By Lee Min-hyung
Any banks need to have a clear understanding of the sustainable concept of bitcoin before issuing their own versions of digital currency, or they could end up being exposed to political risks, claims a Seoul-based bitcoin expert.
"Currencies have historically become unsustainable because of political risks," Bitcoin Center Korea CEO Ra Sae-yong said in an interview on Mar. 9.
"For any central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be sustainable, it must be able to withstand [these] risks."
CBDC is being debated here and abroad, a conversation sparked by the bitcoin sensation that has swept across the globe over the past couple of years.
Jumping on the bandwagon, central banks from economic powerhouses such as the United States and Japan are rapidly bracing for the nascent paradigm shift by enhancing research on the area, even if they still believe it is premature to issue CBDC.
But on the commercial front, a number of global tech companies, including Facebook, are going all-out to launch their own cryptocurrencies by seeking to take advantage of a distributed ledger technology of blockchain.
"Bitcoin may not be the ultimate solution, but it has been designed to withstand political risks by using open source and decentralization concepts," he said. "Therefore, any company or nation designing CBDC should consider the concepts of bitcoin in order to achieve a sustainable impact that can withstand political risks."
Ra opened the physical bitcoin community in 2015 at the age of 38 with a group of co-founders. He is an IT expert, having worked for about a decade at FactSet Research Systems in the U.S.
His primary role there included setting up operations in a number of countries, such as India. He also engaged in product development at the financial data solutions provider.
After ending his career at the company, he moved back to Korea. It was then that he started having a strong temptation to start work on bitcoin.
"I was drawn into bitcoin because it was the most disruptive and innovative thing, and my background in IT allowed me to understand the value of such disruptive innovation," he said. "What makes bitcoin unique is the fact that it is open sourced and community driven."
But as there were no representative offline venues for bitcoin lovers here, he decided to open a space in Itaewon which is home to a large expat community in Korea.
Ra remained optimistic for the future of the digital currency despite regulatory hurdles.
"The challenge is in finding the right balance between restriction and freedom in regulation," he said. "Too much restriction slows down innovation, and too much freedom makes a state impossible to govern. In a system where regulation is rather permanent once set in place, having more weight on the negative regulation is advantageous during a big paradigm shift as it allows the government to adapt better."
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| Bitcoin Center Korea CEO Ra Sae-yong |
"Currencies have historically become unsustainable because of political risks," Bitcoin Center Korea CEO Ra Sae-yong said in an interview on Mar. 9.
"For any central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be sustainable, it must be able to withstand [these] risks."
CBDC is being debated here and abroad, a conversation sparked by the bitcoin sensation that has swept across the globe over the past couple of years.
Jumping on the bandwagon, central banks from economic powerhouses such as the United States and Japan are rapidly bracing for the nascent paradigm shift by enhancing research on the area, even if they still believe it is premature to issue CBDC.
But on the commercial front, a number of global tech companies, including Facebook, are going all-out to launch their own cryptocurrencies by seeking to take advantage of a distributed ledger technology of blockchain.
"Bitcoin may not be the ultimate solution, but it has been designed to withstand political risks by using open source and decentralization concepts," he said. "Therefore, any company or nation designing CBDC should consider the concepts of bitcoin in order to achieve a sustainable impact that can withstand political risks."
Ra opened the physical bitcoin community in 2015 at the age of 38 with a group of co-founders. He is an IT expert, having worked for about a decade at FactSet Research Systems in the U.S.
His primary role there included setting up operations in a number of countries, such as India. He also engaged in product development at the financial data solutions provider.
After ending his career at the company, he moved back to Korea. It was then that he started having a strong temptation to start work on bitcoin.
"I was drawn into bitcoin because it was the most disruptive and innovative thing, and my background in IT allowed me to understand the value of such disruptive innovation," he said. "What makes bitcoin unique is the fact that it is open sourced and community driven."
But as there were no representative offline venues for bitcoin lovers here, he decided to open a space in Itaewon which is home to a large expat community in Korea.
Ra remained optimistic for the future of the digital currency despite regulatory hurdles.
"The challenge is in finding the right balance between restriction and freedom in regulation," he said. "Too much restriction slows down innovation, and too much freedom makes a state impossible to govern. In a system where regulation is rather permanent once set in place, having more weight on the negative regulation is advantageous during a big paradigm shift as it allows the government to adapt better."
