A forum was held where people from various industries, including blockchain industry, music artists, and legal experts, discussed the future of Bitcoin (BTC). At the 'Bitcoin Business Builder' held at Bithumb Lounge in the heart of Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 25th, about 10 BTC supporters (Maxi) representing each industry attended and shared various opinions about businesses utilizing BTC and the future.
The discussion that day was opened by singer Baek Chan, who debuted in the group 8eight in 2007. Baek, who has written and composed over 100 songs and is active as a producer, has attempted various experiments, such as incorporating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into popular music in 2022. He has had a sincere affection for BTC, to the point where he has recently participated as a speaker at several overseas BTC conferences.
Mr. Baek pointed out that there is no space for BTC in Korea. He said, “There is only one regular meetup (where the BTC community gathers) in Seoul,” and “even that is difficult to meet more than five times a year.” He argued that a space is needed where developers and businesses can gather and exchange ideas in order to expand the Korean BTC ecosystem.
Baek cited the BTC House Bali, a BTC collaboration center in Bali, Indonesia, as an example. The center supports Indonesian developers to collaborate with each other and provides BTC software codes to train developers. Recently, it translated educational materials from El Salvador, which adopted BTC as its legal currency, and conducted training. Baek said, “Indonesia has a large BTC community with meetups held in over 20 regions,” and “Thanks to the collaboration center that produces developers and business owners, it is actively connecting with professional venture capitalists (VCs).” He added, “However, since Korea does not have such a space, we are also planning a field trip to Bali.”
Lee Jang-woo, CEO of Uproot Company, introduced a business model that combines BTC mining and renewable energy generation. He emphasized, “The renewable energy sector always generates surplus electricity even when electricity is produced, so its profitability is not great,” and “If this is utilized for BTC mining, profitability can be increased.” He explained that efficiency can be maximized by selling the electricity produced by installing hydroelectric generators through a contract with the government and using the remaining electricity for BTC mining. Hydroelectric power generation is hardly affected by the seasons like solar and wind power generation, so there is little fluctuation in power generation.
Based on this, CEO Lee expected that it would be possible to expand to businesses utilizing carbon emission rights. The European Union (EU) will impose a carbon tax on imported and exported goods starting in 2026. Companies that produce products outside the EU will have to purchase additional carbon emission rights if the carbon emissions generated during the manufacturing process exceed a certain standard. This is the background against which the carbon emission rights market is expected to grow rapidly starting in 2026. CEO Lee said, “Corporate demand for carbon emission rights is bound to increase. In order to secure carbon emission rights, we need a lot of renewable energy.” He added, “If we need to produce a lot of renewable energy, a business model that can increase efficiency through mining and even sell carbon emission rights has great potential.”
The representative focused on Kyrgyzstan. He said, “Kyrgyzstan has about 3,000 km of waterways, so the potential for hydroelectric power generation is limitless,” and “Since Kyrgyzstan has a shortage of electricity, the government is expected to have a high demand for electricity, so we are planning to enter the business.”
Yang Young-seok, CEO of Nodeinfra, who attended the event that day, said, “It was refreshing to meet people who are passionate about BTC at Bithumb Lounge,” and added, “I look forward to conducting various research together on the topic of BTC, including B2C (business-to-consumer) transactions including Bithumb, decentralized finance (DeFi) such as Babylon and Lombard, and infrastructure areas such as the Lightning Network.”
- Reporter Jaeheon Choi
- chsn12@decenter.kr
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