Transparency is the difference between supply chains that function and supply chains that earn trust.
The cascading logistical problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Eastern Europe have made securing a reliable supply chain a national imperative. What must agriculture companies and policymakers do to ensure secure and resilient food supply chains? In this interview series, we are talking to business leaders who can share insights from their experiences about how we can address these challenges.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure to interview Ásgeir Thór Óskarsson.
Ásgeir is an accomplished leader with an international background and over a decade of experience working across technology, financial services and blockchain. As the Managing Director of BSV Association, he brings visionary leadership and a collaborative approach to driving organisational growth and innovation, supporting the adoption of the BSV blockchain and helping organisations understand how to use the technology in real-world settings.
With an academic background in engineering and education, Ásgeir brings both technical understanding and a people centric perspective to his work. Over the course of his career, he has worked across several European countries and held roles in financial services and technology-driven organisations, including UBS, CSS and several early-stage start-ups.
Before becoming Managing Director of BSV Association, Ásgeir worked across various areas of the Association, from stewardship and public policy to technology. This broad experience provided him a clear understanding of how the organisation operates, where it is heading and how it can best support businesses, developers and institutions as they adopt blockchain technology.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I didn’t grow up in just one place. I was born in Iceland and spent much of my childhood in the Netherlands, later studying in Spain and now living in Switzerland. Growing up across different countries meant I was always adapting to new cultures and ways of thinking, which shaped how I see the world.
Education played a central role in my upbringing. My background is in engineering, but I began my career working in financial services, where I was able to apply systems thinking to complex, real-world problems.
Over time, I became increasingly interested in how technology can positively impact people and organisations. That led me to step away from corporate roles and spend time as a primary school teacher, driven by a desire to have a more direct and positive impact.
Eventually, I realised that I could combine both paths; technology and purpose through my work with BSV Association, applying my technical background while contributing to systems that can create meaningful, long-term impact across industries and society.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
If I had to pick the most interesting story of my career, I’d struggle. Not because nothing stood out, but because it wasn’t one defining moment that shaped me. It was the combination of very different experiences, each teaching me something new.
I’ve gone from doing hands-on technical work, setting up fibre networks alongside my CTO, well outside my comfort zone, to running a chess programming club for gifted primary school students, where I learned how powerful curiosity and enthusiasm can be. I’ve also been part of an ambitious effort to build one of the first fully automated digital processes in banking. It was a bold project with an amazing team that taught me just how far ambition and collaboration can go when bureaucracy says something is “impossible”.
What ties all of this together is the variety: different roles, different people and different challenges. That’s what shaped me. Over time, it taught me that a career, like a good system, is strongest when its parts connect and that experiences from one area often offer valuable insight into another.
You are a successful leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Authenticity and honesty
I believe strongly in being genuine with my team, our partners and myself. I don’t claim to have all the answers. I’m clear about what I know and honest about what I don’t. Being open and transparent allows me to show up as myself, without politics or pretence. I believe that’s the best recipe for success. Long term, this is the only way for me to maintain a healthy balance. Constantly wearing a mask is exhausting and can lead to burnout, something I unfortunately experienced first-hand.
Proactivity
For me, being proactive is about clarity and momentum. It means setting clear expectations, staying transparent and avoiding unnecessary surprises. It’s about anticipating what’s needed, not reacting at the last minute, and driving things forward with energy and purpose. Whether it’s aligning stakeholders early or flagging issues before they escalate, I aim to be someone others can count on to lead with clarity and momentum.
Leading by example
I see leadership as setting the tone through actions, not just decisions. It’s about showing up with integrity, being supportive and reflecting on what others need to thrive, then helping create that situation for them. That means being present, offering guidance when helpful and stepping in when something or someone needs attention. I try to lead not just through decisions, but through attitude, empathy and consistency.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, a major focus right now is turning blockchain from something people talk about into something they use in everyday operations and making it viable at a business operations level. For organizations, the challenge has never been interest. The real question has been whether the technology can operate reliably at scale within real operational environments.
That’s why Teranode is such an important project for us. Its public launch in October 2025 marked a shift from experimental use cases to production-ready infrastructure. It represents years of work to rethink how blockchain infrastructure should function when it’s used at real scale. Enterprises don’t run in batches or pilots. They run continuously across many systems and stakeholders. Teranode was designed to support that reality, enabling high transaction volumes, predictable performance and cost control at scale.
