Improving Data Security with Blockchain and Internet of Things in the Gourmet Cocoa Bean Fermentation Process†

• Main Authors: Abijaude, J. (Author), Greve, F. (Author), Santiago, L. (Author), Sobreira, P. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Agriculture; blockchain; Blockchain; Block-chain; Cocoa; Cocoa beans; Dapp; DApp; Electronic data interchange; Fermentation; Fermentation process; gourmet cocoa; Gourmet cocoa; Internet of things; Internet of Things; middleware; Middleware; Process control; Processing properties; remote monitoring; Remote monitoring; smart agriculture; Smart agricultures; Smart contract; smart contracts; Web system; web systems; Witches' broom disease
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Brazil was one of the largest cocoa producers in the world, mainly supported by the South of Bahia region. After the 1980s, the witch-broom disease demolished plantations, and farmers were forced into bankruptcy. The worldwide search for gourmet cocoa has rekindled interest in this production, whose fermentation process is a key step in obtaining fine cocoa, thanks to the fact that many processing properties and sensory attributes are developed in this phase. This article presents a blockchain-IoT-based system for the control and monitoring of these events, aiming to catalog in smart contracts valuable information for improvement of the cocoa fermentation process, and future research. Blockchain is used as a distributed database that implements an application-level security layer. A proof of concept was modeled and the performance of the emulated system was evaluated in the OMNet simulator, where a technique based on the SNMP protocol was applied to reduce the amount of data exchanged and resources served/consumed in this representation. Then, a physical platform was developed and preliminary experiments were performed on a real farm, as a way to verify the improvement of the cocoa fermentation process when using a technological approach. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.