Page 44 - Arkansas Trucking Report Volume 23 Issue 2

BLOCKCHAIN IN PRACTICE Lane Black — were on hand to discuss
Recently, students from the their project and its implications. It
University of Arkansas College of was important to the students they be
Business participated in a “Hackathon” able to distill the complexity of block-
designed to push students’ problem- chain into a usable case study. “We
solving skills to the limit. want to take all the ideas and all the
Over fifty students participated in hype around blockchain and help you
the two-day event, which was sponsored understand how you can put this into
by Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt, ArcBest action,” Franklin said.
and IBM. First, students selected test The students’ test case was an issue
cases provided by the sponsor com- of slow carrier authorization being
panies. These cases are all real-world experienced by J.B. Hunt. One of the
Ken Craig, McLeod Software problems the companies are currently teams’ goals, Black stated, was “to build
facing that they would like to solve out their carrier payment process so
together. The standards are not intend- with blockchain, says Michelle Garcia, carriers get paid more quickly in order
ed to provide coding for the technology a student from the winning team. to reinforce relationships.” The team
itself, only to help ensure that codes Using Hyperledger, a software devel- discovered that part of the issue of slow
written allow individual blockchains to oped by and provided to the students payment was due to a slow routing of
communicate. “If you’re having to man- by the Linux Foundation, students physical documentation. Relevant per-
age multiple blockchains, the promise of began developing their solution. Finally, sonnel had to call, email or even send
efficiency is no longer a reality,” Burruss they presented solutions created in paper. The more manual a process, the
adds. Aside from the straightforward Hyperledger along with mockups of the more opportunities for human error,
need for standards, Burruss points out user interface. Garcia said, further explaining that it
that if the industry doesn’t develop their The Hackathon’s winning currently takes more than twenty days
own set of standards, it can expect the team — Katy Venkataratinam, Michelle for J.B. Hunt to pay carriers.
government to step in and create them. Garcia, Anna Grace Franklin and The team’s solution was to create a

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44 Issue 2 2018 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT