# Leveraging the Internet of Things and Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Management
## 6 Discussion  
Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in global supply chains and shows great potential in leveraging IoT as well as enhancing interoperability and governance of IoT devices. Supply chain exchange partners can reap many benefits from this convergence. The proliferation of IoT devices improves the connectivity within and between multiple organizations and generates a massive amount of valuable data. At the same time, firms strive to solve the issues of security, oversight, privacy, trust, and transparency between different stakeholders [130]. When operating under distributed digital ledger platforms such as a Blockchain, supply chain exchange partners will benefit from a new form of governance, enhanced information transparency and improvements in the integrity of IoT transaction data. During the physical transit of products and raw materials through supply chains, IoT devices can capture data concerning specific functions (e.g., product tracking, machine monitoring, environmental sensing) and transmit them to the Blockchain network. In turn, distributed ledgers will secure data storage and provide more oversight for supply chain exchange partners. Moreover, analytical tools can extract business insights from the data collection in real-time, allowing a business to sense and respond to supply chain anomalies more rapidly.  
Blockchain facilitates machine-to-machine interaction where sensors and IoT devices attached to machinery will be synchronized, resulting in high flexibility and collaboration with exchange partners. The importance of this new capability lies in the secure communication, confidentiality, and integrity of the exchange transactions. Users can transact with the machines directly and engage in on-demand manufacturing services by sending transactions to a registered machine [131]. Blockchain-based distributed ledgers that harness smart contracts enable the embedding of business logic covering a wide range of purposes such as payment conditions, product acceptance, smart inventory replenishment, predictive maintenance, and repairs.  
By combining Blockchain technology and IoT, exchange partners gain new and timely insights into their supply chain in real-time with more precise and reliable information about key processes, events, and product attributes--such as quality, performance and availability. This fusion of IoT and Blockchain technology can help to enhance end-to-end traceability and enable rapid recall capabilities of unsafe goods [33]. As a result, exchange partners will be informed about the products, the potential risks, and the preventive and corrective actions needed for sustaining the sufficient flow of safe products to the final consumers.  
The confluence of IoT-driven data, Blockchain technology and mobility enables physical assets to become digitally active in the various stages of their lifecycles [132]. This implies that supply chains need to adapt to new rules and forms of governance shaped by the specific features of these emergent technologies, and new regulations should be created for addressing specific situations [133]. For example, a problem of synchronization between Blockchain and IoT-sensing devices in the cold chain leaves many open questions as to who will be legally accountable for any eventualities associated with the product journey in cross-border settings. The same goes for concerns regarding smart contracts used in a Blockchain-IoT combination (e.g., reliance on \"off-chain\" resources, unintended programming errors, conflicts between jurisdictions) [134]. To summarize, in this paper, we identified various areas in which the combination of IoT and Blockchain deserves further attention. Table 2 lists the research propositions that we derived in the previous sections.