In today’s Meet the Team edition, we are publishing the questions and answers from an interview which was recently conducted with Bob Binns, the Chief Strategy Officer at OneLedger. Bob is a recognized innovator, providing strategic consulting services for companies managing change and/or seeking growth. Bob’s extensive experience in the technology sphere is extremely valuable for OneLedger to scale the company and establish it worldwide.
Below are a series of questions and answers which were noted down during the interview:
1. Why did you decide to get into the Blockchain industry?I have long been interested in security and anti-fraud tech solutions. I have worked with WSIB anti-fraud unit with some pretty innovative tech in the early 2000s, ignited interest as President of Unisys and won Security integrator of the year in 2005 for innovative biometric identity solutions. Fast forward a decade, and I bought some Bitcoin, mostly to explore and learn about the tech, and got some early exposure about crypto there.
More recently, as an advisor at TribalScale, I was introduced to Blockchain start-ups in Toronto and attended many sessions by those companies. I have been fascinated by the underlying tech and to know that it offers so much more than just cryptocurrency.
In a world that is moving to direct transactions, without the use of intermediaries, Blockchain offers the potential to radically change how we conduct commerce and protect our identities in the ‘always connected’ world we now live in.
I have been fortunate to be on the cusp of a number of innovative technologies in my career and blockchain is one of the coolest ones for the future. I can’t resist the opportunity to learn (brain food), meet other blockchain enthusiasts (soul food), and make a difference in the industry (just food)!
2. Why did you want to join OneLedger?
There is a lot of debate about how blockchain, and particularly, decentralized solutions, will usher in a new era of transparency, trust, and co-operation across global networks and for the transactions that will run on them.
There are going to be a plethora of ‘single purpose’ networks that will require a high degree of trusted connections and interoperability to realize speed and benefits in the Blockchain. There will also be a need for large central (even institutional) enterprises to continue to maintain highly secure centralized databases and networks.
Additionally, as the blockchain pervades and increases occupancy in enterprises, these companies will be looking to industry and partners to help them develop and adopt new blockchain solutions for internal application, customer-facing, and interoperability across external enterprise applications (e.g. a supply chain).
OneLedger is building a new protocol that will bridge decentralized systems with existing centralized one, allowing cross chain transactions. We are building the equivalent of what TCP/IP protocol was for the internet. We are focusing on the enterprise as the end game for blockchain.
Our marketplace will encourage the development of a host of new applications for enterprises to leverage internally and as they connect to decentralized/partner networks. Additionally, our network for partners and consultants will be eager to assist enterprises in their efforts to design and build their own applications and utilize blockchain technologies internally.
3. As the Chief Strategy Officer, what do you do at OneLedger?
I’ve been a software business C.E.O. for the past 15 years, for companies that are scaling from “zero to one”, and from $20 to $50 million, so I bring that experience to the management team. Having studied at Harvard about sustainable competitive strategies, I work with the team on HR, marketing, and business development (particularly for the enterprise), and issues about scaling. I also ding in and get my hands dirty (e.g. building the 3-year business plan) on a daily basis.
Right now, we are hiring like crazy, so I am intensely focusing on finding the right staff to join the OneLedger team.
4. What do you think is mostly needed for OneLedger at the moment?
Frankly, we are rapidly hiring staff to build a sustainable long-term team.
Patience and support while we buildout and deliver our technology vision. We plan to deliver Mainnet towards the end of 2019 and that seems like forever in today’s ‘must have now’ environment. We are going to deliver according to our roadmap, noting milestones as they occur.
We need technology and integration Partners who share our vision and are willing to work with us to deliver OneLedger applications to enterprise customers.
Real life use cases are powerful stories that create believers and accelerate adoption, therefore, we are working with industry partners and customers to define and develop around specific, industry-based use cases.
Finally, we need to encounter more accelerated adoption of the blockchain tech in the marketplace generally, and specifically in the enterprise, across all industries. This will create a rising demand for both internal blockchain applications, plus cross-ledger applications where OneLedger will be necessary.
5. What’s your target for OneLedger in half a year, one year and two years?
In a year, we’ll have many (20+) Enterprise clients/partners who are using OneLedger network for blockchain projects. They will most likely be experimental in nature — proofs of concepts on both internal and interoperability applications.
In 18 months, I’d like to see OneLedger Marketplace with (50+) applications that are purposely built for the enterprise use on our Mainnet.