Systems and methods for robust protection of item authentication, tracking and tracing against tag duplication

1. A method for facilitating tag authenticity validation, comprising:

detecting a tag's arrival or presence at a waypoint along a supply chain path;

obtaining, by a processor, a ChainStart Value and a first ChainEnd Value from the tag;

generating, by the processor, a first key pair comprising a public key and a private key;

transforming, by the processor, the first ChainEnd Value into a second ChainEnd Value using the private key;

storing in a data store at least a hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the second ChainEnd Value, and the public key as a transaction record entry;

causing the first ChainEnd Value of the tag to be replaced with the second ChainEnd Value; and

validating the tag's authenticity at a second waypoint along the supply chain path using at least the tag's ChainStart Value, the tag's second ChainEnd Value, and a first transaction record entry comprising the hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the second ChainEnd Value and the public key.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is disposed in at least one of the tag, a tag reader/writer device, or a computing device remote from the tag and the tag reader/writer device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second ChainEnd Value comprises the first ChainEnd Value signed with the private key.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the validating comprises using the public key to un-sign the second ChainEnd Value to obtain a previous ChainEnd Value.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the tag's authenticity is incrementally validated when the previous ChainEnd Value matches the first ChainEnd Value contained in the another transaction record entry.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the method is repeated until no further matches are found among one or more transaction record entries creating a chain of linked transaction records.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first waypoint is a first intermediary waypoint along the supply chain path.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

detecting the tag's arrival or presence at a second intermediary waypoint along the supply chain path;

obtaining the ChainStart Value and the second ChainEnd Value from the tag;

generating a second key pair comprising a public key and a private key;

transforming the second ChainEnd Value into a third ChainEnd Value using the private key of the second key pair;

storing in the data store at least the hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the third ChainEnd Value, and the public key of the second key pair as a second another transaction record entry; and

causing the second ChainEnd Value of the tag to be replaced with the third ChainEnd Value.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the third ChainEnd Value and the second another transaction record entry are also used to validate the tag's authenticity.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the transaction record entry further comprises a transaction block and a hash of the transaction block signed by the first private key.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the tag is a wired or wireless communications enabled tag, a printed barcode, an etched barcode, or an allocation of memory in a digital device.

12. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to implement a method for facilitating tag authenticity validation, wherein the programming instructions comprise instructions to:

detect a tag's arrival or presence at a waypoint along a supply chain path;

obtain a ChainStart Value and a first ChainEnd Value from the tag;

generate a first key pair comprising a public key and a private key;

transform the first ChainEnd Value into a second ChainEnd Value using the private key;

store in a data store at least a hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the second ChainEnd Value, and the public key as a transaction record entry;

cause the first ChainEnd Value of the tag to be replaced with the second ChainEnd Value; and

validate the tag's authenticity using at least the tag's ChainStart Value, the tag's second ChainEnd Value, and a first transaction record entry comprising the hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the second ChainEnd Value and the public key.

13. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the processor is disposed in at least one of the tag, a tag reader/writer device, or a computing device remote from the tag and the tag reader/writer device.

14. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the second ChainEnd Value comprises the first ChainEnd Value signed with the private key.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the tag's authenticity is incrementally validated by using the public key to un-sign the second ChainEnd Value to obtain a previous ChainEnd Value.

16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the tag's authenticity is validated when the previous ChainEnd Value matches the first ChainEnd Value contained in the another transaction record entry.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the method is repeated until no further matches are found among one or more transaction record entries creating a chain of linked transaction records.

18. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the first waypoint is a first intermediary waypoint along the supply chain path.

19. The system according to claim 18 , wherein the programming instructions comprise instructions to:

detect the tag's arrival or presence at a second intermediary waypoint along the supply chain path;

obtain the ChainStart Value and the second ChainEnd Value from the tag;

generate a second key pair comprising a public key and a private key;

transform the second ChainEnd Value into a third ChainEnd Value using the private key of the second key pair;

store in the data store at least the hash of the ChainStart Value, a hash of the third ChainEnd Value, and the public key of the second pair as a second another transaction record entry; and

cause the second ChainEnd Value of the tag to be replaced with the third ChainEnd Value.

20. The system according to claim 19 , wherein the third ChainEnd Value and the second another transaction record entry are also used to validate the tag's authenticity.

21. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the transaction record entry further comprises a transaction block and a hash of the transaction block signed by the first private key.

22. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the tag is a wired or wireless communications enabled tag, a printed barcode, an etched barcode, or an allocation of memory in a digital device.