Banks and traders are experimenting with the technology behind bitcoin in an effort to solve longstanding problems in the trading of physical commodities.

Blockchain, the technology used to record ownership of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, has been making inroads recently in the financial world. Central banks and other institutions are exploring it for payments and data sharing. Big banks including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have tested the technology in recording financial transactions.

Now commodities players are trying out blockchain to help buy and sell goods and raw materials.

French bank Natixis and commodity trading firm Trafigura Pte. Ltd. unveiled a platform in late March with International Business Machines Corp. to carry out U.S. crude-oil transactions electronically using blockchain technology.

A group of participants in the cotton market is also evaluating the use of blockchain in trading and plans to release its results in May. The consortium, which has collaborated with IBM to use its blockchain platform, includes big agricultural commodities traders Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co.