North Korea's hacking attempts are back in the news today.
Welcome to the Daily Forkast. April 29th, 2022.
I'm Megha Chaddah of Forkast covering all things blockchain.
Two South Koreans, one a crypto exec, the other an active duty officer have been indicted
for leaking military secrets to a North Korean hacker and getting crypto in return.
We'll take a look at that, plus a whole lot more coming up.
Let's get you up to speed from Asia to the world.
Join thousands of NFT traders who already start their day on CryptoSlam.
First off, yet another crypto firm is leaving Singapore.
Cryptocurrency Trading and hedge fund manager Three Arrows Capital is the latest to announce
it is moving out of the Lion City and the new location may come as no surprise.
The Middle East emerging crypto hub, Dubai.
In a tweet citing a media report.
Three Arrows Capital co-founder Su Zhu said they have decided to move the headquarters
to Dubai as the energy in the financial hubs digital asset industry is electric right now.
A number of crypto firms have eyed the Gulf region for expansion recently.
Among them is Binance, which has obtained licenses in Dubai, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi after
withdrawing its application in Singapore last December.
FTX, Crypto.com, Bybit and Kraken have also set their sights on the United Arab Emirates.
Three Arrow Capital's move comes just days after Singapore said it wants to be a responsible
crypto hub.
Over in Hong Kong, Samsung Group's investment arm is reportedly set to list a blockchain
exchange traded fund or ETF.
According to a Korean media report, Samsung Asset Management ETF tracking crypto and blockchain
companies will be listed on the Hong Kong exchange in the first half of this year.
Samsung Asset Management acquired a 20% stake in US ETF sponsor Amplify back in March, giving
it exclusivity on providing the company's products in Asia.
The ETF will reportedly have an identical structure to block a US listed ETF that invests
at least 80% of its net assets in blockchain companies with Silvergate Capital and Coinbase
among its largest holdings.
The South Korean asset manager already has five ETFs listed in Hong Kong.
Tracking semiconductors, American tech giants and Chinese Internet companies.
You can find those stories and a whole lot more at Forkast News.
Over in South Korea, a local crypto executive and an active duty officer have been indicted
for violating the National Security Act by leaking military secrets to North Korea in
exchange for cryptocurrencies.
Forkast's Danny Park reports.
This is the first known case of a South Korean military officer assisting North Korean attempts
to hack through an internal army communications network and use crypto.
Local media reported that the active duty officer photographed and leaked military secrets
using a burner phone after the image quality on a hidden wristwatch camera delivered by
the executive was deemed too poor.
The crypto investment firm executive reportedly received US$600,000 worth of Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies from a North Korean hacker whom he met on the telegram messaging service
six years ago.
The soldier was introduced to the hacker in 2020 and received almost US$40,000 USD worth
of Bitcoin for his efforts.
Back in January, the executive was instructed to buy a hacking device using the crypto from
North Korea.
While the military officer shared login keys in a failed attempt to grant the hacker remote
access to the Korean Joint Command and Control System, which is the South Korean military's
internal communications network.
While the North Korean hacker remains unidentified, the crypto executive and the soldier have
allegedly admitted the crimes.
Multiple local reports say the Army officer stated during the investigation that the espionage
was to offset gambling debts he had accrued.
One expert says the weight of this felony could see the two put away for quite some
time.
According to domestic law, the crime related to espionage faces a fixed-term imprisonment
of a minimum 7 years.
I believe the sentencing will be quite heavy.
And selling military secrets for money itself is a serious crime.
So I expect more than 10 years.
Hwang says tracing the roots of this espionage will be harder, despite South Korea's tough
crypto regulations.
As the funds were delivered through Bitcoin, to track the funds, the digital wallets need
to be traced.
And by funds I mean cryptocurrencies.
We need to track where it originated, and through what channel it was circulated.
But the “Travel Rule” is not applied to transactions between personal wallets.
