I hope this message finds you well. I am currently working on a tomato supply chain project. I am interested in deploying temperature, soil moisture and humidity sensors at three different farms, each equipped with an RPi. I would like to record the generated data on a private blockchain without the integration of an oracle for a specific time period. Is it possible to push sensor data directly to a Solidity smart contract and deploy it automatically without incurring gas fees? Additionally, is it feasible to develop a DApp to track tomatoes from seed to sale, including growing conditions (sensor data), cultivation, and harvesting timestamps? Besides the well-known coffee supply chain use case, are there any other relevant examples? Thank you for your assistance.
1 Answer
It is possible to push sensor data directly to a Solidity smart contract. You would need to have a script running on the RPi that reads data from the sensors and then sends transactions to the blockchain with this data . This can be done using libraries like Web3.js (for JavaScript) or Web3.py (for Python) which essentially acts like an oracle because you cannot add an external world data into the chain directly and whatever is used to do that is called an oracle.
On a public block chain you will inccur gas fees for every transaction you make , since you are using a private blockchain then you can always set the gas fees to 0.You can automate the deployment of smart contracts using frameworks like Hardhat, also scripts can be created to deploy smart contracts automatically when certain conditions are met or periodically
You can definitely create a DApp that can have features to track the entire lifecycle of tomatoes, from seed to sale including growing conditions, cultivation, and harvesting timestamps. Its technically feasible , but you will definitely have to count on other factors too before you create a Dapp
To speak of successfully implemented supply chain use case ,there are great examples like
IBM Food Trust : This is like a blockchain-based solution that provides traceability and transparency for food products from farm to table. I think this will be the most relevant use case for you as you are working with a tomato supply which is like also food related .
LVMH use case : The Ultra luxury brand LVMH uses blockchain to track the authenticity of luxury goods, ensuring that customers receive genuine products.It is also a kind of supply chain use case
MediLedger: This is like a blockchain network for the pharmaceutical industry that ensures the integrity of the drug supply chain and helps prevent counterfeit drugs.Again it also holds the same underlying principle
Hope this answer helps you :)
