Welcome to The Daily Forkast January 12th, 2022.
I'm Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News covering all things blockchain.
Well, South Korea's webtoons have proved no exception to the NFT world's voracious appetite
for new releases, with the collection released by internet giant Kakao selling out within
minutes.
We're going to take a look at that story and a whole lot more coming up.
Let's get you up to speed from Asia to the world.
Well, let's kick off with some of the top stories coming out of Asia today.
First up, with a little over three weeks to go until the Beijing Winter Olympics, the
race to roll out the e-CNY is heating up, with China Unicom the latest to take the plunge
now.
The company is one of three state owned telecommunications service giants in China and with over 300
million subscribers who can now pay their bills using the currency.
That's a lot of potential for widening use.
Now, the Olympics is seen as a crucial international test for the digital yuan, and venues for
the games are already included among regions where use of the e-CNY pilot app is allowed.
Question is, will athletes take to using it when they arrive?
No doubt officials in China are hoping for a sprint to a glorious finish while the rest
of the world watches from the sidelines, including us right here at Forkast.
Meanwhile, authorities in India have seized US$4.9 million worth of assets in an alleged
162 million dollar alt-coin scam.
Now, the Enforcement Directorate of India began an investigation after police in the
southern state of Kerala received multiple reports from people who jumped in as investors.
The scammers allegedly cheated some 900 people out of their cash under the pretext of an
initial coin offering, or ICO, for a non-existent cryptocurrency called Morris Coin.
One can only imagine the hype.
Fake marketers must have used to show this coin, but it is a reminder to always be on
the lookout.
If it is too good to be true, it usually is.
According to Chainalysis, crypto crimes hit an all time high in 2021, with illicit addresses
receiving US$14 billion.
You can find those stories and a whole lot more at Forkast.News.
Now, over in South Korea, Kakao Entertainment's first webtoons NFT collection has been proven
a hit.
Ok, first, what's a webtoon, you ask?
Well, webtoons are a form of digital comic.
With the sold out debut NFT drop based on the hugely popular web tune series called
Solo Leveling and Forkast.News Danny Pak takes a look at how Korea is exerting another example
of soft power when it comes to defining entertainment and culture through a digital lens
Suited for reading on portable smart devices, webtoons originated in South Korea, with the
industry generating a total revenue of about one trillion won, or around US$840 million
in 2020, while Solo Leveling has scored a whopping 14.2 billion views globally.
This initial collection featured two iconic artworks from that series, with 100 copies
featuring the final cut from the webtoons.
Last episode sold at 500 Klay, while the 200 copies of a second cut were priced at 100
Kaly Coins.
Klay is Kakao's own cryptocurrency, with one Klay Coin worth about US$1.37.
Next up is a collection of 7,777 random generative artworks from the popular web toon and web
novel series.
The Duchess with an empty soul set to be released on January 22nd.
Those NFTs are being jointly produced with Treasures Club and Kakao Entertainment, and
Ground X Kickass Blockchain subsidiary plan to further monetize their IPS from original
movies, drama, series and games by NFT digitization.
Meanwhile, leading up to the subscription service Toomics recently showcased its two
NFT blockchain oriented platform that aims to offer transparent compensation for writers
using NFTs.
For Forkast.News, I'm Danny Park.
Well, if LG and Samsung, two of the biggest TV manufacturers in the world, have their
way, you could soon be buying and viewing NFTs right in your own living room.
So is this where it's all going?
What does do?
Duc Luu, Executive Chairman of Spores Network, a cross-chain DeFi powered NFT marketplace
think of all of that?
Well.
Let's find out.
Good to have you back with us, Duc.
Great to be back.
Happy New Year!
All right.
If last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was any indication, virtual assets
in the way we consume them are going mainstream.
So is this a step in the right direction for mass adoption?
You think actually that technology is already available on their screens in a certain capacity,
what you can do is you can create an app or have an app like when we have that allows
you to show and display your high end artwork on these sort of beautiful LG Samsung screens.
Second part of that announcement was to be able to surf and trade on that platform.
I think there's two questions about I'd have to ask about that.
The first one is surfing.
All of us know that surfing on smart screens is horrific as an exercise, right?
I've tried.
I'm pretty savvy and I've tried so many times and it's like, Ah, my fingers moving or my
hands moving, am I waving?
It's pretty insane.
So I don't know if if web browsing is going to be ideal, they'd have to create a very
specific trading interface, then they'd have to connect it to your web wallet.
So it's quite a hassle.
I think for a Gen-Z, you know, mobile savvy user who can right now by on their mobile
with a couple of swipes of their hands, so don't know.
Ok, from TVs to cars.
We also saw Korean automaker Hyundai announced plans to build a mega factory where problems
could be fixed virtually and a digital platform where customers would be able to test drive
cars.
Now what do you think of that?
Is that an NFT experience right there?
I think that's a better experience, right?
And I think that that's that's that's exactly where we should be going with that with that
tool set.
I mean, if you think about it, it's again there's too.
You have to parse out two sides of that, that announcement.
One side is a consumer experience side being able to test drive your car.
Actually, I don't think that's going to be as popular quite yet because you still need
the wind in your hair, you know, driving through your own streets, you know, feeling the chair,
things like that.
But what I think that is valuable is, yes, full simulations of the Hyundai factory, right?
And you're actually, you know, basically solving manufacturing operations problems in virtual
virtual reality and testing them in virtual reality rather than having to build and reconfigure,
you know, on the spot, the physical factory.
So I think the second use case is probably already in some iteration in Web 2.
And I think that, you know, with with a metaverse type experience will be will be powered.
And finally, Korea is definitely among the most prominent locations where we are seeing
the real and virtual world meet.
Why do you think that is?
Once China made its move to make a frankly, a closed blockchain system, right, which we
knew had to happen for China.
So it's standard par for course, then the rest of Asia looks around and says, who's
going to be leading the charge?
Right.
So you've got really only Japan and Korea who are technologically and culturally, I
mean, I mean by soft power, right entertainment of any real value, frankly.
So, So it's not surprising that that one of those two nations would pick it up and also
not surprising that Korea took the torch because it's already been heavily involved in in cryptocurrency
for years.
Well, let's see who's going to win that race.
We are still in the first leg of it.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Duc Lu, Executive Chairman, Spores Network.
Duc, always a pleasure.
And that's The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia, and if you liked
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