NFT IN KOREA : NEAR PROTOCOL HACKATHON SESSION

First let's go around and briefly introduce ourselves. I'll go ahead and start. My name is Erica Kane I'm the moderator for this panel, I'm founder crypto, CEO of crypto soul, it's a community building team that hosts a lot of events around me around the world and connects with brilliant players in the industry. So, yeah, thanks for coming on to the stage, people that have amazing panelists so please juice yourself and share with us what you're working on, and then at space. Start with
I go first so I'm Daniel. The protocol research and governance at stake fish, as well as **** pool and then I guess my relevance to this is helping organize the Korean creator and NFT countdown called hot out of which I think all of us are in this panel are part of.
Thanks for being here.
Daniel, I'm a founder and CEO of NFT bank. I'm really pleasured to speak. In this session, as a speaker. Yeah, basically NFT bank is an NFT portfolio management platform where you can, aggregate all over your NFT’s from multiple blockchains and you can manage them in one place, so Yeah, happy to chat here.
Thanks. Thanks Daniel for the introduction and Mr Misan, can you. Yeah, can you introduce yourself please. I'm going to translate for Mr. Mason, by the way.
So my name is Mr Misan I'm an illustrator and animator artist based in Korea. so I have a 2d animation series called Modern Life Is Rubbish, and sold 12 pieces so far. So, yeah, it's doing amazing.
Describe what's happening in the Korean NFT market in general, any like monumental memorable events that you want to share with us that kind of shaped up the Korean ecosystem as it is.
So, I can have like a more general picture of things. So, at least ****** with what we were, had initially started with was kind of helping pay, pay some gas fees for artists get more diversity and exploration and experimentation into like what kind of NFT projects and artists can kind of go on to the global stage. And there's time, turned into like this kind of collaboration and community that we've seen in Korea, especially with a lot of interests that we, that we have a lot more creators exploring different platforms. And so at least on my end from like the technical side, I've been kind of helping with smart contract issues, educating on like, different types of storage mediums, as well as different types of blockchains that people are kind of minting onto the platforms to use, as well as obviously like the investment side of things. And it's actually pretty interesting to see that right NFT's have become very easy to kind of digest and understand how they work in that with crypto. We've seen it as like the killer app, that a lot of, I think we've seen in Korea, people gravitate towards. And so right. Traditional illustrators like for example, Mr Misan who came on, and then kind of like shot that rock the scene and then a lot of traditional artists as well as galleries and institutions in Korea we've that we've been kind of working with that hyuandi have been kind of moving into it, and it's been a really great kind of bridge, to help them understand that the, what they can do with NFT's.
Absolutely, I mean just to elaborate a little bit. I mean I think a lot of people were concerned that you know web three NFT. Mark is not picking up in the beginning, or kind of like why isn't it picking up we're kind of questioning that and then suddenly, right. I think it was very facilitated through clubhouse as well but we were helped We got the help of clubhouse and also Hondo, I think it just exploded basically and then people started getting artists are getting excited about it and, you know, it's been an amazing journey so far, Dan, I do you want to elaborate on that as well. Maybe.
Back in 2018, 2019 and We thought that the video game. The gaming industry will be the last, like we thought that would be the mass adoption would happen from the gaming industry. But then, you know dance to the cryptocurrency space. I mean, the NFT adoption is definitely being happening, and the generation Z they are quite familiar with on digital arts and in general, I think they are approaching to the arts as, you know, financial options and financial instruments where they can have easy access to. Yeah, I think, yeah, I mean, it's really, really amazing that, like, I never thought that the NFT space would grow this quickly. Back in the late 1980s. But then, yeah, I mean, even my wife who is really, she's like, trying to get involved in, you know, the crypto or it's really happy to see this happening here.
Yeah, I think that popular interest has been amazing, and one of this. This is an interesting story but So the dress I'm wearing right now it's, it's like Korean brand, and it's a very famous designer in Korea, and she was, you know, DM ****** and she was like, I want to do something related to NFT's, and I was just kind of like what you've been like observing the space, I think there's been a lot of underground interest in NFT's in Korea and I think it's, you know starting to kind of go mainstream a little bit and people are tapping into what's possible, so that's really been exciting. Speaking of which, right Mr Misan has been, you know he's been spearheading the you know, digital art and NFT, you know, art space and why don't you tell us a little bit about your journey here like what, what got you started like what kind of, I guess, what was the push, kind of making you to come into this, this area.

