A recurring theme of the Houston #xChain2 conference May 2018, which heavily focused on maritime trade, trucking and energy logistics, was “show me the data.”I found it very worthwhile to join more than 400 like-minded professionals in Houston May 21–22 who were looking for practical data on supply chain implementations of blockchain, and hear from port authorities in Antwerp right off the bat to get this conference underway.xChain2: Blockchain for Supply Chain and Logistics ForumThe port authorities of Houston and Antwerp represent sister cities not only in being 2 of 3 leading oil ports, but in almost any transcontinental movement of goods across the Atlantic. Blockchain promises a new ability to create transparency, eliminate paperwork and reduce costs for all parties involved in logistics and supply chain, while more importantly injecting transparency into the quality and settlement process for all goods.Port of Antwerp’s Erwin Verstraelen cited early findings of his own NxtPort consortium application which aims to eliminate inefficient paperwork and create a tamper-proof record of all processes moving through the port — a recent Maersk report cited as much as half the cost of every order is administrative. The main hurdle to moving forward? Psychology and trust among all parties that the right data has been entered into the record. “The trust between stakeholders is the primary barrier to adoption and entering data into the system,” he said.Verstraelen was followed by Nico Wauters of T-Mining, a service provider to the port with experience implementing first generation EDI transfers and data silos, to cloud-based hubs like GTNexus, to now exploring “communities of interest” in blockchain to share data on the state of any given shipment in a new way. “Right now drivers use a PIN code to pick up a container,” Wauters said, referring to a process that could be manipulated rather easily. “We want to tokenize the assets, starting first at the specific container level for instance. There is no use case for blockchain within a single company — it requires a community of companies to participate and get value out of it.”All ports opening for business at OpenPortI particularly enjoyed hearing from CEO Max Ward of OpenPort, a Sweetbridge Alliance partner who is creating a solid point of data agreement through electronic Proof of Delivery (or ePoD) for shipments and related data using blockchain and micro-incentives for all parties involved to encourage adoption.We had a few minutes in between his session and mine to catch up and here’s the video:https://medium.com/media/1bdb9b1242e2e19b7a37f7cff5052e78/hrefLooking forward to working with our peers at OpenPort to realize a new economic engine in Asia and globally.xchain2 with OpenPort CEO Max Ward - visibility offers great value but mass blockchain adoption among workers in supply chain is driven by liquidity, working capital and microincentives. — @bluefugResearch never restsThis was a research-driven event, in fact I first heard about it months ago when talking to Dr. Larry Shin of the supply chain engineering arm of University of Houston, so I said “whatever form this show comes in, I’m there.” No disappointment on the research side here. One of few analysts to see this trend early was Peter Harris of Chain Business Insights who covered the food supply chain with some great background. “If you can make the food chain safer and more sustainable with technology, you can solve problems for any industry,” he said.If you can make food supply chain safe and sustainable you can do any chain - consumers are driving food quality #xchain2 with @peteharriscmt — @bluefugI have to agree with Pete that not only are customers becoming more demanding about quality, the economics of global food production will not support the needs of future generations without significant improvement. This is where more interesting work from colleagues at Georgetown University comes in — Dr. Shin’ichiro Matsuo and Paul Brigner talking about a new impartial testnet for testing and research of blockchain platforms called B-TED research testing blockchain.Call it Blockchain, decentralization or whatever, what are the real benefits for commerce?The theme of “show me the data” was echoed during and in between sessions as most of this group are more concerned about the reliability of the data entering the blockchain, than the technology itself. In the Day 2 keynote, U.S. Customs Director Vincent Annunziato cleared the air by saying he’d seen hundreds of proposed blockchain pilots. “I would rather not trust a trustless system. I would rather be able to validate it for each of our shipments,” he said.Andrew Bruce of Data Gumbo boiled it down to how data informs business process changes, and identifies the right use cases for blockchain at major oil operations it serves. By optimizing routes and sharing data about transports in the water ready to carry loads they predict a 30% of reduction in fuel and shipping costs and savings of up to $250M per drilling rig. With better accountability into compensation for the ship captains.Final thoughtsThere were many more excellent scenarios discussed here, including related technologies like IoT, Big Data and AI, as well as practical concerns about the funding of your next blockchain project, whether internal or external.Overall, I found very little discussion of cryptocurrency, and barely a mention of any ICOs or crowdfunding at this show, even in the Investment panel which focused on VC types of scenarios. (Exceptions were our friends at OpenPort and the interesting Producers Token project for farm-to-table scenarios). That is fine with me, and seemed fitting since most of the companies represented here are thinking about how to improve processes and process efficiencies first.All in all, a good 2 days of learning sponsored by the University of Houston and economic development groups. Our congenial MC Daryl Price kept us on track and the city rolled out the welcome mat for innovators to show how much global impact is happening between the coasts.Look for more information and media from this event soon!The xChain2 (Blockchain in Supply Chain) Houston Event Recap was originally published in Sweetbridge on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.