South Korea’s Former Vice Minister of Economy Becomes the CEO of a Blockchain Institute

Yong-beom Kim – First Vice Minister of South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance from 2019 to 2021 – will join the blockchain and digital technology research institute Hashed Open Research as its Chief Executive Officer.

The entity aims to act as a bridge between local cryptocurrency experts and the government.

• According to a document shared with CryptoPotato, Yong-beom Kim’s main task as a top executive of Hashed Open Research will be to establish a constructive dialogue between Korean cryptocurrency participants and domestic lawmakers.
• Kim vowed to aid the company’s progress using his rich expertise. Organizing in-depth seminars and research activities are also on his agenda.
• The former government official opined that applying comprehensive rules to the local digital asset sector could be highly beneficial to South Korea. The advancement of the cryptocurrency industry combined with the country’s high-tech vision could level the nation with the USA, Kim argued.
• The former Vice Minister is regarded as an expert in the financial field. Over the course of his career, he served as Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) within the FSC.
• During the crypto winter of 2018, Kim urged for applying special regulations on the space to prevent bad actors from employing the asset class in their criminal activities.
• In 2019 he was appointed the First Vice Minister of the Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance. As such, he proposed that local cryptocurrency exchanges should be subject to maintenance and taxation.

Featured Image Courtesy of KoreaTimes