Corruption in public procurement is a worldwide appearance that causes immense financial and reputational damages. Especially in developing countries, corruption is a widespread issue due to secrecy and lack of transparency. An important instrument for transparency and accountability assurance is the record which is managed and controlled by recordkeeping systems. Blockchain technology and more precisely blockchain-based smart contracts are emerging technological tools that can be used as recordkeeping systems and a tool to mitigate some of the fraud involving public procurement records. Immutability, transparency, distribution and automation are some of the features of smart contracts already implemented in several applications to avoid malicious human interference. In this paper, we discuss some of the frauds in public procurement, and we propose smart contracts to automatize different stages of the public procurement procedure attempting to fix their biggest current weaknesses. The processes we have focused on include the bidding process, supplier habilitation and delivery verification. In the three subprocesses, common irregularities include human fallibility, improper information disclosure and hidden agreements which concern not only governments but also civil society. To show the feasibility and usability of our proposal, we have implemented a prototype that demonstrates the process using sample data.

Identity is a crucial property of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Due to rapid growth and high numbers of similar devices, reliable identification of those devices is a problem. The origin and history of an IoT device is especially important in security-relevant environments. Our research addresses this issue by proposing an approach based on blockchain and decentralised identifiers (DID). It is inspired by the concepts of self-sovereign identity (SSI) and bootstrapping of remote secure key infrastructures (BRSKI). Devices are equipped by the manufacturer with an identity stored in a trusted execution environment (TEE) and secured by a blockchain. This identity can be used to trace back the origin of the device. During the bootstrapping process on the customer side, the identity registration of the device is updated in the blockchain. This process is performed by a so-called registrar. Smart contracts prevent unsolicited transfer of ownership and track the history of the device. Besides proof of origin and device security our concept can be used for device inventory and firmware upgrade. A prototype implementation was realised to validate the concept. All six use cases have been implemented and tested using an Ethereum blockchain infrastructure. JSON Web Tokens (JWT) have been used as signed artefacts to transfer information between the stakeholders. This enables an asynchronous communication needed for example in an environment with no direct internet access. Such an infrastructure can be provided by an independent association and can be used by all manufacturers. Depending on the environment a registration of devices can be optional or mandatory.

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