Korean Media Should not be Obsessed with Just Bitcoin

Politicians and Mainstream Media in Korea Seem Obsessed With Bitcoin

The Korean media and the Korean government have concerns about cryptocurrency when it comes to it being used as a means to launder money or avoid taxes. Bad people will always use tools to serve their illicit ends. However, criminals are probably using US dollars more than Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, to fund their criminal endeavors. This point is often forgotten by critics of cryptocurrency.

Politicians and mainstream media in Korea have one thing in common: They overwhelmingly focus on Bitcoin. We are sure most people won’t even be aware that Bitcoin only accounts for 44% of the total cryptocurrency market and that this figure has been as low as 32.5%. What this means is that there are 100’s of billions of dollars of valuation in cryptocurrency projects other than Bitcoin.

The innovation in Bitcoin is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cryptocurrency. We think that if more coverage was given to other projects in cryptocurrency, then there would be more recognition for the innovation happening in the space.  Then the Korean media and government would embrace cryptocurrencies more in Korea.

How Cryptocurrency Technology Can Create Good In Korea

Much has been written on cryptocurrency prices or the death of Bitcoin. It’s near as if the only thing that matters is the price of cryptocurrencies. We are sure that founders of many cryptocurrency projects are horrified by this idea.

What many people do not know is that there are plenty of exceptionally talented people in the cryptocurrency space. These people are working on the cutting edge of technology and trying to solve real-world problems.

Bitcoin rose out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis and has gifted the world blockchain technology. In simple terms, this creates a public ledger of transactions and removes the need for a middleman to verify the transaction. Cutting out middlemen saves on cost and a public ledger means that transactions can be policed. There are also a number of business benefits of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin enables people to freely transact value across the world. In the developed world we may take this for granted. What many do not know is that out of the 7.6 billion people on the planet, over 2 billion are unbanked.  Before Bitcoin, the only option open to economic migrants was to use expensive money transfer services such as Western Money Union. Bitcoin empowers these people with an alternative.

Ethereum’s innovation in smart contracts has gone further to cut out middlemen. Smart contracts have enabled the exchange of assets without the oversight of an expensive third party. This innovation really does have the potential to change the lives of many people for the better and Korea should be doing all they can to innovate with this technology.

To be continued…..