I'm not being racist or anything, but it's
for you white people - Koreans don't care, literally.
Like literally.
We cannot care less. We don't give a f&%k.
We don't care who is getting hacked or who is dying or whatever, because we don't give a f%&k.
Just wanted to let all the
white people out there know that.
Thank you.
Literally, do not care.
Hi, I'm Molly Jane and we're here today talking
to one of South Korea's most famous crypto bloggers
Spunky and his channel Bitgosu.
So if you speak Korean, you can go check out
his channel, but if you don't speak Korean -
stay tuned with us on Cointelegraph where
we talk with him about everything crypto in South Korea.
All right, hi. Nice to meet you and hear you.
Nice to meet you too.
I guess my first question is super basic,
but you'll obviously know is how big really
is the Korean crypto market in both,
in terms of crypto and blockchain?
I think the Korean crypto market, by percentage
of population, it's the biggest in the world,
because pretty much one out of three or four
person has bought Bitcoin or held Bitcoin
here before. Well, people are aware. And there
are insane amounts of exchanges like Korean
won local pair in exchanges in Korea, and
they're all running a business. So it just
shows that the hype and everything is really,
really big here.
But, unfortunately,
it's all based on speculation pretty much, it's
Koreans are known to be hardcore gamblers
like globally, and people want some life changing
moments asap, in crypto it just seems like
the next ride that can make it come true.
Is that for people of all ages or do you see
this more in the younger population?
I think it's for all ages and Koreans are
kind of like that in general. Me, myself,
being a Korean, I'm pretty much a decent gambler
as well, but there's a lot of excitement,
and Koreans are very impatient people,
but crypto is very fast.
So in every category kind of fits the culture,
especially the trading side, not really the
technical or whatever side, the fundamentals
in tech, and I mean people are not so interested in that.
Yeah, I was going to ask about that, because
you say crypto is so popular there and in
Switzerland, where we went actually last summer
to do a documentary on their cryptocurrency
regulation and culture there, they call themselves
the "Crypto Nation", because of how crypto
friendly they are. And then Malta calls itself
the "Blockchain Island". Does Korea have any
title they want to call themselves? I know
there's a problem there with the interest
of the population, then the government is
not as much on board.
I would say Koreans are true believers, they're
true believers. I mean, it's not like there
has been some life changing tech that came
out of this country in the blockchain space
so far, I mean globally there really hasn't
been anything, but I mean, big percentage
of the population being aware of crypto and
has bought some sort of crypto before just
shows that the Koreans actually do believe
that this digital currency has a bright future,
so I would call the Koreans true believers.
True crypto believers.
So one of the big stories we broke last week
or we covered last week I should say,
is this some of the bigger
South Korean firms like Samsung
are looking at, you know, the Samsung Coin.
So do you think that there are other interesting
projects in South Korea that are a bit smaller
than Samsung Coin? That people don't know
as much, because they're not living in Korea.
I mean, there is a new coin that's made literally
every day in Korea. There's around a 150 exchanges
in Korea. I didn't know that. Yeah, there's
like a 150 exchanges. Every exchange is listing
new coins, trying to lure people to country
on their platform. And their new coins coming up,
new like whatever service is, of course,
they're pretty much all a scam, but they're
trying, there's new startups coming up, they're
trying to do something, they're trying to
make a difference, trying to build something
up. I mean, it's still very much ongoing.
It's not as big as it was before like towards
the end of last year, but I mean, it's still alive.
Big companies like Samsung, Kakao - they
get a lot of attention, but if you're talking
about these smaller projects that are kind
of trying to come up, move up the ladder,
I mean there's dozens coming up every day.
So since you've been in this space for such
a long time and, as you say, there is a coin
made every day, do you think that the crypto
craze in Korea has calmed down a little bit
since the 2017-2018 Bitcoin price rise? Because
I know there is media reports that people
even committed suicide, because of the fall
in Bitcoin prices in Korea. So do you feel
like that craze has kind of calmed down now
or are they still in the thick of it?
I would say there is like a trend, there's
like we call it like the market meta.
It's like a meta. Let's say like towards early
last year, when Bitcoin was first starting
to retrace pretty big time, and there was
like an altcoin run and everybody was just
going into altcoins, so it was like an altcoin
meta. And after that, towards like mid-2018,
the popular coins were exchange tokens like
trade mining. I mean, I'm pretty sure you
guys have heard of that, kind of started out
with Chinese FCoin, but there are 100 exchanges
coming out of everywhere left and right, with
this trading exchange tokens, so that kind
of drove the next drive, it was the next meta.
It was like the exchange token in the trade
mining meta. And after that kind of dried
out, it became an IEO meta, meaning Initial
Exchange Offerings coming from here and there,
so people started concentrating a lot on IEO,
so they're like what's next IEO, what's going
to be the next big one. I mean, the trend
keeps on changing, the craze is always there.
