Speaker Interview: Seonik Jeon l KBW2024

[Music] Yes, first of all, when I was studying abroad in the U.S., I attended various global events and felt quite regretful wondering why such things weren't held in Korea. However, seven years ago, we launched Korea Block right here in Korea, and seeing it establish itself as a global event here, I feel more grateful than anything to the many participants joining us here. Furthermore, this is no longer just a simple blockchain event; with over 300 side events taking place throughout Seoul, it feels like it has become a window within Seoul itself to promote the city to the world, and we are very happy about that.

I have been getting this question a lot lately, and regarding the Fourth Industrial Revolution, I believe both technologies are extremely important. In particular, I consider AI to be a technology that allows us to experience significant changes in our daily lives, and while blockchain may be difficult to encounter in everyday life, I believe it is a technology that can completely overhaul infrastructure at the backend. Therefore, I consider both to be very important technologies. I consider it technology, and that is why we have decided to hold a separate sector for an AI event called "AI World" at this year's Korea Blockchain Week. As many of you may have noticed upon visiting Korea, I believe the country has a strong tendency to be an early adopter.

Therefore, I think it is a country well-suited for quickly catching global trends and creating new innovations in line with them. For instance, when the blockchain market first opened in Korea, a huge number of people began trading cryptocurrencies and taking an interest in the blockchain market at an incredible speed. And even just looking at pop music, I believe that by accurately reading the flow of global pop trends from the US and sparking innovation there, a new genre called pop was able to emerge. So, I think Korea is an outstanding country in that regard. Usually, when a market opens—for example, in the case of blockchain—when it first opens, there are many aspects that are very difficult for large corporations and institutional players to participate in at first.

Because... Since it is a market where large corporations cannot jump in due to the lack of precise regulations, I believe this is a very good time for startups to grow. However, as startups initially establish themselves and some of the players grow into major corporations like Google or Facebook, and as the market gradually expands, government regulations are introduced, and guidelines are established, I believe an environment is created where large corporations and these startups can form partnerships to expand the market even further. That is why KBW wanted to become such a platform; the reason we paid extra attention to the Institution, especially this year, is that we believe this is a market where large corporations and startups need to meet and expand the scope, so I consider this a very important aspect. Next, before the market matures— when a new market opens up due to a specific technology or culture—I think independence is very important.

It is crucial to have an environment where everyone creatively builds new systems and services. However, once the scale gradually increases, I believe government regulation is absolutely necessary. This is because government regulation is needed to minimize the number of people who suffer harm from the market. Right now, regarding blockchain... Looking at the market, I believe it is now a time when the government needs to step in.

Because the market itself has grown so large, I think it is time to further expand it while receiving government guidelines and protecting investors. Our goal for this year's KBW was quite simple. Our annual goal is always to create a better event than the previous year; we feel that we only succeed if we reach a higher level each year or surpass the previous one. In this case, we increased the speaking stage from three to four compared to last year. Regarding the attended audience, last year we could only accommodate about 2,500 to 3,000 people due to the venue size, but this time, by renting a much larger venue, we were able to secure an attended audience based on a daily base of nearly 10,000 people.

Our goal was also to grow the number of side events every year. Looking at these figures, my goal is unconditionally to achieve a more successful and higher number than last year.