From an enterprise perspective, this opens the door to practical applications across supply chains, retail, finance and healthcare. Businesses can integrate blockchain into their everyday operations to provide verifiable proof of data, ensure traceability and enable real-time reporting and settlement.
Alongside this, we’re working closely with a growing global developer ecosystem that’s applying the technology to real problems. We’re seeing strong momentum in areas like supply chain traceability, where businesses can track products from origin to destination with full transparency, reduce fraud and build greater trust with consumers. In finance and healthcare, the focus is on secure data sharing, auditability and accountability, ensuring information can be trusted without relying on assumptions.
Ultimately, the goal across all these efforts is the same: to make blockchain dependable infrastructure. When systems are transparent, scalable and verifiable, people benefit through safer products, more efficient services and greater confidence in the systems they rely on every day.
What does the term “supply chain” encompass?
At its simplest, a supply chain is the full journey a product or service takes from its point of origin to the end customer. That includes sourcing raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, storage, distribution and delivery, as well as the information and data that move alongside those physical goods.
From my perspective, what often gets overlooked is that supply chains are not just about logistics. They are complex networks of organisations, systems and people that must coordinate in real time. Trust, data accuracy and visibility are just as important as moving products efficiently. When any part of that chain lacks reliable information, the entire system becomes slower, more expensive and more vulnerable to risk.
That’s why modern supply chains need shared, verifiable data across all participants. Without it, you’re not really managing a supply chain. You’re managing assumptions.
Can you help articulate the weaknesses in our current food supply chain systems?
Our current food supply chain systems struggle to consistently deliver healthy, affordable, safe and sustainably produced food. At the same time, environmental pressures are increasing and social inequalities are deepening, making the system more fragile and less resilient.
One major weakness is fragmentation. Food systems are spread across disconnected platforms, databases and networks that don’t talk to each other. Farmers, cooperatives, researchers, buyers and policymakers often work in silos, duplicating effort and relying on incomplete or outdated information. This makes coordination difficult and slows down decision-making, especially during disruption.
We also see weaknesses in how food moves from farm to fork. Long, complex supply chains can hide where food comes from, how its produced and who benefits along the way. Shorter, more local food supply chains can improve transparency, reduce risk and strengthen communities but they are hard to scale without shared infrastructure and trusted data.
This is where initiatives like Common Source highlight what’s missing. Common Source is a digital collaboration platform for food systems that helps farmers, producers, researchers and policymakers work together across different networks using a shared digital identity. It was created to address fragmentation by allowing participants to connect, share verified information and receive recognition for their contributions without giving up control of their data.
Finally, decision-making across the system is often based on incomplete or delayed data. Without transparent, shared information across the supply chain, it becomes difficult to make informed policy decisions or adapt quickly. While digital tools exist that could improve transparency and coordination, they are not yet used in a way that truly supports inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems.
What’s needed is infrastructure that supports cooperation, transparency and fair value sharing across the entire food system.
Can you help define what a nationally secure and resilient food supply chain would look like?
A nationally secure and resilient food supply chain is one that people can trust even in times of disruption. It ensures food is safe, available, affordable and sustainably produced, while remaining adaptable to shocks such as climate events, supply shortages or geopolitical changes. At its core, resilience comes from visibility, coordination and the ability to make informed decisions quickly.
Transparency plays a central role. Using technologies like blockchain, every step of the food supply chain, from sourcing and production to transport and distribution, can be recorded in a secure, tamper-proof way. This allows governments, businesses and consumers to trace where food comes from, how it was handled and whether standards were met. It reduces fraud, improves food safety and strengthens farm-to-fork connections, local networks and regional collaborations.
Ultimately, a resilient food supply chain combines good governance, strong local and regional communities and intelligent use of technology. When systems are designed to reward participation, support collaboration and balance economic, environmental and social priorities, national food security becomes stronger, fairer and sustainable over the long term.
What is your organisation doing to help create a more secure food supply chain?
One of the main ways we’re helping create a more secure food supply chain is by using blockchain to rebuild trust across agriculture and food systems. Agriculture depends on trust between farmers, buyers, suppliers and consumers, but when data is fragmented, payments are delayed and product origins are unclear, that trust quickly breaks down.
Blockchain brings everyone onto the same page by creating a single, verifiable record of what’s grown, how it’s processed and where it’s sold. This approach supports everything from land registration and harvest tracking to sustainability and carbon reporting. It gives all participants access to the same reliable information while ensuring sensitive data is only visible to approved parties.