Oh, very interesting so it's gonna be fun just, he put on the chat room he put the artists name but this artist, he on January 1, He tagged Mr. Misan and commented that Mr. Misan If he learned how to get involved in crypto art and NFT's, he would do extremely well. So after that comment, he noticed Misan began to look more into NFT's and felt that it would be valuable to jump in like and go all in and yeah since then he's been in the scene spearheading and, yeah, very, very interesting. Thanks so much.
Yeah, so I mean, I think, you know, this groundbreaking, you know, moments in the Korean NFT space have led to like more, I guess, more exciting things, I think, is Hyundai* and like,
Are there any like, I guess, monumental things that you kind of saw and like galleries and things efforts and, I guess, handouts, or I guess explosion of clubhouse sessions that you found impressive like NFT gallery got some golf symbols. So could you say voices, anything that you want to share with us like Daniel, you can chip in as well. Yeah.
So, Mr. Misan is doing right now he is putting his the crypto voxels room so you can check out his space, it's really amazing, and he also put a tweet, Twitter account for his own ******. He recently did **** gallery and he's an offline gallery and it was a cool collaboration between NFT's and real art and, yeah, you just check his account out so there's so many artists like trying to facilitate the space here and in sound Lee is one of them, and religions happening, and also you're using artists. Yeah, he had an exhibition as well. Right. It gave a good comparison between NFT's and physical art. And there's been many things in the making. So yeah, it's, it's definitely booming in many ways, exciting things. So everybody what do you think like, it's becoming a thing among Korean artists, and also do you also see the similar interest in creating collectors, as well.
Yeah, I guess I could say something briefly. From what we've seen, there's like these different tools that exist from on the NFT side let's say for example fractionalization that we've When I say we, like let's say like for example Hyundai who has been kind of helping some of these traditional art galleries, as well as just traditional artists explore. So, as an example like what fractionalization is offering is this more of this type of expressivity and obviously this is not just limited to Korea, but sometimes, right, these quote cultural heritage pieces are important in its ownership and how you can trace that ownership. And so if we, there's a particular, there's a gallery in Korea called console which is kind of like this cultural. It's like an art gallery that is like defended it's like Korean heritage pieces from like over the wars like through the Japanese war and stuff like that. And some of the issues that they had faced before were like, they, they need funding for to continue their operations and then maintain their artwork there. However there, when you're kind of looking to kind of raise funding for like an art gallery, sometimes there are temptations like sell your art, to be able to fund in verse, where these are like artworks that you've kind of battled through literal wars to like keep. And so when we were talking to them, we kind of discussed these opportunities and options for fractionalizing some art right so as using the concept of an NFT as like a digital receipt, for example or a digital certificate of ownership, right, if there is for example like a Korean turtle ships like figures figurine or statue that they want to be able to get price exposure to, but still retain ownership and not having leave Korea. Right, like the country itself, we are presented with fractionalization you can you can credit NFT that represent the certificate of ownership of that Korean Turtle Ship statue, split it up into 10 fractions have one of those fractions, may be maintained it owned by the gallery itself, and then sell the other nine, where you can basically buyers and to answer your point, like buyers can have a quote unquote piece of literal Korean history, but then it's strategically protected by the console art gallery, because console art gallery, if they do not want to have that Korean Turtle Ship leave Korea. They can just never sell because the only way to have complete ownership is buying out all 10 of those of those fractions, so that that is something that has been, I think one of the most interesting and exciting ways that we that we, at least at **** in Korea have seen opportunities for the traditional world to get exposure to NFT's in meaningful ways.
That's very interesting. Anybody who wants to add to that.
Do you think like, what do you think the, you know response from the traditional you know side is regarding like, you know, the artists and collectors, do you see any, I guess, positive response or what do you see in your perspective?
So Mr. Misan is saying like he's not very familiar with the traditional side, but what he sees is excitement and just interest in general, and she doesn't see anything like on the surface yet, but it's pretty sure that you know it's something underneath is going on, and I myself also things, agree to that, you know, I've seen so often house move pretty quickly as well. And I will see amazing things happening from art galleries like what Daniel just mentioned and I think they'll be creative approaches for sure. I mean even galleries have been tapping, to me, which is kind of surprising. Yeah, very interesting.
And also this kind of also is a very ideal picture right now as you see, I think, is there any, like, from your perspective, do you see any concerns coming from the Korean side like I guess regarding NFT's, or the ecosystem. And Daniel from NFT bank you can also talk more about you know, what you see on your side. As you know aggregator right you can kind of see response from different people right so it also start as well.
