For Stephan Nilsson, CEO of Unisot, the Bitcoin SV supply chain business in Norway, these unusual times are providing a chance to explain to potential customers the benefits of tracking their products on the blockchain.
With industries and consumers nervous about the supply of products that they need, people want to know more, says Stephan: “where does it come from? How secure is it? How safe is it? And that’s exactly what we deliver to them.”
Unisot is using fish, a traditional Norwegian business, as a demonstration of the potential of its Bitcoin SV-based system, but “most of our customers in the seafood industry have been hit rather hard because all the restaurants are not buying any fish any more.” That has made some time for deeper understanding of their needs: “we are very fortunate that now we can have a dialogue with our customers.”
Stephan was talking to CoinGeek producer and presenter Natalie Mason in the second of CoinGeek Conversations’ catch-ups with BSV professionals around the world, to see how they are coping with anti-Coronavirus measures in their country. Also, Charles Miller spoke to Brendan Lee, Training and Development Manager of the Bitcoin Association, in his home outside Brisbane, Australia.
“Most of Australia is in quite a severe lockdown,” said Brendan - but actually a little less strict than in the UK, Charles noted. Brendan’s family are allowed two visitors from another household, which isn’t the case in the UK.
And “I’m eating better at the moment than I normally do because we’re cooking all of our food,” Brendan said, “we’re not going to be starving any time soon”. After a couple of years of intense work, Brendan is looking forward to spending more time with his family. There are plans for a camping trip to the bottom of the garden. Until now, any free time has been devoted to home schooling their two children, aged four and seven. It’s been something of a revelation: “my hat goes off to primary school teachers,” Brendan admits.
Coming back to Bitcoin, there is an overlap between Brendan’s educational role at the Bitcoin Association and his time with his children. “My four-year old uses Handcash. She can send money to her brother.” It’s made Brendan think more about Bitcoin education at all levels: “I’d love to be trying to have this material being taught even at high school - because I think Bitcoin is going to become crucial in the IT industry. Any project that uses the Internet and is exchanging information is going to be making use of the ledger ..so the sooner we can teach those young, up-and-coming kids…”
It’s said that you should never waste a good crisis. Nobody could accuse Stephan or Brendan of that.