Meet Liina, BDO of Black

As soon as I heard the concept I thought — oh okay, they’re really onto something here. We can absolutely move insurance to a new era by changing the pace from one close to a tortoise by the insurance companies to something more at the pace of a jaguar with blockchain-tech.

Tell us a bit more about yourself? What is your professional background?

I have done a whole lot of weird stuff in my working life. From working at Bank of America to day trading ForEx to starting an e-commerce venture. Developing a line of vegan ready meals sold in supermarkets, selling gourmet street food at festivals to fixing the regulations on cryptocurrencies in Estonia. Pretty random, right?

It seems that fundamentally I am a problem solver — I started the vegan food business because I was hungry once at a shop and there were no quick bites that suited me. I got into blockchain probably precisely because of this — it can solve problems. It can make a lot of processes more efficient. And let’s not go into the — “what about people’s’’ jobs?” People are too talented to waste their time on meaningless tasks. This is where blockchain can help in many aspects. Blockchain and smart contracts will not get all the lawyers fired for example contrary to the scaremongering by many some years back. It will help them do their work better and not waste time on meaningless tasks.

Friends and family sometimes call me a workaholic — I hardly take holidays, work at night and the project I am working on is on my mind constantly. But I don’t see it that way. When I was growing up my mother always told me: “Get a profession you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Seems that these words have stuck as I do feel joy when working on a project that excites me.

What was your first impression of the BLACK project? Why you decided to join the team and movement?

I got talking to Risto and the Black team rather by accident as I wasn’t really looking for a job at the time. Our lovely recruiter Sigrid at Black contacted my husband about the role. His response was — “Blockchain? You need to speak to my wife.”

As soon as I heard the concept I thought — oh okay, they’re really onto something here. We can absolutely move insurance to a new era by changing the pace from one close to a tortoise by the insurance companies to something more at the pace of a jaguar with blockchain-tech.

Away with the bureaucracy, spreadsheets and waste of precious time. Let’s be honest, right now insurance is a bit of a swear word. It is not a pleasant experience for the user. I don’t doubt we need insurance but it needs to step up its game a lot. The world is moving at a rapid pace, insurance however seems firmly stuck in the past. And yes, of course I believe that blockchain will solve a lot (if not most) of the problems in the industry today.

So here I am now, and I cannot wait to see how far we’ll go.

What is your area of expertise that contributes to BLACK business the greatest today?

I know the crypto field thoroughly as I stuck with it since the time when everyone called me crazy for believing in this made up money and ponzi scheme. I was an early believer in blockchain tech and have been consulting many crypto businesses that have made it big. Through experience in selling and developing different brands in the past, I will help Black reach its goals as well.

Blockchain is no secret sauce that you can sprinkle on anything and make it work. It is simply new and better tech than is widely used today. There was a time when people said that the internet was pointless and would only be used by some nerds. Why would anyone ever buy anything online or want to read a paper in a browser, they said. Today we are facing the same questions when talking about a blockchain based project — Why do we need to put insurance on blockchain? Because we can simply do thing faster and in a more cost effective way than we have so far.

So this is where I take Black further — we may have the best product and idea but if no one knows about it or if we cannot communicate it in a way that is understandable, few will buy into it.

What makes you believe in BLACK business model?

It makes sense. Just like bitcoin said it will remove banks from the equation, insurance too can operate without the trusted third party in the middle. Replace bureaucracy with tech and move forward faster.

Where we can find you when you are not working?

Most of my time outside work is spent with my wonderful family. Aside from that I occasionally try and take time to go to music events. I am specifically really into electronic music — the joy of dancing to exhilarating tunes all night really helps me recharge myself emotionally. Recently also got a bit more back into video games to help vent stress and escape from reality a bit. Evening fun times massacring creeps and heroes as Sniper.