Infineon Blockchain Starter Kit - Review

Table of Contents

Schedule -

     Week 1 - Unboxing, Out of the Box Demo/ First Impressions

     Week 2 & 3 - Getting started with the kit and Android app.

     Week 4 - 7 - BSI - Blockchain Smart Inventory project.

     Week 8 - Summary and Conclusion.

Project -

     BSI or Blockchain Smart Inventory project is where the NFC cards with Blockchain technology in the kit would allow access to users who can view, edit and modify inventory details. My electronic kits and components inventory at home started with Arduino UNO and now has grown enormously with most of them from the Element14 community. Managing this has become tedious, so I planned to organize the inventory. A part of this organization activity would be secured access to the inventory where the Blockchain kit will play the role. We can use the modified android app to log in to the inventory system and perform the desired action.

Stretch goal -

     If time permits, as a stretch goal I would like to use Matrix Creator running Alexa voice service as part of the inventory system. For this also access will be granted by showing the kit's NFC card to Matrix Creator's inbuilt NFC reader.

     The road test kit package arrived safely in a corrugated/ cardboard box and the contents inside were cushioned by paper. Thanks to UPS and rscasny.

     The road test kit contains the following,

• Five NFC Cards
• Leaflet with some useful information and links

     If they had included NFC Card reader, this would have been a complete package straight out of the box for experimenting with blockchain technology. Below are the unboxing pictures of the Blockchain Security 2Go Starter Kit.

Overview-

     BSI or Blockchain Smart Inventory project is where the NFC cards with Blockchain technology in the kit would allow access to users who can view, edit and modify inventory details. My electronic kits and components inventory at home started with Arduino UNO and now has grown enormously with most of them from the Element14 community. Managing this has become tedious, so I planned to organize the inventory. A part of this organization activity would be secured access to the inventory where the Blockchain kit will play the role. We can use the modified android app to log in to the inventory system and perform the desired action.

Working -

     This project has two main applications,

          1. Web application - This will be the main application that will provide an interface for authorized users to view, edit and modify the inventory details. The following are the pages in the web application,

• Home Page - This will provide a quick overview of the inventory details and the ability to search and navigate through several records stored in the database.
• Products Page - This page along with few related pages like view and create products that provide the ability to add the Electronics products like your development kit, passives, tools, etc to the database.
• Login Page - This is the page that will authorize and authenticate users into the inventory system. Plus the difference between the ordinary login system and this BSI login system is that it needs double authentication. The mobile app explained below has to authenticate through the tap of the NFC card and then only the user can log into the web application. This way it serves as an added security.

               Apart from this, the web application has APIs which enable to authenticate the user from the mobile application.

          2. Mobile application - The mobile application has been built on top of the Coinfinity App. This provides option for the user to enter his/ her email and password and then tap the NFC card to the back of the phone for recording the public address of the card. These details are passed onto the web application through API requests. On successful response, the user is authenticated into the system.

                    The below two buttons in the mobile application help the user to register and log in to authenticate his identity, which are,

• Register - This button triggers an API request with details of the user email, password and the public address of the NFC Card. These details are stored in the inventory database.
• Login - This button triggers an API request with details of the user email, password and the public address of the NFC Card. On successful verification of these details with the already registered data, the user is authenticated into the web application.

Gallery -

     With the unexpected disruption caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been sudden changes in my schedules because of which I couldn't record and publish a video of the application. So, for now, I have provided all the screenshots of the application below. Once the video is ready I'll upload and update this space.   

Web Application

Mobile Application

API Requests and Responses

Summary -     

     This has been a tremendous learning experience. I have learned the basics of Blockchain technology and App development. This Blockchain Smart Inventory is definitely going to be of use for me to organize my inventory. With few more developments and security audits, I'll plan to publish this app for the use of Element14 members and the public. The current system is a very basic system just explaining an application of the Blockchain Security 2Go Starter kit. In the future, I would like to improvise this current version by adding Blockchain capabilities to the Inventory system.

     As always, your suggestions and comment are welcome, please leave them in the comment section below. For your benefit, I have compiled the useful links/ reference in the table below.

* Information/ content provided in this road test review is as-is obtained during the time of writing this review and is subjected to change when the respective body owning the product/ service/ application, changes the information/ content. So please refer to the official pages (links available in the 'Useful Links/ Reference' section at the bottom of this review page) for the latest information/ content.