A good example is our work with Common Source, which streamlines collaboration and tackles a major weakness in European food systems: fragmentation across networks and platforms. Common Source uses BSV blockchain to provide a single digital identity that allows farmers, producers, researchers and policymakers to participate across multiple food system networks with one secure sign-up. Participants remain in control of their data, while every interaction and contribution is recorded on a shared, tamper-proof ledger.
Beyond identity, the platform enables transparent contribution tracking, trusted credential verification and fair recognition of work across the food value chain. By supporting solutions like Common Source and engaging with policymakers and industry leaders, we’re demonstrating how the BSV blockchain can serve as dependable infrastructure for food systems, helping build supply chains that are more transparent, collaborative and resilient.
What threats on the horizon could disrupt our food supply chain?
One major threat is the inability to trust or access the right data. Today, information about food, how it’s handled and who is responsible is often spread across many systems that don’t communicate with each other. When something goes wrong, this makes it slow and difficult to act. Delays, waste and loss of trust are often the result.
Another risk is too much control sitting in too few hands. When food systems depend heavily on central platforms or large intermediaries, they become fragile. If one part fails, the impact can spread quickly. Smaller farmers and local producers also lose visibility and fair access, which weakens the system.
Finally, climate pressure and sustainability challenges are already affecting how food is grown and moved. Extreme weather, changing regulations and rising expectations around sustainability mean supply chains need to adapt faster than they do today. Without clear visibility and shared responsibility, this becomes very hard to manage.
Acting now means building systems that allow people to share trusted information, work together more easily and respond quickly when conditions change. That’s how we protect food supply chains before small problems turn into major disruptions.
What are the five things we must do to create nationally secure and resilient food supply chains?
To build nationally secure and resilient food supply chains, we need to focus on a few fundamentals. These aren’t abstract ideas. They’re practical steps that directly reduce risk and build trust.
1. Create one trusted source of truth for food data
Food data is currently scattered across many systems, slowing decisions and creating confusion. Shared, trusted records allow issues to be identified quickly. During a food recall today, companies often spend days reconciling records. With a shared system, problems can be traced in minutes.
2. Improve traceability from farm to fork
Clear visibility of where food comes from, how it’s handled and where it goes, improves safety and accountability. If a batch of produce is unsafe, traceability allows only affected items to be removed rather than entire product ranges.
3. Reduce dependency on centralised platforms
When control is concentrated, systems become fragile. Open, shared infrastructure allows smaller farmers to participate fairly and prove compliance without being locked out by closed platforms.
4. Use real-time data to respond faster to change
Climate events, demand shifts and transport disruptions require rapid responses. Real-time data enables faster, smarter decisions and rewards good practice when sustainability and quality are visible and verifiable.
5. Align incentives around trust, not just profit
A resilient system rewards good behaviour. Transparency makes this possible by ensuring sustainable practices and verified quality are recognised and compensated.
In short, resilient food supply chains are built on trust, visibility and collaboration. When information is shared, verified and accessible, the entire system becomes stronger, not just in times of crisis but every day.
Are there other ideas that should encourage us to reimagine our food supply chain?
Yes. One important shift is how we view food supply chains. They’re often treated purely as logistics systems, but they shape public health, sustainability, trust and national resilience. When we treat them as shared infrastructure rather than back-end operations, it changes how seriously we invest in them.
Visibility and inclusion are also critical. Tools like Digital Product Passports, simple digital records that store trusted information about a product’s origin, handling and compliance, can help ensure data is available before problems arise rather than after.
Preparedness should be constant, not reactive. Food supply chains should be tested, monitored and improved continuously, not only after disruption.
Finally, we must move away from short-term fixes. The goal should be long-lasting infrastructure that supports daily operations, adapts to new demands and continues to work as scale increases. That long-term thinking is essential if food supply chains are to remain resilient in the years ahead.
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the best to the most people, what would it be?
It would be about making truth something we can rely on again. We already have the technology to do this. Blockchain allows us to build systems where information can be trusted by default, where money flows are visible, decisions are traceable and records cannot be quietly altered after the fact. That reduces corruption not through control, but through transparency.
Imagine a world where government spending is traceable in real time. Where carbon credits are real. Where identity, ownership and value have integrity by design.
It’s about rebuilding trust in the systems that shape our lives, starting with education, finance, public records and human rights. We don’t need another app. We need infrastructure for truth.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
This was very inspiring and informative. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this interview!
Ásgeir Thór Óskarsson: How We Are Helping To Create A Resilient Food Supply Chain was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.