Many people see cryptocurrency as the money of the future, and Bitmynt.no is Norway's oldest bitcoin exchange. When the Bitmynt team began building a new platform to automate bitcoin trading as far as possible, they needed specialist expertise to develop the solution. Schjønhaug AS took on the challenge.
Use of digital currency has grown enormously in recent years. Paying with virtual money is increasingly common online, in shops and in cafés, and in El Salvador bitcoin has become legal tender. Yet despite Bitcoin's growing popularity in Norway and around the world, many people still see Bitcoin as unsafe.
The Bitmynt team has long experience with Bitcoin and has, from the start, been focused on creating confidence for Norwegian bitcoin customers. The company was founded by pioneer Sturle Sunde as early as 2010 — only a year after Bitcoin launched — and was the first to offer bitcoin trading in Norway.
"Our primary goal is to be the preferred exchange service for bitcoin to Norwegian kroner and vice versa," says Morten Kjelkenes, technical director at Bitmynt. "It is extremely important to us that you as a customer feel confident that the funds you receive through a bitcoin purchase are safe and come from sources that are as well known as possible."
Bitmynt has ambitious plans to change how we trade digital currency online. The new trading platform now being built with Schjønhaug AS is intended to make bitcoin trading more efficient and reliable as demand grows both in the Norwegian market and internationally.
For the Bitmynt team, implementing more automation in the trading process has been a main focus over the past couple of years. Automating bitcoin exchanges that until now have only been carried out manually, and ensuring that the new trading platform is secure and easy to use, has been a large and complex project.
"It has been a long process. It is difficult to find people with the right expertise who know what they are doing in these fields, both because we have a number of special technical requirements that are complicated, and not least because few people have in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of the Bitcoin protocol," says Morten.
Andreas Schjønhaug, consultant and managing director at Schjønhaug AS, says that developing a trading platform like this takes a great deal of time and effort, and that innovative use of technology plays an important role in the platform's security.
"The solution is designed to minimise the risk of buying and selling bitcoin — in many ways it is like building a banking system," explains Andreas. "It is about thinking like a hacker — imagining how the system can be attacked and what can be exploited, so that you can design and implement solutions that strengthen those weaknesses. There are various techniques you can use to achieve this, and it requires very specialised competence when it comes to the Bitcoin protocol."
For the Bitmynt team, security is always the top priority. Innovative technology is developed to keep bitcoin transactions secure, but Bitmynt focuses on using reliable technologies that have been thoroughly proven.
"It is very important to us that we avoid adopting whatever is most fashionable in new technology at any given moment. We would rather use well-established technologies because they are safer and more operationally reliable," explains Morten. "We have to take extremely good care of both privacy and security, not least because we store personal data along with the money. We do our best to ensure that trading through us takes place in a safe and sound way."
Many Norwegians are sceptical of cryptocurrency and see bitcoin as unsafe. Morten says there are still prejudices and a lack of knowledge around digital currencies, and the Bitmynt team wants to make it possible for ordinary people to trade bitcoin in a responsible and secure way.
"One of the reasons Norwegians choose to trade with bitcoin companies based in Norway is that they then have better protection than if they buy through a foreign company that is not subject to the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. For most people, there is reassurance in that," says Andreas.
For Schjønhaug AS, this has been an interesting and instructive project. "Perhaps the most challenging part of this project has been creating an architecture that supports Bitmynt's business goals and philosophy, while also protecting customers' security and privacy," says Andreas. "It is a completely different way of thinking from more traditional systems. It has to be right from day one, and we cannot make mistakes because this is money that can be stolen. It has been very exciting to work with people who have very strong professional expertise in these areas," he says.
The Bitmynt team is also pleased with the collaboration with Schjønhaug AS. "We communicate well, we have discussed a great deal, and Andreas has contributed many strong professional insights. His competence is very strong in the areas we work with, especially when it comes to Bitcoin," says Morten. "Schjønhaug is known for being good in these areas, and the collaboration has worked extremely well."