I do for now Like, people are considering NFT's as one of all seeking financial assets, skill, so they, you know whenever new presale comes out by, for example for Metaverse NFT's in the sandbox, Decentraland, and they are really crazy about getting into the pre sales right. But then, I've not seen many people really clapping on people RTN Hyundai I think there are several reasons why. But, you know, as you know there are a number of applications where you can we can buy a fraction of all the pieces of arts physical arts right. So I think that's why people are not really seeing difference, you know, they are not made differentiating factors where like you have to buy NFT's to buy the freshness of it, of the yard pieces. So I think we have to still, you know, the ways the literacy of the digital has ownerships, in Korea, and also like most of the material out there in the internet is written in English that that hinders people from, You know, adopting and jumping into the NFT space. So, I think we have to like, I think Daniel mark, and he handle. Overall I are working towards, you know, reading, better and Korean written materials into that space so that you know more people can have access to.
Yeah, that's a great point, elaborating more on what Daniel just said, right, for me, I see that as well the language hurdle is quite vague, and although materials and trends are written in English right so it has to take some time to really understand the concept and, but what's been happening in the Korean NFT side is like there's been a website called Korean NFT. KoreanNFT.com And what you see is like an artist named Dong Lee, she made a website, kind of, conglomerating and like aggregating amazing artists out there the work on wellness site, and yeah Mr Misan I'm just, he copied the website and yeah you should definitely check it out it's done by autonomous Korean you know, artists and it's a very beautiful thing where we all come together and I believe it's also part of handout as well but yeah this is a, I didn't try to facilitate understanding and also there's been an artist called kingbirds and he's also been writing a Korean guide right to make understanding for Korean artists much better, and going step by step in minting a piece on opensea, for example, I think it's been very easy for the artist to follow that, that path and not really have to understand anything in English yet. Right, so I think that's been one of the gracious efforts that a lot of these Korean artists have been doing.
Just to add to that I think what one of the most important things that I've, I've been focusing on is making sure that, right, it's easy to really easily use like decentralized platforms like super rare and opensea where it's, you just upload your file, you don't really see what's going on behind the scenes. And then, right, you have this NFT, sometimes it's like the holding to the types of decentralized storage options that those services provide whereas Right. Like the whole point of like cryptocurrency and this blockchain ecosystem is that you have self sovereignty. Right. And so I write some of the stuff that we've released through a handout and have kind of presented and promoted through like, like tick tock videos and stuff, have been right.
Being able to, I just recently wrote an article that translated to mint NFT, without using your own smart contract with NFT, and then you, you have like this organic or like purely decentralized method of creating your own art. And I think that is probably one of the most important things that a lot of NFT artists need to understand, especially because right if crypto is this If NFT's are like the killer app of crypto. For now in terms of mass appeal. Once they get on and then come into this space, they need to also understand like why, and what, right, like, what is self sovereignty, why does it matter centralization versus decentralization. And so hopefully we can continue to kind of do some more education on that as well. There's nothing wrong with super rare open sea, right, there's nothing wrong with pinning IPFS services. I don't think obviously is going to disappear anytime soon but if it does, then who decides who is going to pin those IPFS links. They're not going to exist unless someone is paying for those right. So, I think the power of being able to do it on your own, and then have it stand on its own is important. And I would imagine many artists have that those same concerns right like what is going to happen to my art if these hosting platforms go down.

Absolutely. Yeah, those these type of efforts really will accumulate into a very healthy and educational long term right ecosystem for the Korean artists, and also for anybody who was interested in NFT's in general, I think it was as lower the hurdle in general. And I think we've been doing a good job so far and you know I always again, kudos to Mr Misan for really like jumping into it, even before anything happened right I think it's been amazing. His journey has been just amazing so far and Yeah, and he's spearheading into the space, the recent F2 Pool collaboration with Mr Misan has been amazing right and maybe Danny we can talk more about that in the service I can also elaborate just share this moment though so.
Awesome I'm so grateful to the piece that Mr Misan submitted so I also work at f2 pool it's a coin pool, *** mining pool. And we had like an eighth anniversary and we were looking for opportunities to kind of participate in the NFT space, as an institution, as well as kind of address addressed the climate stewardship that I think is on everyone's mind so right, for example, we announced our blockchain infrastructure carbon Working Group on the eighth anniversary day as well as the, the piece that Mr Misan had made for us, which was like 50% went to purchasing carbon credits to do offsets. So he made like this really cool like thing where it's like this mining landscape and then there's music and then it turns green, to kind of pay tribute to like the point of it all and so it's a lot of money. And so there's a quite a significant amount that is now going to purchase carbon credits, so we'll be following up that soon.
