Source: Diego Ioppolo – shutterstock
- VeChain Americas CEO acknowledges that Google, IBM and Amazon are adding legitimacy to the blockchain industry through their involvement in the sector.
- According to VeChain customers, ToolChain is faster and easier to deploy than IBM’s Food Trust.
Jason Rockwood, Americas CEO of VeChain, was interviewed on the Humans of Blockchain series. As part of an initiative by the Vechain101 website, the series seeks to highlight the “human side” of the blockchain industry and contribute to its adoption.
Rockwood is responsible for overseeing VeChain’s business and operations in America. Prior to his current position, he served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Oasis Collections and, among other things, served as Vice President of Mobile Strategy and Innovation for the Miami Heat basketball team. In response to his entry into the blockchain industry, Rockwood said:
I first got onto the blockchain via Bitcoin in 2011. I bought my first bitcoin for just $ 10! Unfortunately, I sold the top – $ 100! I missed the boat on Ethereum; bought $ XRP in 2013 when it was only $ 0.00001 but lost my password … Needless to say I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but VeChain wasn’t one of them!
Rockwood added that he became increasingly involved in the industry during the 2017 bull market when Bitcoin hit its all-time high of just under $ 19,700. At that time VeChain was preparing to rebrand the company. Rockwood said it was the only project that met his standards as a CIO. His first contact with VeChains CEO and co-founder “Sunny” Lu was as follows:
When I first met Sunny at a lecture at Harvard, I knew I had made the right decision to participate. The vision, commitment and professionalism of Sunny and the team are world class. I started working full-time for VeChain as GM VeChain USA about a year after meeting Sunny for the first time.
Microsoft, IBM and Google compete with VeChain
Rockwood worked informally for VeChain in 2018. After a year, he became an integral part of the blockchain company’s team. There he is in contact with a large number of customers who use VeChain’s solutions to improve their business management:
One of my favorite things about working with VeChain is the variety of clients I speak to over the course of a day. Anyone can use ToolChain, so over the course of a day I will speak to (for example) fish companies, cannabis companies, fashion brands, consultancies, etc. It’s incredibly diverse!
VeChain’s Americas CEO added that the industry is diversifying in terms of the various blockchain solutions offered by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM, among others. The entire industry benefits from these names getting involved. They give the industry “legitimacy and scalability”. However, Rockwood believes VeChain will be one of the giants of the future.
One of VeChain’s biggest challenges in America is that the market is still emerging in several countries. In the US, for example, many companies have shown interest in VeChain’s solutions but are still reluctant to adopt them.
Rockwood stated that the IBM FoodTrust solution is the largest competitor. He also thanked IBM for forcing VeChain to raise its standards. With that in mind, he noted the following:
IBM almost single-handedly creates the demand in the US market for enterprise blockchain in the supply chain. I am grateful for that. At the same time, our customers tell us that VeChain ToolChain is faster to deploy, easier to understand business value, and less upfront investment is required to get started.
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