The $1 trillion aerospace parts industry has a simple solution to the problem of bogus components threatening flight safety: the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The challenge now is to get the powerful victims of those fake components, including the global aviation industry and US Department of Defense, to move on it.

Forged paperwork was at the heart of a scandal outlined by Bloomberg News in September, where second-hand and knock-off nuts, bolts and turbine blades were sold for installation in jet engines made by Safran SA and General Electric Co. The discovery sent the industry rushing to identify more bogus parts, but the process is cumbersome and manual. This recent event is similar to a series of cases uncovered by a US Senate committee more than a decade ago that found numerous instances of fake chips being put into military aircraft.