Auction System for Agricultural Trade Using Blockchain Technology: A Survey with Proposed Framework

Smart approaches such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are proven to be superior answers to the expansion of agriculture in terms of efficiency and safety of trade and supply. Agri-trade involves the buying and selling of products that have been produced through farming industries. Online auction is defined as a process where the buyers and sellers can come on an integrated platform and are allowed to bid in a fixed time frame. Decentralized Blockchain-based e-auction system increases auction security and efficiency and transforms the auction process by eliminating intermediaries. With centralized auction, where websites or platforms gather bids and calculate auction outcomes, it is difficult to build confidence among sellers, buyers, and auctioneers. This system lacks transparency, anonymity, and hence prove to be untrustworthy. So, a broad architecture for decentralized auctions that are used to track and trace bids to execute the transactions safely and securely between the seller and the buyers without the involvement of untrusted third parties, is needed. In this work, we give a complete overview of auction systems using blockchain technology. Then the work uses solidity-based smart contracts deployed on Ethereum test network for executing decentralized, privacy preserving auction system. This system enhances the efficiency and safety of trade and supply of agricultural products and is referred to as an Agro auction system using Blockchain. This work opens opportunities for future research to build a complete end-to-end solution for agricultural auction.