashing and the attack resistance of the QHB-DA are demonstrated, which can reduce storage wastage and completely implement the data authenticity.