Bitcoin Daily: Bitcoin In Longest Price Slump; IBM Trials Orange-Tracking Blockchain

Pacific International Lines used the electronic Bill of Lading (e-BL) built on the IBM Blockchain Platform to complete a successful real-time tracking shipment of mandarin oranges from China for the Lunar New Year.

Combining e-BL with blockchain technology will enable companies to reduce their document processing times to almost zero. For example, Hupco Pte, a major importer in Singapore, took part in the e-BL trial as the consignee of about 108,000 mandarin oranges.

“By using the e-BL, we have seen how the entire shipment process can be simplified and made more transparent with considerable cost savings,” Tay Khiam Back, Chairman and CEO of Hupco, said in a press release.

DOVU  is partnering with U.K. rail company Go-Ahead, which will use the startup’s blockchain-powered reward platform to learn more about its customers as well as reward changes in passenger behavior.

Users will be able to “earn” cryptocurrency when they share their travel data, and the project will be initially launched on Go-Ahead’s Thameslink and Southern Rail services.

“With our passengers taking over one billion journeys a year, it is important that we are always looking at how we can better meet and exceed their changing needs. The quality of the businesses we have worked with through the Billion Journey Project has been was extremely high, and I hope it is a great indication of where the future of the transport industry is headed,” David Brown, Go-Ahead Group chief executive, said in a press release.

In other news, bitcoin is now in its longest decline in its decade-long history. According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, it has been on the decline for 411 consecutive days.

Bitcoin’s deflationary monetary policy means the rewards per mined block get cut in half every four years, which slows the creation of new currency. The next halving will probably happen in late May of 2020.

And users of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX have been unable to access their accounts because the exchange’s founder, Gerald Cotten, recently died, and was the only person with access to the exchange’s cold storage.

Coindesk revealed that a sworn affidavit filed on Jan. 31 by Jennifer Robertson, Cotten’s widow, said the exchange owes its customers around $250 million CAD ($190 million) in both cryptocurrency and fiat.

In the affidavit, Robertson explained that Cotten “would move the majority of the coins to cold storage as a way to protect the coins from hacking or other virtual theft.” He was the only person responsible for handling the funds. As a result, team members have not been able to access the exchange’s cold wallets.