CoinGeek’s conference in Seoul has barely started, but its theme is already clear. And you don’t need to understand computer code to get it. Just walk the halls in Le Meridien hotel and you can feel it.
It’s all about energy. The energy in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem. The energy of entrepreneurship in China and the Far East. And the energy in prospect as Bitcoin SV continues to evolve as a technology, with its important Genesis upgrade just a few months ahead.
The energy was palpable in the line of people waiting to get into the sold-out Bitcoin Association meetup at the top of the hotel opposite the conference venue last night. And it’s obvious when you look at the crowded schedule of speakers at the two days of the conference, many of them making their first appearance on the platform that CoinGeek is offering them.
They’re not all new to the game. Some, like Stephan Nilsson, the founder of UNISOT, have spoken before. But ‘regulars’ such as Stephan have come to Seoul with even more confidence than they had at the CoinGeek Toronto conference back in May.
Since then, Stephan has acquired investors, staff and – most important – potential customers who are knocking on his door, he says. His ambition, to provide supply chain tracking using the BSV blockchain, carries conviction because of his previous experience in the industry. Last year he was working out how the salmon industry in his native Norway could benefit from the security and detail that blockchain technology offers. Now he’s working to produce an ‘off the shelf’ supply chain solution that could be used in any industry.
Newcomers were actively encouraged to take part in the Seoul conference by a new feature, Pitch Day, where 14 BSV-based startups were invited to present in front of a panel of investors. One of them, a Chinese startup, CityonChain, was another example of the energy with which the opportunities created by BSV are being taken up in China in particular.
CityonChain invites users to ‘buy’ a city with BSV payments. It offered an empty map of the world and waited for people to start bidding for cities. They did. Many cities were snapped up for one US dollar each – the starting price which CityonChain had set. But it’s what happened next that was interesting. Owners were free to resell their cities and it soon became clear that there were buyers out there. The city of Seoul, for instance (below), was resold after a couple of weeks for $2999 – with CityonChain taking a cut of the transaction. The person who bought Seoul is now asking a $2 million. That’s real optimism! The idea is for city owners to make money by taking advertising and providing other services – such as placing the CoinGeek Conference logo on the map.
The point, in a wider context, is that people are coming up with business ideas, making money from day one, and expanding the BSV ecosystem. At the same time, they’re generating transactions on the BSV blockchain that will ensure the profitability, and therefore future security, of the network.
Nobody would deny there’s a degree of tribalism in the crypto world. But what feels healthy about the BSV tribe in Seoul is that there’s an outward-looking focus on developing technology and creating new products and services. It’s the users and customers that this conference is interested in, not crypto rivals, or even, how we got here. The energy is directed to building the future. And it’s in the nature of building on BSV, that success for one promotes success for all.
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