At dawn of the Industry4.0 era, edge computing architectures for industrial automation provide compelling advantages for real-time actuation & control, as well as for data analytics close to the field. In this article, we introduce the FAR-EDGE project, a first of a kind research initiave that specifies and implements a novel, standards-based platform for factory automation, which combines the merits of edge computing with the scalability, reliability and security of blockchain technologies.