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tOP: COUrteSy OF Hgtv aPrIl 2016 BCBusiness 21 Uncommon Currency N u m e r o l o g y by Melissa Edwards Into the Forest that weigh more than a Toyota Camry—and then taken apart, shipped to their destinations and reconstructed. Reid admits that some of the drama in Timber Kings is forced: every episode features challenges of time, demanding clients or a stuck vehicle. "We can put up a house without saying any- thing to each other," he says. "But of course that's not good television." Reid built his rst log home at 21, learning the skills from a local First Nations man, Samson Jack. Williams Lake was booming, thanks to the Gibraltar Mine, and people kept asking him to build more. Then came a customer from Switzerland, who suggested his nephew join Reid's grow- ing company. "I thought, 'We don't need no Swiss, we know everything.' Well, I was wrong. Carpentry is steeped in tradition over there. He showed us things that we had never done before." Over the years, more Swiss car- penters came to Pioneer, slowly building the com- pany's capability. Now, Reid estimates that he and his team of more than 100 employ- ees (including his son, Bryan Jr., and his grandson, also Bryan) build about 100 homes (average 3,500 square feet) a year. The show now airs in more than 150 countries, and it has brought him a certain celebrity, with fans approaching him in Kazakhstan and Korea. But Reid says his goal was never about advertising but rather showcasing the talents of his team and the beauty of Williams Lake. "We're trades- men, and when you work with your hands, the highest honour you can have is to share your work with the world through a medium like television." A concrete-framed home generates 31% more greenhouse gas emissions over its life cycle than a wood-framed home chainsaw GanG Bryan Reid Sr., second from the left, stands with the rest of the crew from HGTV's popular show Timber Kings 30 That's how many cities worldwide will participate in this month's Coinfest (April 5®10), an annual cryptocurrency conference founded in Vancouver in 2013. B.C. is a "hotbed" for nancial technolo«y, says SFU's Mark McLaughlin, who is leading a research study into Vancouver's bitcoin ecosystem and who last year oversaw the university's move to accept bitcoin at campus bookstores. New payment platforms that allow instant dollar conversion (such as one released last November by Vancouver-based Payrma) are boosting uptake by protecting retailers from bitcoin's famed volatility, but, says McLaughlin, the real focus of many local startups is the underlying transaction-tracking system, called blockchain, which has the potential to revolutionize how companies manage their records. "It's being described as what could underpin Internet 3.0," says McLaughlin. "There is a lot of smart money going into that area." 31% more CO Wood is 10 times bet- ter than concrete and 400 times better than steel at resisting the ow of heat Increase in global monthly bitcoin transactions in 2015 36% 16% + - Increase in monthly transactions in vancouver-area bitcoin atMs run by alberta-based bitnational (which man- ages a third of the city's machines) in 2015 Change in the value of a bitcoin from January to December 2015 One-day change on January 16, 2016, after negative comments by a leading developer 82% 3,424% medium like television." That's how many cities worldwide will participate in this month's Coinfest (April 5®10), an annual cryptocurrency conference founded in Vancouver in 2013. B.C. 's Mark McLaughlin, who is leading a research study into at resisting the ow of heat WOOD CONCRETE STEEL