So tracking the crypto is not really feasible.
For Forkast, I'm Danny Park.
The blockchain gaming industry is showing no signs of slowing down.
In a think tank study published this month, the industry is set to enter a new era.
Forkast's Jenny Ortiz takes a look at what that may be like and how an industry player
is taking on the challenge.
The future looks bright for the blockchain gaming industry.
According to the recent study by blockchain think tank Huobi Research Institute, new innovations
will overhaul the industry.
They include new game types and new game modes, as well as the developing role of decentralized
autonomous organizations or DAOs in raising funds or even forming a new gaming economy.
Victor Tan, co-founder and Chief of Game Growth at Gaming Platform Rainmaker Games, told Forkast
there are many opportunities in the traditional blockchain and free to play to earn game space.
The gaming space now in blockchain gaming is with the hype of play to earn all this,
but it's not limited to play to earn.
There will be like this play and earn now, some games mentioned about it and play and
own, play and collect and we do see that the play and create could be coming, play and
build games as well.
So there's a different many different opportunities in blockchain gaming as the NFT has been introduced
to this gaming industry.
So player has the true ownership of digital asset via NFT technology.
As for the new game modes for monetization, namely social to earn, watch to earn, and
play to earn, Tan said the most challenging aspect is the social part or community building.
While a good example of a game that offers watch turn is Hong Kong Animonica Brand's
Crazy Defense Heroes.
For this social to earn as well.
We remake games.
We have like 70 game partners and more in our list now.
And we have all these game partners that we talk to most of the game founder or game core
team, game developer team, they have this.
What they most struggling with is the social part of it and the community part of it.
I believe all this monetization mechanism that we talk about, it will keep on introducing
new monetization model to make the player the user in blockchain gaming a site over
the time.
Tan also agrees with Houbi's findings that DAOs saw the future of blockchain gaming.
DAO is a yes to me because it promotes this value of decentralization and co-create the
co-creative and core governing and co-manage the blockchain game team or the project together
with the component of players, the project owners, the investor, the stakeholder, the
token holder and the community as well.
So how are gaming platforms tackling the challenges presented by these innovations?
The Rainmaker Games co-founders said they are focusing on players safety and security,
which he believes will lead to more players playing the games.
Those games listed on our platform, we kind of like provide the layer of security that
we audit the game smart contract, their project, smart contract, and at the same time we do
penetration test in the server vulnerability or wallet vulnerability to at a minimum level
at least to protect the gamer and users interest on our platform and the whole blockchain gaming
user community as well.
For Forkast, I'm Jenny Ortiz.
And finally, Forkast's Editor in Chief Angie Lau is in the Bahamas not to enjoy the sun,
but to moderate a panel at the Crypto Bahamas event.
She's also checking out the country's Crypto plans.
Right now, Megha, this small country in the Caribbean is turning out to be a hotspot for
the crypto world, thanks to the likes of FTX X, who's jointly hosting Crypto Bahamas this
week along with Thought Leadership Forum Salt.
We are here at the Baha Mar in Bahamas right now and just finished up the panel.
But earlier this week, FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, or SPF, as we know, joined the country's prime
minister for groundbreaking of FTX's US$60 Million Bahamas campus.
Now, this follows a white paper that the country released outlining the Caribbean islands as
a leading digital asset hub.
Now, back here on the ground at Crypto, Bahamas.
I had a chance to sit down with event organizers Anthony Scaramucci.
Already chatted with him, Sam Bankman-Fried, in wide ranging discussions.
And we're going to be bringing you highlights of those interviews all next week on Forkast.
Super excited to be here.
I can tell you that the institutional conversations is very, very strong.
And one of the key themes this week here in Bahamas is the migration of the institutional
space and what needs to happen to get into the crypto space.
Megha, back to you.
Thanks, Angie.
And that's The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia.
For more, visit Forkast News.
I'm Forkast's Megha Chaddah, until next time.