Introduction of Ethereum Korea One
Ethereum Korea One: Genesis · Day 2 · 2026-09-29 · 14:01 · In Korean
Last year's KBW did not have a single Ethereum event. Youbin Kang of Nonce Classic and Sose of ECK, who built Ethereum Korea One: Genesis together, talk about why and how the Ethereum Korea Consortium got started.
Speakers
- Youbin Kang, Founder & CEO, Nonce Classic
- Sose, Co-Founder, ECK
About this session
A conversation in which Sose of ECK asks the questions and Youbin Kang, CEO of Nonce Classic, answers. It covers why the consortium was launched and its three goals, how they have persuaded securities firms and policymakers, its 13 member companies, and plans to work with Ethereum communities abroad.
Key takeaways
- Kang said it was a real shock that last year's KBW had no Ethereum event. Kang proposed an Ethereum Korea Consortium to Tomasz, then a director at the Ethereum Foundation, and joined forces with ECK, Korea's largest community of Ethereum builders.
- The consortium has three goals: hold Korea's flagship Ethereum event every year rather than once, put about half of member contributions into a grant pool for builders, and act as a connector between Korean institutions and policymakers and overseas foundations and projects.
- Terms like smart contracts or zero knowledge did not get conversations started. What worked better with institutions were cases such as BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund BUIDL and Hong Kong, plus the statistic that more than half of RWA activity happens in the Ethereum ecosystem.
- With policymakers, they started by explaining why the US SEC came to allow tokenized securities on public blockchains. Kang added that Rep. Byung-deok Min, who sponsored the Digital Asset Basic Act, has been asking them to connect regulators more closely with the Ethereum Foundation.
- The consortium has 13 members: co-lead organizers ECK and Nonce Classic; Kryptoplanet for community; Four Pillars and Undefined Labs for research and content; DSRV and Wavebridge for institutional work; and Altus, Lambda256, Optimum, Sunnyside Labs, Radius and Nodeinfra for infrastructure. DB Securities supports policy advisory work.
- To Sose's concern that forums for discussing decentralization and verifiability are shrinking as attention moves to AI, Kang replied that Ethereum itself grew out of the Bitcoin Magazine community, and a place where people keep gathering comes first. In Asia they are considering co-hosting with ETH Japan, ETHTaipei and ETH Hong Kong, and in the West building ties with EthCC and ETHGlobal.
Chapters
- Opening and speaker introductions
- How it started: a KBW without Ethereum
- The consortium's three goals
- How to persuade institutions and policymakers
- Keeping a place to discuss decentralization
- Introducing the 13 member companies
- Working with global Ethereum communities
- Open source and Korean contributor stories