The South Korean government sells a large number of confiscated Bitcoins, and there is a thought-provoking industry opportunity behind it!
In March 2021, according to relevant news from ZB, the South Korean government sold a confiscated bitcoin. The money was valued at more than 10.8 million U.S. dollars at the time of sale. It was confiscated from a criminal who engaged in pornographic websites in 2017. The profits have been deposited into the South Korean treasury.
In search of related information, it was found that the South Korean government confiscated the Bitcoin from an unhealthy website operator called AHN. There were 191.3233418 coins in total. In 2018, the Yonhap News Agency (YONHAP) reported that the South Korean Prosecutor’s Office would transfer the proceeds from the sale of Bitcoin to the Ministry of Finance. Onbid, an online property trading system under the Korean Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), which is responsible for processing the bitcoin, is responsible for the auction of the bitcoin. At the beginning of 2018, the bitcoin was valued at 28 million won, or about 28,000 U.S. dollars, and the proceeds from the sale of the bitcoin in March 2021 exceeded 10 million U.S. dollars.
Bitcoin’s “a slap in the face” behavior
In the Internet era, people describe that they don’t want it, but the body honestly accepts something called “a slap in the face”. In the relevant policies of some authorities on digital assets, “a slap in the face” still applies.
On the one hand, digital assets represented by Bitcoin are inherently monetary. This has set the tone when Satoshi Nakamoto founded Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network. The blockchain itself exists to solve the “point-to-point” non-trust “value swap” in the Internet, and it is a trust-based “currency” that exists in the Internet.
It is precisely the unique “currency” attribute of Bitcoin, rather than the decentralized model of trust, that makes governments around the world very resistant to it. Because of its currency attribute, it may threaten the status of fiat currency, and decentralization prevents the government from thoroughly supervising Bitcoin.
For example, the current Federal Reserve has been releasing more U.S. dollars to promote trade and stabilize the domestic economy. we must know that currency is equivalent to a certificate that is endorsed by the authority and represents all the fruits of labor of the people of the country. Only when productivity increases or people’s labor gains accumulate, will there be room for a reasonable increase in currency issuance. Excessive issuance of additional currency or deliberately under-issuance of currency will cause prices to rise or fall, and the rise and fall of prices will ultimately be borne by all citizens of the country.
The Fed’s excessive currency issuance is not based on the economic growth and productivity improvement of American citizens, but purely printing money. This will inevitably lead to the dilution of the dollar value, and the diluted dollar value also affects the originally issued dollar. Then, all those who originally held U.S. dollars will suffer visible or invisible losses due to the Fed’s excessive currency issuance.
At the same time that the American people bear this kind of loss, the government will be able to carry out smooth governance. However, if people generally use bitcoin instead of dollars, then without the ability to issue more bitcoin, supervise and manipulate the value of bitcoin, the authority of the United States will not be able to gain benefits from the additional issuance of bitcoin, and naturally it will not be able to conduct “smooth governance”.
The United States and the Federal Reserve are of course just an example. The South Korean government also considers the same. Therefore, the authority will hardly allow Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to flow into the market in large quantities without their complete control. However, the value represented by digital assets is something that these centralized institutions are unwilling to give up.
Hence the “truth” that the South Korean government, while imposing “various prohibitions” on cryptocurrencies, is selling the Bitcoin to fill its coffers.
Opportunity
Behind the South Korean government’s sale of the Bitcoin is actually a thought-provoking question, that is, from the perspective of a centralized institution, digital assets such as Bitcoin are valuable, in layman’s terms they are valuable.
Since the government can participate in the transaction of decentralized digital assets, it also indirectly illustrates the applicability and cognitive breadth of digital assets. This means that more and more government actions will be inextricably linked to digital assets in the future. The “value” of digital assets will also become more popular.
