With three decades of rich experience, Stephan is a rare IT professional who naturally combines the highest IT expertise, easy-going collaboration practices, and integrity. Let’s hear his thoughts and insights on blockchain.
Please tell us about your fintech journey so far.
I began my journey in fintech as an SAP Integration Architect, during which time I developed an interest in blockchain technology after reading the Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin White paper in 2012. In between assignments as an SAP Integration Architect, I started working on my first blockchain integration in 2014 by building a vending machine home in my garage in Norway. It was a wooden box with a Raspberry Pi computer with a touch screen and two mechanical servos to dispense sweets when I paid the machine with Bitcoin via my mobile phone wallet.
In combination with the vending machine, I also built a software module in an SAP ERP system, that also connected to the Bitcoin blockchain and the vending machine, so that when I purchased a product from the vending machine, a Sales Order was created in the SAP system. And when the magazine became close to empty SAP created a Replenishment Order to re-stock the magazine.
This was the base of what later became the companies and products: UNISOT, SeafoodChain, Abendum and SignOnChain.id.
What does your UNISOT Web3 Platform offers to their client?
UNISOT Web3 Platform offers Global Interoperability, Global Traceability between all size actors in our global supply chains. Our platform enables all companies to become part of a global information marketplace, enhancing end-to-end efficiency, reducing waste, and promoting sustainability. We equip clients with tools to Prove their products quality, origin, provenance, history, ingredients/parts etc. to the market and thereby enabling them to obtain the right price for their products. We are disrupting today’s current inefficient and to a degree corrupt values chains by enabling quality producers to connect to customers and consumers, by also providing solutions for e-commerce marketplaces, reversed marketplaces and distribution.
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What does your client base looks like?
Our initial target market was Food & Beverage, like seafood, agriculture, beer, but now we have customers in several other industries like garment/fashion, construction/real-estate, art/media, etc.
Customers we have today are often companies that understand the benefits of being able to Prove their products’ quality, origin, ingredients, Sustainability, etc. and they are often companies that want to be the front runner in their industry.
Could you please explain how an “open blockchain” platform works?
Per definition a Blockchain is always Public, as per W. Scott STORNETTA and Stuart HABER initial invention of a database secured by a public hash aka “Blockchain” in 1991 where they solved the “The trusted witness problem” and introduced the Merkle Tree as a cryptographic accumulator. They proved that data in their database was Immutable due to its advertisement of Data Hashes in the classified section of the Sunday New York Times, which enlisted the whole world as an audience i.e., “trusted witness”.
If it is not a public blockchain it is simply a replicated database with a fancy replication mechanism controlled by a central organization, often a consortium of companies, all with the same interest.
Can you talk about some of the most innovative fintech apps and platforms that are set to create new benchmarks for this segment?
I believe that Triple Entry Accounting & Auditing, based on the public Bitcoin Blockchain, will set a new benchmark in transparency and honesty in accounting and massively enhance audit quality. It will enable organizations to prove that they only have one set of books, it will enable continuous real-time auditing as well as automation of tax payments and reporting. This will solve many problems with cyber-security threats and fraud. Our Abendum platform is pioneering in this field.
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How according to you will blockchain play a defining role in the future of fintech?
Blockchain technology could play a defining role in the future of fintech by providing secure, transparent, and efficient solutions for transactions, data storage, and auditing. Its decentralized nature removes the need for intermediaries, reducing costs and increasing speed and integrity of transactions.
Blockchain also provides a secure environment for digital identities, smart contracts, and tokenization, which could significantly influence the fintech sector.
The Global Web 3.0 Blockchain Market revenue is expected to reach a value of USD 23.3 Billion in the year 2028. We’d love to know what are your predictions for the blockchain domain for 2030.
Predictions for the blockchain domain for 2030 would be largely speculative. However, given the current trends, it’s very plausible that the public blockchain will get massive adoption and influence across all sectors and industries. I am convinced that Public Blockchain will have an even greater impact then Internet had in both all our personal lives as well in all sectors and industries.
Can you share any two surprising facts of blockchain technology which few know about.
Yes, the first one is the original Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin protocol, today represented by the ticker BSV, is outcompeting all other Blockchain technologies out there, in Scalability, Integrity, Availability, Stability and Cost/Energy-efficiency. We just proved it by making 86 million transactions in 24 hours, live in the layer-1 main network. Test back in 2021 confirmed that the BSV node software can handle at least 100 000 transaction per second. And the new version ‘Terra Node’ will handle 1 million TPS.
Secondly, that you can do any kind of Tokens and Smart Contracts in the original Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoin protocol (BSV), more scalable, secure and cost-effective than any other Blockchain technologies.
What are some of the challenges that you see in teams embracing new fintech solutions? What advice would you give to them?
The biggest challenges are deliberate misinformation, incorrect publications, and genuine misunderstanding of how the original bitcoin blockchain is actually working and is supposed to work. Blockchain technology is not mainly a technology solution, but more based on Economics principles and Legal rules and regulations.
My advice is to use the method of First Principles, think for yourself. Go investigate the original white paper, scientific publications, texts and messages by the inventor himself, Dr. Craig S. Wright. Investigate what companies in the BSV community are actually doing with this technology and what real world problem we are solving.
Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the fintech domain whose answers to these questions you would love to read!
– Dr Craig S. Wright aka Satoshi Nakamoto, Chief Scientist at nChain.
– Torje Vingen Sunde, CTO at Abendum, a platform for Triple Entry Accounting & Auditing, based on Blockchain.
Thank you, Stephan! That was fun and we hope to see you back on globalfintechseries.com soon.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Stephan Nilsson is the CEO and co-founder of UNISOT, a Web3 Supply Chain Traceability & Sustainability platform that offers global interoperability and traceability with data monetization.
Stephan has over 30 years of experience in IT-system integrations, including the last two decades as an SAP Integration Architect. Stephan is also the President and co-founder of the Norway Blockchain Association and serves as the Scandinavian Ambassador of the Bitcoin Association. Stephan has been active in the Bitcoin Blockchain space since 2012 and started integrating SAP ERP with the Public Blockchain in 2014. The UNISOT platform empowers all actors in global supply chains to achieve sustainability and prove their product quality and sustainability to customers using Public Blockchain, IPv6, and Federated Learning.
UNISOT is a pioneering technology firm redefining Supply Chain Management by harnessing the transformative capabilities of technologies such as the Public Blockchain, IPv6 and Federated Learning. Empowering businesses to navigate the digital transformation from Web 2.0 to Web3.
Anchoring its platform on the concept of a ‘Universal Source of Truth’, UNISOT drives efficiency, transparency and security across all supply chain operations, fostering global interoperability and superior traceability.
Designed to be secure, scalable and cost-efficient, the UNISOT platform caters to businesses across a wide spectrum of sizes and industries. It particularly empowers Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the peripheries of global supply chains, ensuring their integration and participation in the broader economic landscape.
