Video chat business: how the transition to online has affected bitcoin companies

The coronavirus pandemic, announced on March 11, continues to rage. Most countries have introduced quarantine andrecommended that companies, if possible, transfer employees to a remote mode of operation.

It can be assumed that cryptocurrency companies,most of the business processes which already took place online, were not affected by the transition to udalenka. But is it really so? ForkLog figured out the situation.

Trading volumes and development rates increased

Most representatives of the cryptocurrency industry with whom ForkLog talked said that months of isolation had a positive effect on the number of clients and developer productivity.

Work from home leads to an increase in the working day, explained the marketing director of the developer of the Waves Enterprise blockchain platform platform Matvey Voitov:

«In our company, the transition to remotethe work format had virtually no effect on the processes; they were well-established. All stand-ups, retrospectives, and planning meetings are held on the same schedule as before. We test new interaction tools and implement the most effective ones.

Voitov called the pandemic “the right time to review the budget.” To reduce infrastructure costs, Waves Enterprise optimizes IT costs: from licenses to tariff plans.

Daily trading turnover of Ukrainian cryptocurrencyKuna exchanges doubled in March - from 44 to 89 BTC. The “insane volatility in the crypto market” played into this, explained the founder of the site, Mikhail Chobanyan. Balances on user accounts also increased.

Costs reduced due to the rejection of coworking:

«I closed the Blockchain Hub, thereby reducing the insane rent to reasonable levels and the costs of related services,— said Chobanyan. —We agreed with the landlord on a discount on the office due to the fact that we are there only nominally.

Kuna not only retained the staff, but also expanded it. All earned goes to the wage fund.

The exchange team continues to develop the services pay.kuna.io and money.kuna.io. Updates are being made on the trading platform itself and the release of a crypto-hryvnia payment card.

According to Chobanyan, they managed to go online easily - half of the employees worked remotely before quarantine:

«Of course, we feel a lack of communication, but twice a week we hold general online meetings so that everyone is aware of what and how we are doing. Let's hold on.

«In line with the trend» The Russian exchange Garantex also turned out to be, says its founder Sergei Mendeleev:

«During the period of isolation, people are more actively usingremote services, online platforms. We have seen a 20% increase in transaction volume since the beginning of March, and we believe that one of the reasons for this increase is the quarantine. People began to spend more time at home, more free time appeared, and, as a result, traders working through bank cards became more active.

Not the least role in this, according to Mendeleev, was played by the launch of the OTC platform for conducting secure transactions for trading in ruble codes.

Binance cryptocurrency exchange has increased the staff to thousands of people and intends to continue hiring.

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However, at the end of April, the Binance divisionFutures recorded an absolute historical maximum of daily bitcoin futures trading volume above $ 10 billion. Binance also reached record levels in the spot market - $ 15.9 billion.

Poolin-based mining pool in China, despite strict quarantine measures, continued to operate normally.

&#171;The virus has not affected our operations, and over the past few months we have even hired ten additional employees&#187;,— Vice President of the pool Alejandro de la Torre told ForkLog.

The only real difference, he said, is the lack of traditional conferences and meetings:

&#171;They have moved to online video chats, but are still effective. We really miss the face-to-face interaction with our customers and community.

CEO of CryptoProcessing Max Krupyshev also announced positive dynamics. The company records a steady increase in the number of customers, although part of the projects were frozen.

Remote work has created new challenges for employees:

&#171;It is difficult to build communication between departments, since they are used to communicating in the office. But it’s cool that they will learn to resolve issues at meetings planned in advance&#187;,- Krupyshev believes.

Other companies were more sensitive toquarantined restrictions. Corporate messengers could not replace the founder of the Codex cryptocurrency exchange Sergey Vasilchuk with live communication with the team:

&#171;Motivation and engagement are difficult to measurepeople remotely: I don’t see or feel them, there is no team spirit. I started working twice as hard. I dream of returning to the office and not spending hours talking and texting.

Business expansion slowed down

Since the crisis required companies to optimize costs, one of the first to postpone plans to expand new markets and release new products.

CoinEx Exchange intended to expand in 2020presence on the international market through participation in foreign conferences, but the ban on flights to China and other countries violated these plans. The founder and CEO of the site, Haipo Young, told ForkLog that they had to change the focus and directions of global expansion:

&#171;In March, we launched the Ambassador program, andshe became very popular. We have recruited talented marketing, content and business professionals from various countries as our company ambassadors. We keep in touch with them online and pay them for completing assigned tasks. During this special period, we are very dependent on them to promote CoinEx locally&#187;.

The platform has shifted the vector towards online marketing campaigns, which, according to Young, turned out to be a successful approach: the number of new registrations and active users of the exchange is growing steadily.

