Revolutionary Road
This is the article that we contributed for the “State of the Blockchain in South Korea” report by OneAlpha. For more details, please see the following links:
1) The original report: https://onealpha.io/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/SKBR-WV010119.pdf
2) Medium summary: https://medium.com/one-alpha/state-of-the-blockchain-in-south-korea-62f0b94f7e45
Korea is one of the few countries that have nationwide interest in the social and scientific effect of blockchain technology, accompanied with strong secondary market. Its citizens, local governments, and corporations are all active participants in the blockchain industry, making Korea a strong candidate for mass adoption of blockchain.
As proven by “Kimchi Premium”, Koreans are paying special attention to cryptocurrencies, leading to high trading volume per capita. At one point in November 2017, KRW once accounted over 50% of the entire transaction volumes of top 12 cryptocurrencies. Notably, Koreans have relatively diversified portfolio — KRW accounted for nearly half of global non-BTC market share (54.76%), followed by USD (37.22%) and EUR (3.27%) in January 2018. This shows that Koreans are familiar with various blockchain projects and are willing to invest in them, thus creating a favorable environment for projects to flourish.
Korea’s local governments are also showing interest in the rising technology. Mayor of Korea’s capital city Seoul recently revealed a five-year plan to invest KRW 123.3 billion (approx. USD 108 million) to transform Seoul into a smart city powered by blockchain. With Blockchain Urban Plan for 2018–2022, 14 major public services will adopt blockchain. And Jeju has been pushing forward the initiative to become a crypto valley, announcing its plan to attract projects and investors with blockchain-friendly regulations. Other major cities including Busan and Daegu are actively trying to adopt the technology, which reflect the country’s efforts to stay ahead of the game.
Last but not least, corporations are significant players in the Korean blockchain industry that will facilitate mass adoption. Two of Korea’s IT conglomerates, Naver and Daum Kakao, have each executed reverse ICO and created their own blockchain projects — Link and Klaytn — as foundation for their future blockchain ecosystem. Klaytn in particular recently announced the first batch of strategic partners comprised of dApps from different industries, showing its commitment to blockchain. Other companies with existing business models and users are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon. For examples, Rayon backed by Finda, number one Korean financial products recommendation platform, Yap Chain backed by Yap Company, a location based consumer service provider, Cosmochain backed by HuiSeoul, an user skin data and recommendation platform are leveraging the blockchain technology to make their services more compelling and competitive in the global market.
Korea is a hyper-connected society with the fastest internet speed in the world, and its residents are receptive to new technology and innovation. Combining the facts that Koreans are very familiar with the cryptocurrency trading, the average knowledge level on the technology is high, and existing companies and governments are willing to adopt the technology, when actual use cases of blockchain technology arise, there is no doubt that Korea will be the first to adopt.
