Published transparency records work without blockchains. Certificate Transparency is an example of a project that does this without all the mess of blockchains.

Published transparency records work without blockchains. Certificate Transparency is an example of a project that does this without all the mess of blockchains. And that also works well because it operates on purely digital things - once you start having to unify a physical object with a digital record all the usual supply-chain-management problems re-emerge.