ASSOCIATION INSIGHTS
BiTA Drives Blockchain Education, Standards Forward
fter several years of hype, the doomsday prognosticators have started telling the world that blockchain technology is not worth the
attention it was given. That might be true, but only because blockchain achieved a rarified air that seemed to suggest it could solve all freight transportation problems. Like anything else, it can’t.
Fortunately for the freight industries, those companies that understand blockchain and its potential have not wavered in their support of it, or development of potential game-changing solutions, and many of them will be discussing their projects at the Blockchain in Transport Alliance’s BiTA Symposium in Chicago on November 14, 2019, at McCormick Place.
To register for the BiTA Symposium, visit the registration page at
bita.studio/bita-chi-register.
BiTA, with more than 350 global members, is one of the largest organizations dedicated to the education of blockchain in logistics and developing standards so all parties in the freight ecosystem can benefit from the technology. McLeod Software is a founding member of BiTA and holds a seat on the organization’s BiTA Standards Council Board of Directors.
The Chicago BiTA event will include an update on what is happening at BiTA since the last meeting in May, a chairman’s update from Dale Chrystie, business fellow and blockchain strategist at FedEx, and a look at where the organization is heading.
“We are seeing some interesting real-world applications emerging,” Patrick Duffy, President of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), said. He noted separate projects that IBM is working on with Chainyard and Maersk, as examples. The Maersk project has helped develop the TradeLens platform for global shipping. DLT Labs is also actively engaged in a blockchain project for over-the- road trucking.
TradeLens uses IBM blockchain technology as the foundation for digital supply chains, empowering multiple trading partners to collaborate by establishing a single shared view of a transaction without compromising details, privacy, or confidentiality.
Chainyard is working with IBM on a “Trust Your Supplier” network. The network is using blockchain to improve supplier validation, onboarding and lifecycle information management. It is a “cross-industry blockchain network for procurement functions,” the companies explained. Among the participants in it are Anheuser- Busch InBev, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric, and Vodafone.
“It’s hard to overlook how much work IBM is really doing in this space and how many companies are adopting the Hyperledger platform and supported by IBM,” Duffy observed.
Blockchain has entered the legal space as well.
Clause.io
has worked with law firm BakerHostetler to create a smart legal contract where certain post-signature performances on an obligation are performed automatically and integrated with existing enterprise systems. In this case, the contract uses blockchain to execute fuel surcharge provisions, and the template links to payment systems and public fuel price data that ensures the correct fuel surcharge is being executed.
Walmart has been testing blockchain-based tracking in its logistics operation. Duffy believes it is companies
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