# A Traceable and Verifiable Tobacco Products Logistics System with GPS and RFID Technologies
###### Abstract  
Tobacco products are an addictive commodity. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest statistics data, tobacco kills more than eight million people each year. In 2003, the WHO proposed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to provide an effective framework for the control of tobacco products to governments around the world. In the field of tobacco products, the hardest problem is how to prevent counterfeit tobacco products and smuggling. To solve the problems, we proposed a blockchain-based traceable and verifiable logistics system for tobacco products with global positioning system (GPS) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) Technologies. In this research, we provide an overview of system architecture, and also define the protocol and the smart contract in every phase that stores data into the blockchain center. We realized a decentralized database and authentication system that uses blockchain and smart contract technology; every protocol in every phase was designed to achieve the integrity of data and non-repudiation of message. Every tobacco product's shipping record will be completed by scanning the RFID tag and retrieving the GPS with a mobile reader, where the record will be updated and validated in the blockchain center. In the end, the security and costs of the system were analyzed, and a comparison was made with the EU's (European Commission) method. Our system is more flexible for transportation, more secure in the communication protocol, and more difficult to tamper and forge data. In general, the proposed scheme solved the problem of tobacco products counterfeiting and tracking issues. today 2021 25 May 2021  
seven million people deaths because of direct tobacco use and 1.2 million non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke [2]. In 2003, the WHO published the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which provides price and tax measures and non-price measures to reduce the demand for tobacco products [3]. In these decades, many countries worldwide are constantly following the framework established by the WHO, especially by raising the tax rate of tobacco products. Because of the increase in tax rates, the price of tobacco products to the consumer has also increased. Most of the manufacturers or retailers do not report the actual sales volume to the government to more profit, which means that more and more smuggled tobacco products are sold on the market. Smuggled tobacco products cannot be controlled and certified by the government, and there may be elements in the product that affect human health more [4]. In addition, the government has the responsibility to care nation's health as well as the responsibility to eliminate the smuggled tobacco products. Recently, to eliminate smuggled products, the European Commission has worked out the mechanisms of tobacco product tracking [5]. In addition, the United States' FDA also regulates tobacco products with strict standards [6]. To track and identify products, we need a data carrier along with sticks or prints on the package of products. The most common and simple data carrier on the market is the barcode, which include one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. GS1 is the largest not-for-profit organization [7], and they developed the global standards for barcodes, so that the standards can be universally used all over the world. Barcodes have many limitations that make them unsuitable for logistics tracking such as easy to damage, easy to copy, easy to decode, and they must be scanned individually. Because of these shortcomings, other options have to replace the barcode in the next technology, which is radio-frequency identification (RFID). RFID is a technology that is able to store and retrieve data in the RFID tags, so is the best method to use in supply chains [8,9]. RFID accelerates the speed of inventory, and it is more convenient to calculate the total amount of incoming and outgoing logistics.