Bitcoin investors and Internet entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss will make an appearance in Asia next month, as part of South Korea’s biggest tech startup conference beLAUNCH in Seoul on 14th May.
The Principles of Winklevoss Capital will participate in a bitcoin-specific panel titled ‘The Tipping Point of Bitcoin’ from 5.30-6.00pm on the networking event’s first day.
Joining them on the panel will be Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList. Another speaker, David Lee of SV Angel, will touch on bitcoin issues during the ‘Global Angels’ panel the following day.
The panel will discuss how each member became involved in the bitcoin space, whether bitcoin is the TCP/IP of money, and how to weed bad actors out of the market.
Korea’s position as a ‘massive adopter’ will also be discussed, as its social network Cyworld – which has its own virtual currency dotori, or ‘acorns’ – has proved hugely popular.
Bitcoin in Asia
As a further sign of bitcoin’s growing acceptance in the Korean tech world, beLAUNCH is accepting bitcoin as payment for conference registration, courtesy of local exchange Korbit.
Strong Ventures co-founder John Nahm, who will moderate David Lee’s panel, says Korea has a good foundation to introduce bitcoin and digital currencies, thanks to its tech-friendly business and cultural climate:
“Because of South Korea’s early experiences with virtual currencies (based on its early pioneering history with MMORPG/free-to-play), we believe that Korea will become the early-adopter market that massively embraces bitcoin, perhaps becoming the tipping-point market of bitcoin.”
Talent showcase
The beLAUNCH conference is a local event with the mission slogan ‘Helping startups to go global’, and its last conference drew over 1,600 attendees. It is organized by beSUCCESS, a Korean startup and media platform that showcases the country’s tech entrepreneurs and their companies to the rest of the world.
The organization also runs the beGLOBAL event that introduces Korean startups to Silicon Valley. The last event in September 2013 had 500 attendees and 250 international investors looking to make deals.