Yeah, that's been amazing.
So I said kind of translate a little bit of that. Hyundai mr. Misan **** that was the piece that was published with f2 pool was created in 2002, and that was an important piece for him, because at that time finishing that piece he realized that okay I can now really jump into being an artist, professional artists and I think that really was monumental piece for him if he had a personal meaning. So having this collaboration means a lot to him, and I think this type of collaboration team NFT artists, and also, you know, with a crypto company crypto player right I think that's really what's interesting me as well. So, yeah. So, we have about, I think five minutes left.
Maybe to share a little bit of words do you think this is going, and how do you think it will evolve going Korea. I mean you can talk about your future plans to contribute to this space. So, let's go round and share that.
I guess I could go first. We're looking forward to Hyundai continuing to support like the Creator ecosystem in Korea. From NFT's the meta versus like sandbox. And then, like the social token aspect of things. I think there are the power to be able to, as it as a doubt, enable community to kind of form the appropriate collaborations. I think is powerful, and right as we see here just in this panel right with the, the tools that entity bank is providing on that kind of that side as well as like with artists with developers like myself, investors, you can kind of create like these awesome temporary, like, right, autonomous organizations to create more an experiment more and I think that diversity of thought, especially from a cultural perspective which I think is why, why handout is so important for to support the Korean ecosystem as well on the global stages, kind of help, like provide more fundamentals, more, more substantial kind of products for the ecosystem. And right as this killer app I think right we have We have a lot of responsibility and opportunity.
Absolutely.
Dan, do you want to add to that.
Yeah, so. Yeah, I think there's still, you know, barriers to entry When it comes to NFT's, you know, the UX, we have to improve UX and UI, you know, but then we also have to think about the informational like there is information asymmetry between sellers and buyers and there are still a lot of market friction when it comes to buying and selling NFT’s. And also, like, if you're not really crypto native, you can that really, you can really see, there is still a forgery problem that we haven't solved yet, but we definitely have to tackle that issue. In order for the people to, you know, come to the space. And then and then they can invest in the assets in a safe manner. So, the NFT platforms We are trying to show more transparent data so that people can easily digest and understand and, and what are the assets they are all investing in. So that will help people in terms of the information asymmetry, that would also. Consequently, help, you know, the lower the entrance to the barrier to entry.
Yes, thank you so much.
Mr Minsa : Do you have anything to say Regards to your future plans, or what you, you know, where you're looking forward to in this Korean NFT ecosystem?

Yes. So exciting class for mr. Misan. So he's so far released up to the 11th piece on the Modern Life Is Rubbish series, and he is right now creating his 12th piece, which is going to be exciting, and also on the side he's gonna do. Numerous side pieces, and you can see his art probably in the crypto scene everywhere so that's going to be also exciting to see. So, thank you so much for sharing your plans for this year so yeah, thank you everybody, I think we're just in time. So thank you all for joining in and maybe we'll probably see you in real person soon but yeah if you're curious about the creative arts NFT art space, you can check our handout. And also, the Korea NFT.com Many, many resources there so please check them out, and, and I think someone mentioned on the chat about the viola Hamilton 20s on NFT Hyundai. This exhibition and each one in Korea With this collaboration between NFT artists, and it is tomorrow actually may 16th If you're in Korea by any chance, please check it out. And that should be as well.
You're smiling.
Hyundai Quarantine.
I know, it will be in quarantine before you know it is before we know so yeah, very exciting. And yeah, thank you for the question. Thank you for the interest and yeah I hope to show more exciting things on the Korean side, regarding, you know, at the NFT ecosystem and they are definitely exciting artists and of course Mr Misan is spearheading but like there's definitely more and more to come. So very excited, and also for NFT bank, you know you're doing amazing like I think, you know, your you know, Discord is thriving, you're you know you're getting a lot of users, so I'm very proud of what's, you know what's happening in the Korean side and, yeah, thank you so much for everything. And thanks for all the comments everybody.
And I think if you have any I think there's some time left. If you have any last comments or anything, just feel free to share, Daniel. Daniel coming I just HyundaiHyundai**.
I know there's some stealth projects that Mr Misan is working on. Maybe we'll be, how many, how many more weeks Do you think it will be before you are able to publicly announce it. It's pretty exciting?
Yeah, that's an exciting chart. He is enjoying this whole process, and that is the way to go. That is definitely I think the passion among you know everybody here is really keeping this space going, and, and people are excited in Korea. Right, so I really think that we can thrive more. Thank you everybody.