A Hybrid Blockchain–Digital Twin Framework for Quantitative Transparency Assessment in Maritime Supply Chains: Multi-Scenario Modeling, Performance Optimization, and Decision-Oriented Analysis

Maritime supply chains remain highly vulnerable to information fragmentation, limited interoperability, delayed verification processes, and inconsistent data governance across distributed stakeholders. These structural deficiencies reduce operational transparency, weaken cargo traceability, increase reconciliation delays, and expose maritime logistics systems to fraud, documentation inconsistency, and regulatory non-compliance. Although blockchain technology has been widely proposed as a promising solution for decentralized and tamper-resistant information exchange, existing studies remain largely conceptual and provide limited quantitative evidence regarding the actual transparency gains achievable under realistic maritime operating conditions. This study develops a hybrid blockchain–digital twin framework for the quantitative assessment of transparency enhancement in maritime supply chains. The proposed framework integrates a permissioned blockchain architecture, real-time transactional synchronization, smart contract validation, and scenario-driven digital twin modeling to evaluate system behavior under dynamic operational conditions. Transparency is reformulated as a measurable multi-dimensional system property consisting of data integrity, traceability depth, auditability, stakeholder accessibility, synchronization reliability, and transaction latency. To support quantitative evaluation, a novel Transparency Enhancement Index (TEI) is introduced and integrated with multi-scenario simulation analysis. The framework is tested under normal operational conditions, high-congestion transaction environments, and cyber-enabled data manipulation scenarios. Comparative analyses are performed between conventional centralized maritime information systems and blockchain-enabled decentralized architectures using normalized operational metrics and weighted performance aggregation. The results demonstrate that the proposed blockchain-enabled framework improves traceability accuracy by approximately ۳۸–۵۲%, reduces inter-organizational data reconciliation time by nearly ۴۵%, and significantly enhances auditability and resistance to unauthorized data modification across distributed maritime stakeholders. The decentralized architecture also improves synchronization consistency and transaction verifiability during high-risk operational conditions. However, the analysis reveals important trade-offs associated with transaction throughput, scalability constraints, and consensus-related latency under intensive network loads. The study contributes to the maritime digitalization literature by moving beyond descriptive blockchain discussions toward a reproducible, performance-oriented, and implementation-focused evaluation framework. The proposed methodology provides practical guidance for port authorities, shipping operators, customs agencies, and maritime policymakers seeking to deploy blockchain-enabled transparency systems while balancing operational efficiency, scalability, and governance complexity in next-generation intelligent maritime logistics networks.

کلیدواژه ها:

Maritime Supply Chain ، Blockchain Technology ، Transparency ، Traceability ، Digital Ledger ، Port Logistics ، Supply Chain Visibility ، Decentralized Systems ، Performance Evaluation ، Transparency Index