Our weekly roundup of stories from East Asia curates the trade’s most vital developments.
China blockchain SIM card
Conflux Community says it’s working with the second-largest telecommunications supplier in China to develop a blockchain SIM card that can function a safe place to retailer digital personal keys and nonfungible tokens.
Conflux introduced its partnership with China Telecom on Feb. 15, saying the BSIM has moved previous the analysis and improvement part. The cardboard may have as much as “10-20 occasions cupboard space” in comparison with common SIM playing cards, thereby making certain optimized entry to decentralized functions and digital communities.
The primary pilot program for the BSIM card is anticipated to launch in Hong Kong later this yr. Conflux is a layer-1 blockchain working on a hybrid proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus and claims it’s the “solely regulatory-compliant public blockchain in China.” Its guardian entity, the Shanghai Tree-Graph Blockchain Analysis Institute, has acquired approval from the Shanghai Municipal Individuals’s Authorities to function as a blockchain entity.
Korean crypto scandals
Korean crypto exchanges and blockchain entities endured a troublesome week after a sequence of misconduct allegations shook the trade. On Feb. 13, investigations carried out by native information outlet IT Chosun alleged that Gopax, a high 5 crypto change in South Korea, charged anyplace between tens of hundreds to tons of of thousands and thousands in Korean Received (KRW) for token itemizing charges.
Crypto exchanges in South Korea usually promote no-fee listings, however in keeping with the report, some corporations cost “working bills and technical prices” and go them to the token’s challenge builders as a part of the itemizing course of.
Whereas the nation’s Monetary Providers Fee states that exchanges will likely be “severely punished” for demanding itemizing charges, different authorized specialists say that charging “working bills” for itemizing tokens wouldn’t violate such tips.
In the meantime, information outlet Seoul Broadcasting System on Feb. 14 confirmed that South Korean actress Park Min Younger is below investigation for her position within the troubled cryptocurrency change Bithumb.
Prosecutors say that Park’s title was used within the transaction of convertible bonds issued by Bithumb associates and that giant income occurred. Beforehand, Kang Jong-Hyun, the chairman of Bithumb and Park’s ex-boyfriend, was arrested on Feb. 2 on fees of fraud and embezzlement associated to actions on the change.
The subsequent day, South Korean prosecutors investigating the collapse of decentralized finance protocol Terra Luna (LUNC) mentioned they’d arrested “Mr. A,” the CEO of e-commerce platform Tmon.
In response to media outlet Donga, Mr. A is accused of accepting an improper request from a co-founder of Terraform Labs to introduce LUNC as a easy fee technique and publicize it extensively LUNC tokens. It’s alleged that Mr. A made billions of South Korean gained by cashing out the LUNC tokens. Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, is presently wished by authorities over his alleged position within the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem and is reportedly hiding in Serbia.
Sq. Enix makes use of Polygon
On Feb. 15, Japanese online game developer Sq. Enix introduced that it will companion with Polygon Labs to launch its interactive Web3 digital collectibles sport Symbiogenesis. The challenge will likely be set on a mysterious floating continent the place gamers can unlock quite a few participating tales in regards to the world and its inhabitants by holding or buying and selling NFTs.
The digital collectibles, numbering 10,000 in whole, will also be earned by finishing numerous missions. Symbiogenesis gives gamers a number of endings. Nonetheless, solely three gamers, assembly particular circumstances, will likely be chosen to take part within the last “World Mission.” These particular three will resolve the ending of the story, the destiny of the world, and everybody in it.
Symbiogenesis may also comprise a plethora of utility objects initially issued off-chain, which gamers can choose to commerce on-chain through Polygon. The sport is presently scheduled to launch this spring. Naoyuki Tamate, Symbiogenesis’ sport producer mentioned:
Symbiogenesis was designed from the bottom up on the blockchain and is designed to supply an distinctive expertise for each neighborhood constructing and buying and selling. Sq. Enix opted to faucet into Polygon’s excessive transaction speeds, low fuel charges, and general user-friendliness to ship this distinctive expertise to Web3 followers.”
Sq. Enix is called the developer of the favored Remaining Fantasy franchise. Final Might, Cointelegraph reported that the agency bought its different fashionable franchise, Tomb Raider, to make use of the proceeds to discover blockchain gaming. Improvement for Symbiogenesis started final November.
Hong Kong’s $102 million digital inexperienced bond sale
The federal government of Hong Kong has efficiently issued $800 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($102 million) in digital inexperienced bonds by way of its partnership with the Financial institution of China, Credit score Agricole, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, in keeping with a press launch dated Feb. 16. So far, Moody’s and S&P International Rankings have rated the bonds as A-1+ / F1+, which is at parity with comparable short-term debt devices within the Particular Administrative Area of China.
Town used Goldman Sachs’ distributed ledger expertise to document helpful pursuits within the tokenized inexperienced notes. Primarily based on the design, inexperienced bondholders will clearly know info such because the progress and every day discount in carbon emissions of the tasks financed. Metropolis officers say using blockchain expertise gives sooner coupon funds and bypasses clearing methods, thereby decreasing settlement occasions. The tokenized bonds have a coupon charge of 4.05% every year and maturity date of 12 months.
Blur token airdrop
On Feb. 14, NFT market Blur.io, which has grown to rival OpenSea in buying and selling quantity in latest months, started the third wave of its a lot anticipated token airdrop. Since its launch final October, customers who traded Ethereum NFTs on Blur or on rival platforms had been eligible for “care packages” containing BLUR token rewards which might be airdropped in waves. In response to information from Dune, the third wave was the largest BLUR airdrop so far, “round 1-2x the dimensions of Airdrop 2.”
Nonetheless, the airdrop appeared to have induced unintended points for OKX prospects. The cryptocurrency change on Feb. 15 introduced that “the excessive quantity of deposits” arising from the airdrop triggered platform threat controls and led to a delay in token transfers for some customers, “a partly missed window of alternative for buying and selling.”
Regardless of rapidly resolving the problem, OKX mentioned {that a} small portion of customers was nonetheless affected by the delay and can supply compensation by airdropping its native token OKB to eligible recipients inside three enterprise days. BLUR traded for as excessive as $5.69 per token on the time of the airdrop however rapidly collapsed to lower than $1.00.