It's just that people focus on different methods
of fundraising or listing
or some kind of pump and dump.
We in Cointelegraph are always covering news
pieces about the government in Seoul using
blockchain for all these various administrative
tasks, administrative things, trying to make
it more paperless, more streamlined. Do people
notice that or is that something we just cover
and people in South Korea go on living without realizing
that the government is testing these blockchain?
Well, I'm pretty sure it's not the South Korean
government. I think it's just everywhere else,
I mean it gets people's attention, right.
You kind of feel like a loser
if you don't have blockchain.
It's kind of also a big trend.
I mean, all over Korea, I know a lot of big
companies in Korea, the executives would tell
their people: "Why don't we have some blockchain
R&D division?" or something like that. It's
hyped everywhere and everybody's doing it,
but why aren't we doing it, it's kind of that
thing, you have to have something related
to blockchain to be cool in general, if you
know what I'm saying. So I mean for the government
as well - they don't understand anything,
of course they don't, but they want to implement
this technology, because it has its advantages,
like being very transparent.
The whole hacking issues,
blockchains - you can't really hack that stuff.
It's a technology that could be replaced too, if we place a
lot of previous services or some kind of service
providers that they had, so they're looking
into it. I'm pretty sure it's not just Korea,
but everywhere else also.
So talking about the hacking thing that brings
it out, because maybe you don't know, but
I'm a managing editor here at Cointelegraph,
so I'm on the breaking news shift, 12 hours
a day, multiple days a week, and one of the
stories that gets the most buzz is whenever
there's something about North Korea. North
Korea is hacking everyone, North Korea is
funding their nuclear weapons with crypto,
North Korea had a blockchain conference and
loved it. Is this just hype stories people
like to read about, as a South Korean crypto
blogger, do you everyday feel the threat of
North Korea hacking your crypto or is this
just like kind of a drop in the ocean?
This is something I have to get out there,
it's for you white people.
It's very-very funny and interesting, because Koreans
don't give a s#!t, I mean they don't care,
like North Korea - no, it's not in our interests.
And all this FUD that keeps coming out of
Korea, like some something happened in Korea,
something that happened in Korea, some killed
themselves - Koreans don't care literally.
It's always the white people that FUD over
Korean news, but us, ourselves, we cannot
care less, we don't give a f%&k. We just care
if our coin is mooning or not, okay. We don't
care who is getting hacked or who is dying
or whatever. No Korean ever FUDs from Korean
news, it's always these white people with
weak hands, they just saw everything after
one scary Korean article and they pissing
their pants, and it's just pisses us off,
that you guys FUD so much from our news,
like fake news that we don't really care about.
I mean, seriously, please stop FUDing from
over Korean scary news, because we don't give
a f&%k, I mean please, it's just you people
that are always FUDing everything.
I just wanted to let all
the white people out there to know that.
No, it's super nice to know, because I published
an article about North Korean hackers and
it will get ten times as many views as any
other article I published that day.
Yeah, and when a North Korean article goes
out like that, we just think:
"Oh, wow. Kim Jong Un, he just made
some dough, lucky him!".
That's all we think.
We don't give a f@%k and we don't care.
The only way we think up
when we see an article like that was like:
"Oh, hey, maybe we should try hacking somebody".
That's all we care about.
He's just another guy.
North Koreans hacking something is the
same as like some random guy from Romania
hacking something, there is no difference.
Yeah, well, I mean regardless hacking articles
our biggest view getters,
but in the North Korea aspect
people just they eat it up.
Please stop FUDing everyone, I mean, it doesn't
matter. Who cares, let Kim Jong Un just hack
stuff and make his money for his missiles.
We're not scared, why are you scared? Seriously,
is this the same as any other hacker hacking
coins, there's no difference,
he's just another dude that's hacking.
Yeah, doesn't matter.
Personally, I only care about the views and
I care about covering the research into it.
There's the Russian hackers that are using
Bitcoin, there's these North Korean hackers.
I mean, the whole environment is a little
bit FUDy right now, but we're getting a little bit off topic.
My question for you is that
everyone is in the twitter verse and the crypto
twitter verse are freaking out,
the Bitcoin's price is staying stable.
I can explain this as well. You know why?
Because Koreans don't care.
Again, we don't care.
This Bitfinex bulls&%t fund has been
going around ever since I started crypto,
it's like late 2016 or something.
You know, this whole Tether bulls@%t.
We are so sick and tired of this stuff, people using the
same news used to FUD people again and again,
and again, and again. It's like whatever hacking
Tether, there are certain subjects that we
found immunity, it's like okay. It's gonna
go by again, it's another thing. I think Koreans
spot the different things. Honestly, it's
not new news. I mean, you guys been around
for a while, you saw Bitfinex do this stuff
with Tether how many times now? And every
time there is some serious FUD, you know,
I FUDed a lot before, but now I just couldn't
care less. So I think it's Asians finding
a lot of immunity over these repeated same
news that we just don't care, which is another
reason why the price is more stable.
