ScorpioBase: An Efficient Batched Blockchain System for Traceability Applications in Supply Chain

Blockchain is increasingly applied to traceability applications in supply chains for its tamper-proof nature, but it must also ensure the core requirements, which are efficient data storage and verifiable queries. Existing solutions create an authenticated data structure (ADS) for each tuple and use a Merkle variant on a blockchain to maintain evidence. However, consensus algorithms slow down block generation, and limited block capacity results in excessive blockchain space usage by ADS, failing to meet efficient data storage needs. In this article, we present ScorpioBase, a batched blockchain system with two components: the storage engine (SE) and the signature manager (SM). SE packages multiple tuples into a “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">batch</i>” data structure and generates a “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">batch</i>” signature. SM stores the “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">batch</i>” signature on the blockchain for evidence. Batching effectively reduces the blockchain storage burden, allowing the system to store more tuples with the same number of consensus events, thus increasing throughput. We design a fine-grained “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">batch</i>” signature to enable ScorpioBase to support verifiable queries. “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Batch</i>” signatures can efficiently verify the integrity of both the “<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">batch</i>” and each tuple within it. In conclusion, ScorpioBase supports asynchronous queries for varying security and efficiency needs and ensures robustness against malicious attacks in verifiable queries. Compared to existing solutions, it significantly improves data storage capacity and the efficiency of verifiable queries.