The preparations for launching a new Braiins product, the operator of the oldest Slush Pool mining pool, coincided with the introduction of global quarantine.

&#171;The recent release of the Braiins OS+ operating system required teamwork, and this was hampered by the inability to meet in person&#187;,- explained Braiins and Slush Pool co-director Jan Capek.

He added that the company had to postpone the planned creation of guidelines for installing mining equipment.

The Six Nines Swedish data center has avoided the difficulty of supplying mining equipment for current operations, thanks to the available reserves.

&#171;The only thing that the pandemic has affected is the development of new areas that require new equipment. However, after the situation normalizes, we will continue to work on them&#187;,— said the CEO of the data center Sergey Troshin.

In turn, the Russian data center Lazm,located in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) &#171;Lipetsk&#187;, is faced with the fact that energy companies do not consider the &#171;non-working days&#187; declared in the country. on weekends and charge electricity bills at weekday rates.

&#171;The SEZ administration also does not consider&#171;non-working days&#187; days off when fulfilling the relevant obligations of the companies. In addition, some deadlines for SEZ residents are specified in laws and orders in calendar days&#187;,— Lazm CEO Philipp Modnov said.

The data center is having difficulty gettingbuilding permits and frequent inspections by the SEZ administration. Costs for masks and antiseptics increased, every two hours the staff is forced to distract themselves from cleaning and filling out magazines for Rospotrebnadzor, Modnov added.

The number of charitable initiatives increased

The pandemic has united high-tech companies in the fight against the spread of the virus: the development of specialized applications and a campaign to collect donations has noticeably intensified.

So, scientists working on private networks from a Swiss startup Nym Technologies participated in the creation of a privacy-friendly application for tracking Sovid-19.

Bitfury Technology Providerdonated part of his GPU computing power to coronavirus research institutions. It is expected that graphics processors will be able to significantly increase the computing power of computers, and thereby accelerate medical research in the field of viral technologies and work with databases.

New wave of popularity gainedGuardian Circle blockchain application developed by the company of the same name in 2016. It includes emergency buttons, an accident detection system, a heart rate monitor, voice control and information transfer to a close circle of contacts. Thus, the application provides the user with personal safety and reduces the response time of medical teams.

A number of projects offered their platforms for hosting third-party charitable initiatives. A campaign to raise $ 5 million to fight against coronavirus has been launched on the Binance Charity blockchain.

The Corona Fund Index Cryptocurrency Project has announced its intention to transfer 90% of the trade fees to the fund to help the victims of the disease.

Giving Block and Gitcoin began collecting donations: they have already joined the browser Brave, The Block, NEXO and Gemini.

WavesExchange has launched the # CryptoCOVID19 charity campaign, which accepts user forecasts regarding the spread of the virus. The mechanism based on smart contracts distributes tokens depending on whether the number of infected was more or less than predicted.

In addition to $ 10,000 from Waves.Exchange's first winners have already sent personal donations to 12 charities: InternationalMedicalCorps, TheWaterProject, EvesPlace, USWarrior, SavetheChildren, TeamRubicon, SOSChildrensVillages, NoKidHungry, PencilsofPromise, MonaFoundation, Lupus Foundation and mRelief.

Conclusion

Every crisis opens up new opportunities for business. In this regard, CEO of the CoinEx exchange Hypo Yang quotes Winston Churchill: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”

&#171;Crisis provides an excellent opportunity to thinkand analyze our business. Our organizational structure has been adjusted during this period, resources have been reallocated, and each employee has rethought their responsibilities and positions, which we believe will benefit the company in the long term.- Young is sure.

The latest bull market allowed cryptocurrencycompanies accumulate sufficient cash flow and maintain stability. An equally important aspect, according to CEO CoinEx, is the stimulation of employee enthusiasm for work:

"Employees may be worried about the situation in the company, so open and effective communication is very important.During the pandemic, I and other leaders communicate with colleagues very often and even launched a new system to reward productivity.We believe that outstanding employees will help the company overcome its challenges."

Haipo Young draws parallels with the atypical outbreakpneumonia in China in 2003. The blow that hit many industries resulted in the impetus for the rapid development of the Internet and pointed to the advantages of the blockchain industry.

"The situation in China is improving, and I believe that when things are back to normal, our industry will also revive.We just need to lay a solid foundation and wait."

According to ForkLog founder Anatoly Kaplan,In conditions of mass self-isolation, only companies with increased mobility of internal resources - not tied to the office, steadily investing in brand and quality advertising - and companies working on the design of global development strategies will survive.

"The latter is especially important, because when the existing order and infrastructure solutions are destabilized, new strategies and projects receiveAt the same time, you should not be afraid that thisDemand may not yet be solvent at all.the very moment when financial resources are not a tool for solving any problems facing the business,"ForkLog's CEO emphasized.