Korea Blockchain Week 2022: Moving Beyond
Hashed is excited to announce the long-awaited Korea Blockchain Week 2022 (KBW2022) co-hosted with FACTBLOCK. KBW 2022 will be held from August 7th to 14th 24/7 in Seoul, South Korea. KBW has been Asia’s most dynamic and impactful blockchain festival, celebrating its 5th anniversary this year. This cultural event holds profound meaning as the first in-person blockchain event in Asia since the outbreak of Covid-19 and years of subsequent restrictions.
Despite the wake of the recent economic free fall, all the builders and founders are working harder than ever in the market, and the blockchain industry has shown eye-opening progress. It is not confined to prices but with incredible talents and technical debates that go around the space. It convinced us that the crypto industry is already on the highway to an exceptional level of growth, and KBW 2022 will be the much-awaited nourishment for the crypto ecosystem.
Hashed has been co-hosting KBW since 2018 as an annual event to build and support the vibrant crypto community. Commemorating the 5th anniversary and as a celebration of breaking a long-due social distance, we would like to take this opportunity to share our thoughts on KBW with a recollection of the restless spirit of KBW 2018, an unforgettable experience for us to build a global web3 community here in Seoul.
Korea Blockchain Week 2018 “Moving Forward”
: Hashed laid the foundation to build a crypto ecosystem at the epicenter of blockchain
“It felt wonderful. Like being struck by lightning.” - Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Back in July 2018, we Hashed ran all around Seoul visiting all the event venues of KBW 2018, even not feeling the heat wave of summer, so as to stamp HASHED and Korea on the memory of crypto and blockchain builders flying into Seoul across the globe.
Once we decided to host our first global crypto event KBW 2018, we, on cloud nine, couldn’t grab even a tiny hint of what we had to start with. Flyers and banners? Side events? Main conference scheduling? Once again, we were all in an endless expanse of blue sky but whirlwinds of worries and doubts flooded into our minds. But one thing was clear: to make Korea and Hashed global hubs where any participants or stakeholders within the blockchain industry could mingle with one another at ease. For this, we finally decided to hold several events.
It was a normal Monday 9 AM. Our Hashed lounge was bustling with over 150 blockchain industry leaders discussing a wide spectrum of topics including DeFi, web3 gaming, decentralized identity and more. They also shared their schedule for KBW 2018 and talked about what they expect and who they hope to meet during KBW 2018. Once the sun went down, we feasted on classic Korean dishes which began to trend globally. Besides our private events, more than 600 people participated in the main conference, surpassing our expectations on participation level. While wrapping up the conference, our team could proudly say to one another that we left a meaningful impression of Hashed and Korea for our audience.
Reminiscing about the smiles and laughter of our audience during our main conference and side events in 2018, it became clear what we had to do next: to move beyond to create more impactful and insightful opportunities for our community, current and new.
Korea Blockchain Week 2022: “Moving Beyond”
: Hashed is actively building a crypto ecosystem at the epicenter of blockchain
“I didn’t think anyone would anticipate this move, because it was so clearly insane.” - Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Four years have passed since then, and the Korean blockchain landscape has changed tremendously. Public awareness of crypto grew, educational materials on crypto became more available to the mass audience, and a growing number of institutions started investing in blockchain technology. Also, more than 200 blockchain builders and founders joined our Hashed community as close strategic partners, and the Korean government assigned a four times greater budget dedicated to the domestic blockchain industry.
Such development allowed us to re-assess the direction we have devised. Our role was not to be confined to being a good investor but forwarded to positioning Hashed as a value-adding platform in Asia. To achieve this goal, we organized a Platform Team that is dedicated to growing our portfolio companies in a sustainable manner. Platform Team provides non-monetary support such as PR, talent hiring, business development, and other consulting services.
In light of this effort, we wanted to describe KBW 2022 as “Moving Beyond” as the next chapter of “Moving Forward” of KBW 2018. Our goal is to engrave Hashed as a partner and an ecosystem builder based in Korea rather than a mere investor. We are devoted to creating an environment that is a wide and tight net of the crypto ecosystem naturally weaved across Korea and beyond.
To achieve this goal, we strapped our boots and started preparing for KBW 2022. We set off by designing and constructing a list of top-notch keynote and panel sessions that could intrigue the intellects of crypto, entrepreneurs, engineers, and regulators. There will be a total of 50 sessions that address mass adoption, infrastructure, regulation, global market insights, tools, etc. We already have 70+ renowned, insightful, and intellectual speakers who are confirmed to join KBW 2022. Seoul, the capital of South Korea, will be steaming hot and you might even get a burn.
We also poured our energy into inviting as many portfolio companies as possible to give them deserved attention at KBW 2022. More than 20 of our portfolio companies will come to Korea. We are truly excited to have our community mingle with hundreds of crypto startups, builders, learners, and believers. During the event, everyone at Hashed will jump into the melting pot to get to know new members of our community, share insightful thoughts, and discuss the way ahead of the crypto ecosystem.
We’re still working on creating a more seamless and sophisticated experience for the participants and the audience. We have a strong conviction that KBW 2022 will be THE platform for founders and builders to discover new opportunities and lifetime partners.
From today onwards, we have a month until the event. We would suggest moving fast. Come fly into Seoul, tune into insightful blockchain sessions, mingle with passionate crypto people, share your unique thoughts, meet your favorite founders and feel the heat of Seoul! Someday, you would say “I didn’t think anyone would have anticipated the move, because it was so clearly insane!”. Come and join us and let’s move beyond as our fellow companions.
