Mayor Park Heong-joon announces the ‘Busan Blockchain Doctrine’…”We will create a city where you can meet Web3 in advance.”

‘Blockchain Week in Busan 2023’, hosted by Busan City and co-organised by Nonce, JJ Global and Bon Media, was held at the Grand Ballroom Hall of SIGNIEL Busan with the participation of around 500 industry stakeholders and general visitors.

At 11am on 9 November, the event began with opening remarks from Park Heong-joon, Mayor of Busan, Chang Dae-hwan, CEO of Maeil business newspaper, and Kim Jin-soo, CEO of Busanilbo. Sang-min Kim, Standing-Chairman of BWB 2023, gave a welcome speech, followed by Park Jae-ho, National Assembly member at Busan Nam B, Democratic Party, Park Soo-young, National Assembly member at Busan Nam A, People Power Party , Ahn Sung-min, Chairman of Busan Metropolitan Council, Cho Won-dong, CEO of Korea ST Exchange, Previous Chief of economist of Office of the President, Lee Seok-woo, Chairman of DAXA, Rory Knight, Chairman of Oxford Metrica, Caroline D. Pham, Commissioner of the U.S. CFTC, Kim Dae-sik, President of Kyungnam College of Information & Technology, Jang Ye-chan, People Power Party Youth supreme council member, and others attended and gave congratulatory remarks.

At the opening ceremony, Park Heong-joon, Mayor of Busan, presented the direction of Blockchain City Busan through the ‘Busan Blockchain Doctrine’. Citing a quote from world-renowned futurist Don Tapscott, “Blockchain will dominate the world for more than 30 years, just as the Internet has dominated the world for the past 40 years,” Mayor Park said that blockchain is “a technology that will overcome the harmful effects of data monopoly and power concentration in the current digital society.”

Speaking about the “Target 2026 Blcokchain Busan”, Mayor Park declared that the task is to “build the first blockchain city that can meet the ‘Web3′ era in advance by reorganising the entire city infrastructure through blockchain technology”, and that it will “become a major part of the Busan Expo 2030 and go global”.

Furthermore, by 2026, three years from now, it will be “the world’s first megacity where citizens’ opinions are directly reflected in the city government through distributed identity authentication and resident voting, where all values are tokenised and traded through the Busan Digital Asset Exchange, and where all citizens can enjoy efficient finance through the blockchain-based local currency Dongbaek-jeon”.

The opening ceremony also saw the launch of the Busan Blockchain Alliance (BBA), a group of 120 top domestic and international Web3 companies that will participate in the “Target 2026 Blockchain Busan”.

A wide range of financial institutions, fintech companies and key players in the blockchain industry joined the BBA, including Shinhan Bank, Finnq, a fintech subsidiary of Hana Financial Group, Lambda256, a technology subsidiary of Dunamu, CODE, a subsidiary of Bithumb Korea in the field of travel solutions, Crypto.com, a global digital asset exchange, Hanpass, the number one company in the overseas remittance industry, and Korea ST Exchange, a token securities platform.

In addition, ‘DSRV’ (Validator), ‘Mblock Company’ (Validator), ‘PARAMETA’ (Web3 Full-stack), ‘Open Asset’ (Security Token Offering, STO), ‘Buysell Standards’ (STO), ‘Turnpike’ (Mainnet), ‘Superblock’ (Mainnet), ‘Galaxia Moneytree’ (STO & Electronic Settlement), ‘Korea Digital Asset, KODA’ (Custody), ‘Hyperithm’ (Asset Management), ‘CertiK’ (Securing of Web3) and other domestic and foreign companies.

In the first part of the afternoon session, Kim Sang-min, Standing Chairman of BWB 2023 and Chairman of the Busan Digital Asset Exchange Promotion Committee, presented the “Target 2026 Blockchain Busan’s 3-year vision” and introduced Busan’s major blockchain business plans, including the Busan Digital Asset Exchange.

Afterwards, Dr Rory Knight, Dean of Oxford Business School and Deputy Governor of the Swiss National Bank, who is currently Chairman of Oxford Metrica, and Dr Dimitrios Psarrakis, who participated in the EU’s Digital Asset Bill (MiCA) adoption process, led a panel discussion on the direction of digital asset regulation in Korea.

“Korea is a country with both innovation and technology, which are essential for the development of the blockchain ecosystem,” said Dr Rory Knight. “If you adopt a digital asset classification system that is in line with global trends by taking a cue from the EU’s MiCA (Digital Asset Bill), apply a bold regulatory sandbox to the digital asset sector, and rationally develop relevant systems through public-private cooperation, Korea will be able to lead the global Web3 ecosystem.”

A concrete plan for the construction of Blockchain City, Busan was also unveiled. Patrick Yoon, GM Korea of Crypto.com, presented a blockchain-based payment and financial system, and Oh Hyun-ok, professor of Hanyang University, who won the 2023 CES Best Innovation Award at the 2023 CES (World Consumer Electronics Show), explained the blockchain-based digital identity card (DID). In addition, Kim Ji-yun, CEO of DSRV, and John Park, Korea representative of Arbitrum Foundation, will discuss CBDCs and stablecoins, which have received a lot of attention recently, and diagnose the global trend.

Finally, a startup pitching session was held where a total of six blockchain startups presented specific ideas and business models on how to change the city of Busan through blockchain technology under the theme of “Blockchain City Busan”.

Kim Sang-min, Standing Chairman of BWB 2023, said, “This BWB 2023 will be an opportunity to preview how blockchain technology will change Busan in the future, and an opportunity to assess the future of blockchain technology in 10 years.” “We will develop Blockchain Week in Busan (BWB) into an event that is completely different from other blockchain events that share future visions and insights, such as the Davos Forum of the blockchain industry,” he said.