The battle wages on.
While the United States Congress pushes through a bill to "mitigate the risk" of El Salvador adopting Bitcoin to the US Financial System, another big announcement came from the other side of the world.
Most will remember the attention that Facebook received when it announced the plan for the Libra. While this project was eventually sold off, it did send shockwaves through the global political establishment.
The pullback of this project just delayed the inevitable. It seems we might be seeing the next stage starting to develop.
SK Group Developing Its Own Cryptocurrency
We can debate all day whether this qualifies as cryptocurrency. Obviously, we are not sure of the details but it is likely we are looking at a closed system.
Nevertheless, however this is structured, SK Group is a major financial conglomerate in South Korea. It just announced that it will roll out its own cryptocurrency within the next year.
The group, which owns South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, intends to first build a token on the telecom firm’s exiting blockchain infrastructure. It will then broaden the service to create its own ecosystem.
All of SK Groups existing companies will be expected to adopt the currency. The token will also be incorporated into SK Telecom’s metaverse platform ifland.
{source](https://coingape.com/breaking-south-korean-financial-giant-sk-group-issue-cryptocurrency/)
Most knew it was only a matter of time before large corporations started to create their own tokens. This move by SK Group could end up opening up the floodgates. While nowhere near the reach of Facebook, this is still a powerful entity within South Korea. The fact the token will be used throughout its entire list of companies means adoption could come relatively quickly.
We are looking at another sign of a major shift in the financial landscape. No longer are companies operating according to the old rules. Now we are watching the adoption spread, providing more innovation.
The entire framework for money and how we will build value is changing.
Off Sets Any Chance Of Banning
South Korea is suddenly becoming very crypto friendly. The newly elected President ran on a platform of rolling back actions against cryptocurrency firms within the country. This is obviously pumping new life into the idea of companies going down this avenue.
This comes on the heels of the Governor of Florida announcing the state will accept Bitcoin as payment for business taxes. Here we see another leak in the bucket of trying to control the financial system and keep it closed.
Each of these actions decreases the effectiveness of trying to ban cryptocurrency or stop it from spreading. We are seeing more development taking place, on a global scale. Where the issue arises, from the control point of view, is one leak is enough to sabotage all their efforts.
The advantage cryptocurrency always had was the fact that it was operating globally. To truly stop it, if that was even possible, would require complete agreement from governments around the world. As long as one made the move to embrace it, the efforts were going to be thwarted.
El Salvador making cryptocurrency legal tender really hurt things. The fact there was a place where people could go to turn their Bitcoin into USD meant that stopping this was impossible. Now we have Florida adopting a similar stance, albeit without the legal tender status since that is not applicable at the state level.
With SK Group, we are likely seeing the unleashing of a new form of currency that is going to be created. These tokens might operate in a closed fashion in terms of the distribution and the blockchain validation. However, if they want to have true value, they will likely have to be available on exchanges. Realistically, most are not concerned about centralization at the base layer. The fact that Binance Smart Chain is so successful is evidence of that.
Of course, the centralization is not the only game in town. Instead, we still are seeing the expansion of the permissionless blockchains. This is a move that is unlikely to stop anytime soon.
Providing The Fuel For Real Wealth
It is vital to understand how monetization can help to create real wealth. This my by SK Group can really enhance the value it provides. For example, with its investing arm, it can offer higher returns by providing APR in the SK token as a reward for putting one's money with the firm. Just like we see with staking in DeFi, this could be adopted by this company.
Does that mean people using the telecom service will get rich? Not likely. However, depending upon how things are structured, we could see users rewarded for different activities. Again, if the token is tied to the larger system, this could be the springboard for many opportunities available to people. At a minimum, they would be able to swap the SK token for their favorite coin.
Ultimately the major step forward for cryptocurrency will be in the generation of real wealth. SK Group could use the added value derived from its token to further expand its operations. This is the transition that will cement cryptocurrency as an agent of massive change.
Of course, this can take place on an individual level. Perhaps the tokens acquired can be used to expand a small business. Through development, we will see collateralization platforms arising. This can be used to provide financial resources that smaller entities require yet might be exempt from due to the way the present system operates.
However all of this unfolds, we are seeing massive players starting to pay a lot of attention. This is going to lead to an adoption rate that is likely faster than we saw before. There will be many different nuances to this industry, providing options to billions of people.
The decision by SK Group is just another in the long line of people lining up to participate.
There is no stopping cryptocurrency by this point. As they say, that horse left the barn.
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