Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author | jk

From September 1st to 7th, 2024, Korea Blockchain Week was held in Seoul. This was a grand event for the Asian blockchain, with tens of thousands of participants, second only to the upcoming Token2049 in Singapore. Due to the policy support and extensive crypto infrastructure in Korea, and the relatively long duration, this KBW can be considered a grand event for the Asian blockchain in terms of scale.

When just arriving in Korea, most people who did not understand Korean felt like foreigners in China: Korean was everywhere, and the lack of Chinese and English translations was noticeable. Although many shop assistants could speak some Chinese and English, it still took a few days to adapt to the different situations of map apps, taxi apps, and payment apps. Many people joked that the dining choices for newcomers were mostly limited to McDonald's and Burger King, because these two places not only had ordering machines in multiple languages, but also had choices similar to those in China.

Korean participants usually preferred formal attire, with casual suits being the norm. In the 29-degree weather in Seoul, this seemed overly formal compared to the atmosphere of foreigners in short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Unlike previous North American conferences, this Korean conference attracted many "degen" types, and almost every Korean-speaking side event could be found with a group of middle-aged men discussing market dynamics and the trends of specific tokens, creating a unique scene.

The official website of KBW released the grand scene of the conference. Source: KBW official website

In the bustling Gangnam district of Seoul, advertisements from participating companies were overwhelming, with several major institutions investing heavily in promotion: XRP, Movement Labs, Babylon, Sui, and other major institutions took turns displaying on the huge screens along Gangnam Avenue, indicating the strong crypto atmosphere and large audience in the local Korean market. Although some traditional large North American projects made appearances in Korea, self-custody wallets and North American Layer-1 public chains that were willing to pay for exhibition booths did not appear at this conference.

XRP advertisement on Gangnam Avenue.

Compared to the numerous side events throughout Seoul, the main exhibition booths at the KBW hotel venue mostly focused on emerging projects, especially in the infrastructure and AI fields. In terms of the types of projects exhibited locally in Korea, there were relatively few social projects, while there were many DeFi and AI projects. The popularity of the Bitcoin ecosystem remained high, and many projects built on Babylon have entered a new stage with the release of Babylon's mainnet.

Some projects, either Korean-based or with extensive market presence or involvement in Korea, left a deep impression at this conference:

• Sahara AI: Sahara AI is a decentralized AI blockchain platform aimed at establishing an open, fair, and collaborative AI economic system beneficial to all. The platform allows individual developers and large enterprises to participate in AI development and application, ensuring fair rewards for all contributors while maintaining data and model sovereignty. Through transparent on-chain ownership and governance, Sahara AI protects personal privacy, promotes diverse participation, and drives innovation in the AI ecosystem. The core components of Sahara AI include the Sahara blockchain, advanced AI infrastructure, decentralized AI marketplace, development tools, and secure storage, collectively building a comprehensive, accessible, and secure platform supporting collaborative AI development and deployment. Through these innovations, Sahara AI is committed to breaking the traditional centralized AI model, empowering users with more control and value.

• Kaia + LineNext combination: Kaia is a BFT-based public blockchain designed to meet enterprise-level reliability and performance standards. Its design goals include achieving instant final confirmation of transactions, high-speed transaction processing, reduced operating costs for blockchain applications, lowered entry barriers for end users, and promoting technology adoption across various industries. The core specifications of the Kaia blockchain include 1-second block generation and confirmation time, processing capacity of 4,000 transactions per second, approximately 1/10 of Ethereum's gas, compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and support for Solidity contracts. Additionally, Kaia is governed by the Kaia Governance Council composed of globally renowned enterprises, ensuring its transparency and reliability. Kaia will collaborate with Line, a popular chat app in Asia, in an attempt to replicate the success of Telegram mini-programs on Line.

In addition, established GameFi projects like SuperWalk and meme projects like Shib also set up booths and attracted widespread attention, creating a lively atmosphere at the event. Notably, Sahara AI creatively attracted participants at a side event by inviting former IZONE member Kwon Eunbi and the Korean group Dynamic Duo to perform live, infusing the atmosphere with a strong Korean pop culture vibe.

Sahara AI's side event. Source: Sahara AI X

Unlike the socializing style of drinking and chatting at bars commonly seen at American conferences, the socializing style in Korea leaned more towards an Asian style. Some participants revealed that the socializing was so frequent that they might have to have two dinners in a day, along with late-night snacks. At the same time, the popular Korean culture of soju or fried chicken and beer left many participants who had just arrived in Korea at a loss, resulting in scenes of participants passing out drunk on the roadside. Some users on X platform bluntly stated that the biggest gain from KBW was:

Source: User @Carl0w0 on X platform

At a critical time when the market was uncertain, KBW still attracted a large-scale participation from across Asia and the Asia-Pacific crypto world, not only worthy of the participation of Asian projects, but also showing the confidence of participants at this time point in the crypto world.

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