Despite South Korea’s ban on ICOs in late September of 2017, the crypto scene in Korea has not slowed down and has in fact blossomed into one of the biggest Asian blockchain and cryptocurrency hubs in the world.
Korean regulators and government officials have taken notice of this as rumors have spread of South Korea possibly lifting their ICO ban with The Korea Times also reporting financial regulators are planning to ease rules surrounding crypto-assets in line with G20 nations goal to establish “unified regulations [on crypto]”.
With South Korea responsible for 30% of the world’s cryptocurrency trading volume, despite only representing LESS than 1% of the world’s population, clamping down on this booming industry would be a major blow to what could become a new burgeoning crypto-centric economy.
Cryptocurrencies Taking Over Korea
Simon Kim, CEO of #Hashed, which is one of, if not, the biggest Korean crypto fund estimates that at least 50% of South Korea’s salaried workers owns cryptocurrencies.
Several fundamental reasons have led to the surging interest in cryptocurrencies within Korea:
- Seoul’s density allowing for word to get around fast;
- Korea’s technology-centric culture allowing for the easier adoption and use of ‘digital’ money; and
- Long working hours and conditions resulting in Korean workers looking for investment opportunities to shorten their time to retirement.
Having witnessed the returns provided to early investors of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero and other cryptocurrencies, any logically and rationally minded person would want to participate — at least a little bit — in this ‘craze’.
ICON (ICX), Korea’s first major crypto moon mission blasted off late 2017 and many investors and pundits alike have been searching for the next Korean project likely to replicate ICON’s renowned success.
What’s Next?
Moving forward South Korea has their eyes set on building out their own crypto blockchain ecosystem covering the major crypto sectors and ‘industries’ at play.
Korea’s Blockchain Week (July 16 to 20) in Seoul is right around the corner so this was the perfect opportunity to briefly recap some of the best projects coming out of Korea that will be looking to zerg rush the blockchain space by storm…
1. Fantom Foundation
Fantom is Korea’s first DAG-based blockchain with smart contract capability offering instant finality of transactions at infinite scalability and at minimal costs.
As a high-performance blockchain, they are looking to disrupt the existing industries of supply-chain management, food, telecom, banking, and real estate.
Fantom have recently concluded their public crowdsale for $2 million on 16 June with their tokens scheduled to be released on exchanges soon.
(Fantom’s crowdsale and private sale were massively over subscribed and hyped with their whitelisting system failing due to the amount of traffic coming in from people wanting to register and participate in their crowdsale.)
2. Carry Protocol
Carry Protocol allows a way for normal retail consumers to get paid and earn cryptocurrencies for the first time!
Carry Protocol handles offline data, and in particular, your personal data so that you can be compensated for providing your data to marketers and merchants whilst experiencing a custom-fit tailored shopping experience, whether you’re buying a coffee, fresh kicks, or new clothes.
The well-established team behind Carry stems from Spoqa, a South Korean marketing company with over 15,000 merchants boasting 60% of South Korea’s market share.
The offline advertising space is a huge untapped market and Carry Protocol has been designed with great incentives for both consumers, advertisers, and merchants to participate in the network.
3. Metadium
Metadium is Korea’s own version of what Sovrin/Evernym pertain to do. Metadium is an identity protocol allowing users to manage, use, and protect their own personal data and identity.
Users are able to have a single identity that integrates across multiple platforms whilst maintaining full control and sovereignty over how their personal data and identity is used.
Co-Founded by Ryan Uhr, CEO of CoinPlug, Metadium is undoubtedly well connected in the crypto scene, which is demonstrated by their stacked advisory team to boot consisting of the likes of Bo Shen, Roger Ver, and Vincent Zhou.
Metadium has raised $35M privately from leading VCs such as FBG, Hashed, Blocktower Capital, Smith + Crown, Kenetic, Arrington Capital and many more…
4. Terra
Terra is a new stablecoin coming out of Korea that is still very much underwraps with very limited public information available about it.
With a focus on the Asian market and sector, Terra could become a huge deal with the only other Asian-centric stablecoin that comes to mind being Alchemint.
Terra’s proposed approach is intriguing as their initial plan will be to be backed by fiat, however later down the road, Terra will wean itself off it’s ties to fiat and instead use their cryptotoken “Luna” as the reserve once adoption scales and transactions increase.
Using this dual coin structure, Terra will be the stablecoin, with Luna being a dividend bearing collateral coin.
Terra is looking to build an alliance of top e-commerce players in Asia, and they believe this alliance will be a serious contender to Alibaba and Taobao in terms of transaction volume.
5. Cosmochain
Cosmetics on the blockchain.
What…?!
Yep. You read that right.
Not as ridiculous as sugar dating however it does get up there in terms of ideas for a shitcoin BUT hear me out..
This isn’t actual cosmetics being put on the blockchain, it’s putting the cosmetics industry onto the blockchain so customers and companies can connect through Cosmochain’s “beauty ecosystem” in a mutually beneficial way.
If you have no idea, the Korean beauty market is MASSIVE.
I’ve heard from several Korean friends — to be frank I’m not sure if they’re trolling me or not - that it is essentially a rite of passage for Korean women after graduating high school or college to be gifted with some type of plastic surgery operation from their fathers. (*Mindblown*)
Anyway, the major pros here are that the: 1) Korean Cosmetics and beauty market is HUGE, 2) Throw in cryptocurrencies (enough said), 3) Proven team, 4) Legitimate Korean beauty influencers and figureheads as advisors, plus 5) Major crypto funds invested. Potentially one to look out for.
6. Aergo
Aergo is in my honest opinion the next project that could see genuine ICON like success. Deemed as “Blockchain fuel for autonomous business”, you can think of Aergo as a gateway between public and private blockchains for businesses.
That doesn’t sound overly sex or even all that novel, however the juiciest part about Aergo is that, much like several of the other projects listed above, they have a very strong history and background in their selected industry.
Aergo’s core technology is a combination of the most advanced open source tech alongside Coinstack from Blocko. A leading “Blockchain-as-a-Service” enterprise solution for companies, Blocko has massive ties to well-known corporations. Coinstack-based blockchain systems have been deployed to over 25 million users in 20 separate in-production systems.
Blocko’s list of clients include Samsung, Hyundai, Lotte Card, and South Korea’s largest financial services firm Shinhan Financial.
KEKEKE
Did I forget to cover any other major Korean projects coming out of the woodworks?
If so let me know in the comments below — otherwise if you liked this article, let us join hands as we wait for the incoming Zerg Rush of crypto projects coming straight for our Seouls.
Oh, also, feel free to smash down that clap button if you enjoyed the read!
Disclaimer: The author has a financial position in some of the projects listed above. This article is not to be taken as financial advice.