Blockchain expert Dr. Mary Lacity,director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence at the Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas,said increasing deployment of blockchain in businesses will coincide with ashift in how blockchain is presented to executives.

How are wegoing to approach messaging with the C-suite, she told the audience at theBlockchain in Transport Alliances BiTA Symposium Chicago at McCormick Place on Nov. 14, 2019. They dont want to hearabout blockchain, they want to hear about value.

Lacityspoke shortly after BiTA President Patrick Duffy opened the one-day symposiumfor BiTA members. Im expecting a big 2020; we will really accelerate thingsnext year, Duffy said. He noted that several proof of concept projects will beannounced next year and pointed to real-world implementations that arebeginning to take place.

The BiTASymposium provided updates to members on the organizations progress towarddeveloping blockchain standards for the supply chain. Use case presentationswere shown to attendees, and several speakers provided expertise on smartcontracts, legal consequences and more at the event.

FollowingDuffy, Dale Chrystie, chair of the BiTA Standards Board and business fellow andblockchain strategist at FedEx, encouraged members to get involved in technicaland working committees, where much of the behind-the-scenes work takes place.

Its astrong and enthusiastic group, he said. I thank you very much on behalf ofthe board.

Lacityfollowed Chrystie, and after a brief overview of the University of Arkansasblockchain programs including the fact that 27 out of 30 graduate studentsentering the Walton School of Business this summer chose the blockchain track explained the challenges blockchain faces at the C-suite level. She said that aresearch project found that of 36,000 10-k filings examined, only 242 mentionedblockchain or distributed ledger technology.

OurC-suites are getting really fatigued by blockchain, so we have to shift theconversation to the value it provides, she said.

Lacityencouraged the audience to stick to the longer vision of blockchain. In hisremarks, Chrystie took notice of those that have abandoned blockchain at thispoint, believing it is more hype than reality. Im actually okay that peopleare [getting out], he said. That is leaving the rest of us to get it built.

Lacity drewconnections between blockchain in the supply chain and Bitcoins evolutionsince its introduction in 2009.

When wemove to shared ecosystems, you are not going to have control over the data,she said, so we have to create shared governance. All of us start off withcentralized governance because there is real value in centralized governancebut you cant stay with centralized governance. If you have 10 nodes withcentralized governance, then you dont really have a blockchain use case.

Bitcoinalso started with central governance, Lacity pointed out. But now anyone cansubmit a change and the community debates it and eventually the miners decidewhether the update [will be made].

Many earlyblockchain projects in the supply chain are currently based on centralizedgovernance, she added.

Dan Conway,associate director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence, said that standardsfor data, rules and processes are critical to blockchains success.

I actuallythink standards are kind of fun because I get to talk to smart people aroundthe world who want to overlay [artificial intelligence] over blockchainsolutions, he said.

Conwaypointed to virtual road signs that determine which car should enter anintersection first as a use case for blockchain. Another, he said, involvesconnected cars in which one car makes a cryptocurrency payment to pass a slowermoving vehicle. In commercial trucking, drivers could potentially becompensated for safe driving in real time.

Dr. KiranGarimella, chief scientist and chief technology officer at KoreConX, said any blockchain platform needs to focus on businesses, noneof which are an island by themselves, and all of which have ecosystems ofcustomers and suppliers.

Its aboutunderstanding the ecosystem, he said. Where are the pain points and how doyou add value?

Ipersonally feel that this industry transportation is ripe fortransformation, he added.

The morningsession concluded with a case study about how Accenture is using blockchain toimprove safety for its female workers in India.

JoshCartellone, senior manager-Industry X.0 for Accenture Digital, said that only23% of the workforce in India is female, but more importantly, 53% of womenfelt unsafe getting to and from work; 82% left work early to reduce their riskof being assaulted, and 91% feel the government is not improving public safety.Over a four-year period, there was a 39% increase in reports of rapes,Cartellone said.

To helpimprove its workers safety, Accenture partnered with BetterPlace, a backgroundcheck company, to produce the Safe Driver program. The program places extensivebackground checks of drivers onto a blockchain that includes facial recognitiontechnology. Drivers applications and background checks are verified byAccenture, and this information is made available to employees using theservice. The result is that 90% of Accentures female employees felt safer whengetting to work and there was a 76% increase in riders in the program, whichexisted prior to the deployment of blockchain.

We didntchange anything; we didnt change drivers; we just added this so riders feltsafer, Cartellone said.

Cartellonesaid a worker could easily be replaced by cargo and the system would operatethe same.

Wouldntwe want to know as customers that our equipment is being used correctly duringthe entire trip? he asked. It all starts with identity it is the identityof people, of equipment of Internet of Things devices.

Cartellonesaid that, among the supply chain, this type of blockchain system could workwith driver scorecards, licensing, facility access, health checks of people orvehicles, work authorization, work history, driver logs, equipment status, andcargo status or condition.

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Blockchain conversations need to focus on value to get C-suite buy-in - FreightWaves