Say blockchain in the Nordics, and people hear cryptocurrency. Fati Hakim wants to change that.

She founded the consultancy FirstBlock and is the initiator of FirstBlock-athon, the blockathon running in Stockholm in September. In this conversation she argues that the builder side of the technology has no stage in the region — the companies using blockchain for traceability, verification and digital identity rather than trading and payments.

The solutions already exist

Her point is not that solutions are missing. Companies are already building them, she says. They rarely get attention, and the problems they could solve stay unsolved because the knowledge isn't there.

The trust layer beneath AI

Her argument for why this matters now runs through AI. Data has become a currency in its own right, and models consume vast amounts of it. That makes ownership and verification the harder question — starting with identity, as forgeries of video and voice keep getting better.

She also knows the objection that blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. She met it in Germany, Austria and Switzerland before moving to Sweden. Today those are the countries delivering the most solutions in Europe, she says.

Read the full interview with Fati Hakim — in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish

More on what's built on the blockchain beyond finance in Onchain Build.