That's just my personal perspective though.
I don't really care anymore.
So, to put it shortly, all of the big news
stories that, you know, the Washington Post,
The New York Times pick up, because the Asian
market, the South Korean market is so big
and important and because you guys don't care.
That's why the prices are fine.
We don't care, we literally do not care, 
because one thing is clear - don't use Tether.
Why the hell should we use Tether, we have 150
exchanges that offer Korean won, our local
currency pairing with every cryptocurrency
out there. We don't even use the Bitcoin pairing market.
We find even the fees very expensive,
all these global exchange, their fees are
like 0.25% percent or something. Korean fees
are like 0.01% or something. There's no, absolutely
zero reason for us to use these international
exchanges or these Bitcoin or Ethereum pairings
or like this Tether bulls&%t stuff, we just
use our thing. So, if Tether goes to zero
tomorrow - we could not care less.
That's all I can say.
So you talked about how Koreans are, you know,
it's gambling, it's about the speculative
nature, but can you anywhere in Korea use
crypto to actually buy something?
Go to a store and buy something?
Well, that's the funny part. No. No, nowhere.
It is very funny, in the last year December,
I was holding a very big event, but I was
so sick and tired of all these crypto conferences,
the same sh%&t, repetitive boring stuff again
and again. So I wanted my event to be very
unique, so we called it a Crypto Festival.
It was a crypto Food Festival. So you come
to the venue, there's 20 different menus,
and you eat with crypto payments, okay, so
I wanted to build that. And we researched
20 different coins that provide like some
kind of crypto payment solution, but nothing
works, like literally. They're just all bulls&%t scam.
Even like a global product - they're
all scams. Nothing's functioning, so we couldn't
get a single crypto payment solution to the
venue to make this payment going.
So we had to do it the old fashioned way and
we had to use Ethereum and stuff, but anyway,
we tried this and that and we're looking for
a successful useful stuff in the crypto space
at the moment, but nothing's working. And
payments, like everybody talks about these
credit cards and MasterCards and whatever
partnerships trying to moon their s&%t, but
nothing really working. So it's very unfortunate
actually. We're looking for someone to actually
make it work, because since a lot of Koreans
are holding crypto, since they are holding
crypto we'll be willing to use it, because
our bags are just so heavy, we're just so
stuck, we're gonna have to wait 5 years or
something until we make our money back anyway,
so we've got to do something with it, so we'll
be happy to use it, if it's useful somewhere,
but no, nothing is working
and you can't buy anything.
And one other thing I wanted to
comment back to that Tether thing.
This is what worries Koreans, okay.
When a Korean bad news goes
out, we're like: "Oh, f&%k, the white people
are going FUD again", you know, that's our
concern, we don't care. Same with Tether,
I was like: "This is gonna FUD all the white
people again". They're gonna be like FUDing
and dumping, but we're not scared, but we're
forced to, I don't know, trigger stop loss
it's like sell, because we expect the white
people to sell it, because they FUD, because
they're so freaking scared.
So that's another Korean perspective.
So does anything scare
Koreans in the crypto space?
Of course. Korean stuff, it's like Korean
legal issues. For example, there are no regulations
in Korea, it's not like China, it's not like
a lot of countries that crypto is becoming
really regulated. In Korea there's really
nothing. There's like literally no law, so
you can steal someone's crypto it's not like
you can do anything about it. It's completely
the Wild Wild West here. So when they talk
about regulations, and if it's coming out
of a serious voice - that's scary.
They talk about taxes, we're like:
"Oh, f%$k, and we have to pay taxes".
That kind of stuff is very scary.
But when someone gets hacked or
someone dies, or some Tether goes - that stuff
we do not care. It's when the Korean government
is trying to put pressure on crypto users
in Korea - that is what is scary.
It's a completely different
perspective in FUD.
Thanks for talking about the
way people in the FUD.
I'll make a last comment. Please. White people,
I'm not being racist or anything, but you
guys gotta stop FUDing over Korean bad news,
because we don't give a f%&k, we don't care.
Sorry for my language.
I get very emotional talking about this kind of things.
There were so many times because of these
white people always FUDing over Korean news
that we do not care less about.
So when Kim Jong Un talks
about hacking Monero or something
like that, you know - give him a clap. He's
making some money for himself, it's like then
he's going to make more nukes and it scares,
it scares us only, not you people, so stop
FUDing over scary Korean news, because we
don't care, we don't sell over that stuff.
We only sell, because we're scared that you
people FUD over it itself. It's like it's
the only reason. Just, please, keep that in
note, and Koreans are very strong people,
believe in us, we're strong holders.
Thank you.
So here with us was Spunky, one of the most
famous South Korean crypto bloggers.
So who is your favorite crypto blogger?
Let us know in the comments,
maybe we'll be able to talk 
to them in the coming weeks.
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and blockchain in South Korea?
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