Busan Agrees To Create Digital Asset Exchange With FTX

[Asiska02]

The second-most populous city in South Korea, Busan, on Tuesday agreed to collaborate with the international cryptocurrency exchange FTX to create a digital asset exchange.



Facts

FTX will provide technical and infrastructure assistance to Busan city in establishing the digital asset exchange.

The Sam Bankman-Fried backed crypto derivatives exchange is also planning to cooperate with the city in promoting various blockchain projects and partner with local universities in providing blockchain-specific education.

Amy Wu, Head of Ventures and Gaming at FTX, said that FTX will launch its Korea office in Busan next year, and will help the city become Asia’s digital finance hub, according to a press release by the city administration.

The development comes after Binance also announced an MOU with Busan last week for the same purposes.

Busan city was designated as a “blockchain regulatory-free zone” in 2020 where developers can bring blockchain-related proposals or projects to the city government that may not be considered elsewhere in the country due to regulations.

FTX was recently reported to be in talks to purchase Bithumb, one of South Korea’s top five crypto exchanges.

https://forkast.news/headlines/binance-south-korea-busan-city-exchange/
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/08/26/crypto-exchange-binance-to-help-s-korean-city-of-busan-develop-its-blockchain-industry/
https://twitter.com/watcherguru/status/1564884158521810944?s=21&t=Hc5VsO7I1h7t4pY3zIWK2w

[Darker45]

This is something new. I guess I haven't encountered any news of a city or a country that plan to have its own crypto exchange. This is interesting. While this is not really exciting if we talk of privacy or anonymity since this is government-owned and so information sharing will certainly be free-flowing with other government agencies, this seems positive in a way because this is like an official stamp which vouches for cryptocurrency's legitimacy.

While other places are only regulating and implementing policies on crypto, Busan has brought things to a whole new level by coming up with Busan Digital Asset Exchange.

[SFR10]

The second-most populous city in South Korea, Busan, on Tuesday agreed to collaborate with the international cryptocurrency exchange FTX to create a digital asset exchange.

It seems to be a piece of positive news, but I'm a bit confused as to why they decided to create this so-called digital asset exchange!
^{- So basically, they were bored and decided to stretch it out up to 5 years.}

• According to the related industry, there are currently no business operators applying for new businesses in the Busan block chain special zone. In this situation, the card that the city of Busan took out as a solution is the 'Busan Digital Asset Exchange'. The city of Busan, which received the Busan Digital Asset Exchange Advance Information Request (RFI) in May, plans to establish the Busan Digital Asset Exchange by investing a total project cost of KRW 75 billion over five years from this year to 2027.

While this is not really exciting if we talk of privacy or anonymity since this is government-owned and so information sharing will certainly be free-flowing with other government agencies,

It's worse than that... They're going to rely on third parties to manage it and I wouldn't be surprised to see them capitalize on any opportunity that they could get for selling all kinds of data to others:

• An official said, "The city of Busan cannot operate the digital asset exchange directly under its management, and it has to designate a consignment institution to operate it on its behalf, but in the process, controversy over preferential treatment is inevitable. Also, it is difficult to see that it is differentiated from existing virtual asset exchanges by looking at the current business structure alone. ", he pointed out.

[NeuroticFish]

So 5 years and a lot of money ($55M ?) for... basically a subsidiary of FTX in Busan?!
It looks to me more a "business" of leeching money than doing something productive...

[stompix]

Got me confused for a moment as the links talk about Binance and the title about FTX but seems like they are opening a partnership with both of them but why do they call it an exchange when they say it's for blockchain-related services:

He listed off some of Busan’s blockchain-based services, which include B PASS, a blockchain-based ID service, Busan Digital Voucher, a local currency circulation-boosting service based on its digital ledger, the Citizen Safety Report, B-Fresh, a seafood logistics service, and B-Tour, a tour platform.

I would love to see more of the above and less about the same let's build a city coin and exchange and hope for the best.

So 5 years and a lot of money ($55M ?) for... basically a subsidiary of FTX in Busan?!
It looks to me more a "business" of leeching money than doing something productive...

As I said I don't get why doing this when they already had other plans in motion with the support of the government:
https://www.busan.go.kr/eng/bsnews01/1390496

The City of Busan expects blockchain applications in tourism, finance, logistics and public safety, with projects led by companies ranging from a bank to FinTech startups. The city is planning to inject 29.9 billion won through 2021 into the 11 specialized districts (110.65 km2) such as Munhyeon Innovation District, Centum Innovation District, and Dongsam Innovation District. Eleven regulations have been lifted for this project.

Maybe those have failed and they must show something after 3 years and the only choice was rapidly setting up and exchange?