A walk through the crypto jungle at Korea Blockchain Week
Blockchain technology is all about decentralization and virtualization.
Blockchain technology is all about decentralization and virtualization. So it’s a little ironic that humans love to come together in person at big blockchain events. Such was the case last week in Seoul, where a record 17,000 people and 300 speakers came together for Korea Blockchain Week.
Like traditional tech conferences, the event featured a lot of big names in the field, both the high-profile (Vitalik Buterin, Richard Teng of Binance, and Mark Karpeles among them) and the no-profile (researchers, professors, and many founders of new startups).
Unlike normal confabs, you also got the ha-profile: apes, penguins, ducks, and bears were also on the list.
No one would ever accuse the crypto world of lacking merry pranksters. But all the same, there remained a strong undercurrent of unease in the crowd. Mainstream adoption appears to have stalled, and with the U.S. elections coming up, there is a big question mark over what regulation will look like going forward.
Beyond the protocols
Historically, scalability has been a major issue for blockchains with high fees and slow transaction speeds. Now, second-layer blockchains (so-called “layer-2 blockchains”) have made transactions both faster and cheaper, meaning scalability is no longer an issue for most use cases. The most popular layer-2 blockchains can handle millions of transactions per day without any hiccup.
Old-school with a side of crypto?
While some crypto companies are still looking for breakthrough successes, others are trying to convince traditional enterprises that they should add a crypto twist to their existing products.
Justin Kim, head of Asia at Ava Labs, a blockchain platform focused on decentralized apps (“dApps”) and enterprise blockchain deployments, noted that more organizations are launching their own custom blockchains on top of Avalanche.
Big backers, and bigger regional forces
In 2023, lower- and middle-income countries were driving cryptocurrency adoption; this year, adoption is spread more evenly between richer and poorer countries, said Diederik van Wersch, regional director of ASEAN and Hong Kong at blockchain data platform Chainalysis.
“The mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency could be a result of the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, which triggered an increase in the total value of Bitcoin activity across all regions,” van Wersch told TechCrunch.
In keeping with that, institutions are facilitating the adoption of cryptocurrency in nations such as Singapore and Indonesia, he said. The U.S. followed a similar pattern. When the U.S introduced a Bitcoin ETF, Siu said it was a step change for the market.
“Tokens that have institutional backing tend to do better. That’s how things are shaping up for crypto moving forward,” Siu said.
“In Singapore, we’re seeing a rise in the use of crypto merchant services, while in Indonesia, crypto is being used as a trading instrument and has become one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the region with the highest year-over-year growth at nearly 200%,” van Wersch said.
That’s not all good news: As more people adopt it, there will likely be more crime, he added. “As adoption grows, so will crime. And today, crypto is encompassing all types of crime — including fraud and narcotics.”
Bullish on Telegram’s future (despite Durov’s arrest)
The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France last month definitely led to an aftershock for the Telegram-linked Toncoin, which slumped in price in the wake of the news. But by the time KBW rolled around just a week later, the mood was buoyant.
Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, told TechCrunch that Telegram had become a useful communication tool for many in the crypto community, and that was not likely to change in the short term.
“What happened to Pavel Durov and what’s happening with Telegram and TON is proof that decentralization is working quite well. Despite the fact that Pavel was arrested, everything was still working,” Siu told TechCrunch. “I would say it’s a net positive and, to me, shows the resilience and strength of decentralization and the benefits of running something on the blockchain. So I’m long-term bullish on TON and Telegram.”
Animoca Brands is an investor in TON, the blockchain that is deeply integrated into the messaging app.
Simon acknowledged one takeaway from the incident: It highlighted how new regulations need to be created to manage these virtual spaces independently, because there are no physical borders in the digital world and states can’t control what’s on the internet.
Regulation remains a major hurdle
Regulation time and again came up as the biggest concern among people we spoke to at KBW, and not just among those working in Asian crypto, but those from other regions, too.
“Until a few years ago, many blockchain builders had established their headquarters in Singapore,” Simon said. “Most recently, the UAE has emerged as the most industry-friendly country, providing clear regulations and guidelines within the nation.”
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