The Federation of Korean Fintech(K-FiNNeT) unveiled the 'Ko-fun', a crypto-currency platform for Hallyu (Korea Wave) fans. Ko-Fun is a creative play & festival platform that combines and connects blockchains with virtual realities that pursues an ecosystem of diverse Hallyu contents’ distribution. The association plans to issue a type of cryptocurrency based on Hallyu stars that can be made available for use on the Ko-fun platform. Hong Jun-young, the chair of the association, expressed his aspiration to capture all of the 100 million fans of Hallyu and K-pop in the Ko-fun platform.
Hallyu Celebrities Contents to be distributed through Block Chain
The revenue model of Ko-fun will be a form of producing and selling content using Hallyu celebrities. Such methods are made by producing contents like fanfiction and illustrations that celebrate birthdays or various events of Hallyu celebrities, and then trading such contents through blockchain platforms. It provides a virtual area that fans and stars can simultaneously have access to, where fans can celebrate the stars’ special dates and events by presenting their own material.
The contents created by people in the virtual space can be purchased by others, and the purchased material can be stored in the 'personal virtual space', a form that is like the ‘Cyworld mini homepage’. The creator of the content can be compensated for the content value one created through Voting, which is practically the same concept as 'like' of Facebook. The method of being compensated cryptocurrency for the contents that you created is like the service form of Steemit.
Ko-Fun plans to promote an online and brick and mortar character business as well.
It is a system of utilizing fan-made contents and producing characters to sell in retail stores.
The production of cryptocurrency is conducted through the method of ‘Assign’, rather than the existent method of ‘Mining’ where coins were chosen. The usual ‘Mining’ method of producing tokens within the original blockchain platform unnecessarily consumed enormous amounts of computing resources and had also a slow transaction speed. Ko-Fun complements the limitations of the existing blockchain platform by adopting the "Token Assign" method, where tokens are produced whenever a user likes a content created.
The way of cryptocurrency usage is like the service model of ENT Cash. The copyright fee paid to the agency of the Hallyu star will be replaced by the celebrity’s coin instead of cash. It implements the 'Token Assign' method in which the total number of tokens is divided in seven stages from 0.1% to 10% depending on the popularity of the star. The popularity of Hallyu celebrity is determined by an artificial intelligence system and the users’ votes to ensure fairness.
The construction of an exchange market exclusive for Hallyu star coins, 'Cheonjiyin'
The association is establishing an exclusive cryptocurrency exchange, "Cheonjiyin", where transaction tokens which are used in the Ko-fun platform can be traded. The listing of cryptocurrency prices uses content trading volume, billboard chart performance, and user voting as index. Also, by using the Fraud Detection System (FDS), it plans to carry real-time detections of the rapid changes of the market due to factors such as manipulation forces and further deal with such changes.
"We will evaluate the value of Star Coins based on quantitative standards and operate it to maintain a stable market with the FDS," said Hong Jun-young. "We will continue to issue the cryptocurrency based on Hallyu stars, and thus try to be the representative platform for distribution of Hallyu contents."
"The plan is to develop Etherium-based tokens by utilizing UB Pay, a smartphone payment platform that is already used globally", he said. "We want to emphasize that the Ko-Fun project involves established companies that are proven to have technological expertise and experience.”
Ko-fun Token Technology’s 'Korea Wave Base Coin Engine' uses the smart payment platform UBpay of Harex InfoTech. Harex InfoTech (CEO Kyung Yang Park) plays a key role in aspects of the stability and scalability of Ko-Fun Coin such as Crypto authentication server, Atomic Coin Swap, and the UBpay smart integrated payment service of not only the transaction of the digital contents in virtual world, but also the purchase in the online shop and brick and mortar stores. CoreTec, a development company of VR and AR solutions, is responsible for connecting the virtual realities with block chains, and NAMU Planet is responsible for FDS, artificial intelligence, and big data systems. All processes of contracts and businesses with celebrity agencies are supported by the legal counsel of the law firm Chung Jung. In addition, the research team of Professor Han Ho-hyun, professor of computer engineering at Kyunghee University, and the research team of Professor Kim, Jong Hyun, professor of cyber security at Aju University will both participate in the platform development. Also, the publishing company Darwin KS which issues the ‘Korea Wave (Hallyu)’ magazine will manage the contents.
Worry over adverse effects regarding underage obsessive fans who cannot participate in cryptocurrency transactions
Ko-fun is focusing on the fact that Korea has created new business opportunities with Hallyu contents which garner international competitiveness. It is also attentive to how block-chain technology which cannot be illegally copied can protect the copyright of entertainment contents, proving to have a positive effect.
However, considering that the majority of Hallyu celebrities’ fandoms are teenagers who consume Hallyu content, there are some concerns that the system may drag such young generations into illegal cryptocurrency gambling schemes, since they cannot participate in legal cryptocurrency exchanges. A related concern is the controversy of speculation, due to the addition of monetary value and volatility to contents that use Hallyu celebrities.
In response, the association dismissed such concerns by saying that the value of Hallyu contents will not rapidly change like bitcoins. Hong Jun-young said, "I think that Korean teenagers are more attracted to the idea of owning limited-edition star content of their favorite celebrities rather than making a profit. I do not think that transactions will happen actively even if the value of some content soars.” "Within the association, we do speculate that some groups might intentionally raise the coin value of a particular star," he said. "We will try to set up a safeguard system until the service is fully open to ensure that the market will not be distorted.
