Korea Blockchain Week – Key Insights

About Korea Blockchain Week 2022  

Korea Blockchain Week is one of Asia’s most anticipated crypto events, occurring from the 7th to the 14th of August in Seoul, Korea. Despite the heaviest rainstorms in 80 years in Seoul, the conference proceeded as planned. 

The week’s main event, the KBW2022:IMPACT conference, featured two days of keynote talks, panel discussions, workshops, and fireside chats between the 8th-9th August 2022. The event took place in the heart of Seoul at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas.  The conference

Korea Blockchain Week’s primary purpose was to bring together key industry leaders and pioneers to discuss blockchain technology, all things crypto, Metaverse, DeFi, NFT, Web3, and more in one of the most active crypto hubs in Asia. 

In addition to the conference, there were over 90 side events, such as Solana Hacker House and Impact NFT Gallery, among many others. Following the conference, the official afterparty took place on 12th & 13th of August, featuring K-pop, hip-hop, and EDM artists. To finish off, the last days of 13th & 14th of August welcomed the new E-Prix Formula world championship to Seoul.

The Korea Blockchain Week showcased the significance of Korea as a key market in the industry. The event was an excellent opportunity to showcase the latest crypto/web3 projects in the Korean blockchain scene. Despite the recent Luna Terra crash, the South Korean government had decided to move into the direction of regulating the industry vs. banning it, making optimistic steps toward the future of crypto.

Korea Blockchain Week Had: 

• Over 7,000 attendees
• 150+ speakers
• Over 40 sessions of panel discussions, keynotes, and fireside chats

Image credits: KBW 

Korea Blockchain Week 2022 Speakers 

• Vitalik Buterin – Ethereum / Chief scientist
• Changpeng Zhao- Binance / CEO
• Yat Siu – Animoca Brands / Executive Chairman
• Illia Polosukhin – NEAR Protocol / Co-Founder
• Sandeep Nailwal – Polygon / Co-Founder
• John Linden – Mythical Games / CEO
• Henry Chang – Wemade / CEO
• Caroline D. Pham – CFTC / Commissioner
• Sam Seo – Klaytn / Representative Director
• Kevin Sekniqi – Ava Labs(Avalanche) / COO
• Alex Svanevik – Nansen / CEO
• Kyu Lee – Com2uS USA, Inc. / President
• Jeffrey Zirlin – Axie Infinity / Growth Lead
• Seonik Jeon – Factblock, KBW / CEO
• Michael Blank – Polygon Studios / COO

Image credits: KoreaBlochainWeek

Korea Blockchain Week Agenda Summary 

KBW: IMPACT displayed two days of panel discussions, keynotes and fireside chats. 

The activity of the guest speakers spread across three stages: Stage Seoul, Stage Busan, and Stage Jeju.

On the first day, the opening ceremony was hosted by Kim Joo-Hyun, the Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, and Oh Se-hoon, the Mayor of Seoul. 

The day then continued with speakers like Vitalik Buterin, who gave their insights about Web3 and what developments are ahead for the industry. 

Below we present some of the highlights of each day from each stage.

1st Day 8th August 

Stage Seoul  

Keynote: Post Merge: Next Step for Ethereum by Vitalik Buterin, Chief Scientist at Ethereum Foundation.

Vitalik discussed the importance of reducing costs of crypto transactions, which, thanks to layer-2 rollups will soon fall to fractions of a cent. “So today with roll-ups, transaction fees are generally somewhere between $0.25, sometimes $0.10, and in the future with roll-ups with all of the improvements to efficiency that I talked about. The transaction costs could go down to $0.05, or even maybe as low as $0.02. So much cheaper, much more affordable, and a complete game changer.”

Keynote: The Technology Layer for Tomorrow’s Metaverse by Sam Seo, Representative Director at Klaytn Foundation.

He said: “If new ideas are combined with Web2 platforms like [social media app] Kakao, especially in South Korea, there’s accessibility to these new ideas for new services that could be easier than just starting from scratch…Even though it’s hard, adapting Web3 technologies to Web2 platforms could be a way to bring mass adoption.”

Sam Seo also recognized how advanced South Korea was in the crypto space and it being one of the tech centres of the world.

Fireside Chat: Solana Games by Matt Sorg, Leading Tech and Product at Solana, and Johnny Lee, General Manager at Solana. 

Stage Busan 

Fireside  Chat: Mass Adoption for Crypto Under Regulation by Wooster Han, Community Lead at HASHED, and Eric Anziani, COO at Crypto.com. 

Panel Talk: Understanding NFTfi; Ownership & Asset creation by Jun Park, Associate at HASHED, Griffin Dunaif, Co-Founder at Halliday; Renz Chong, CEO at BreederDAO and Andrew Lee, Head of Business at PINE.

2nd Day 9th August

Stage Seoul 

Keynote: Building the Gateway to the Metaverse by Janine Yorio, CEO at Everyrealm

Stage Busan

Panel Talk: Why Southeast Asia is a Promising Market for Crypto by Thanh Le, Founder at Coin98, Kevin Hoang, CEO at AcadArena, Howard Xu, Co-Founder & CEO at Ancient8, and Tin Nguyen, World Architect at Sipher.

Stage Jeju

Panel Talk: The Secret Ingredient to your Web3 Journey by Matt Woodward, Head of Developer Relations at Hedera. 

Panel Talk: Blockchain Gaming Ecosystem and its Prospects by Benson Byun, CSO at Klaytn Games. 

Side Events at Korea Blockchain Week 

Korea Blockchain had probably the broadest and richest range of side events for participants, making the whole week full of a vibrant crypto atmosphere.

It had ~90 side events, a few of them mentioned below. 

• Night at The Klaytn Metaverse: Featuring 1inch, MARBLEX & Jump
• Polygon Connect
• Solana Hacker House
• Crypto Meets Gaming (Networking Mixer)
• 2022 Seoul E-Prix
• Impact NFT Gallery
• K-pop Festival

Night at The Klaytn Metaverse: Featuring 1inch, MARBLEX & Jump 

Klaytn Metaverse offered a full night of entering the universe of networking, drinks, and music.

Image credits: KBW 

Polygon Connect

Another networking opportunity at Korea Blockchain Week. Co-hosted by Hashed, participants connected, explored, and learned about Polygon. 

Crypto Meets Gaming (Networking Mixer)

Crypto Meets Gaming was an event dedicated to all gamers that attended KBW2022. Participants had the opportunity to network with each other and share their crypto-gaming experiences. 

Image credits: KBW

2022 Seoul E-Prix 

The Seoul E-Prix Formula E World Championship took place during Korea Blockchain week, and it was a great occasion for attendees to have the excitement of the Seoul E-Prix. 

Image credits: KBW

Final Thoughts

Korea Blockchain Week had all the prominent speakers at the event, including Vitalik Buterin and CZ. 

The panel discussions, keynotes, and fireside chats captivated the participants, who had a multitude of side events that offered the right opportunity to evaluate each topic discussed between the 8th and 9th of August at the main event. 

On another note, we must find the efforts for the widest range of side events offered at Korea Blockchain Week. With over 7,000 attendees, organizers offered side events and networking opportunities to fit everyone’s preferences, even the pickiest. 

As a final thought, we cannot argue that Korea Blockchain Week didn’t have all it takes to be marked as an event for the books.