KBW2024: IMPACT

Vitalik is the creator of Ethereum. He first discovered blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies through Bitcoin in 2011, and was immediately excited by the technology and its potential. He cofounded Bitcoin Magazine in September 2011, and after two and a half years looking at what the existing blockchain technology and applications had to offer, wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He now leads Ethereum's research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol.

Arthur Hayes is an entrepreneur, a crypto trader and advocate, and a fintech pioneer. Currently, he serves as the Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, his family office. He is also the co-founder of BitMEX and the originator of the perpetual swap, a popular derivatives trading product unique to the digital assets space. He is passionate about helping spread financial literacy and educate investors regarding cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Arthur began his career as a market maker for Deutsche Bank’s and Citibank’s ETF businesses. He holds a BA in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Henry Chang, possessing a bachelor's degree in business
administration from Seoul National University and a master's degree from KAIST, is widely recognized as a pioneering figure in the Korean blockchain industry. With a distinguished professional background encompassing esteemed roles at Nexon and Neowiz, Henry Chang is currently the CEO of WEMADE. His unwavering dedication to expanding the growth of WEMIX and its mega-ecosystem is evident through active engagements in both domestic and international initiatives.

Seonik Jeon is the founder and CEO of FACTBLOCK, an esteemed company renowned for spearheading Korea Blockchain Week (KBW) annually. 

His fateful encounter with the real-world application of Bitcoin for payments in Tokyo, Japan, in 2017, ignited a profound conviction in the boundless potential of blockchain as a technology of tomorrow. This experience served as the impetus for the establishment of FactBlock in 2018, underpinned by the resolute belief that rectifying information asymmetry lies at the core of achieving widespread blockchain adoption. Notably, the incorporation of the word 'Fact' into the company's appellation symbolizes FACTBLOCK's unwavering commitment to delivering information based solely on verified facts. 

As part of accomplishing this mission, KBW was launched in 2018, opening up a thriving communication and knowledge-sharing hub. It fosters seamless dialogue within the esteemed 'Korean Community' and forges direct connections with global leaders in the blockchain industry. During KBW, knowledge and insights are exchanged devoid of any asymmetry, thereby facilitating a harmonious convergence of the domestic and global spheres of blockchain innovation.

Last year, KBW successfully combined tech and music, and this year's event aims to expand even further. The upcoming KBW 2023 will feature a week-long program combining "Tech, Art, and Music," exploring the latest trends in Web3. Notable events like IMPACT, The Gateway: Korea, and Seoulbound are being prepared. 

Besides his role in Factblock, Seonik Jeon also serves as the Vice Chairman of Financial News, a renowned Korean media company. He has previously worked as the Tokyo Bureau Chief in Japan and as a correspondent in Los Angeles, USA, in Financial News. He is actively involved in observing and providing unwavering support to the Korean startup ecosystem.

Simon Seojoon Kim is CEO & Managing Partner at Hashed. He is the leading blockchain thought leader and evangelist in South Korea, working with dominant IT companies including Kakao, Line, Watcha and Spoqa to launch their blockchain initiatives. Prior to Hashed, Simon co-founded an ed-tech startup Knowre in the US and Korea where he served as Chief Product Officer. Knowre was named one of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Education by Fast Company later acquired by Daekyo, the largest education company in South Korea. Simon serves as a member of 4th Revolution Committee of the South Korean Parliament. Simon also sits as a Director of Korea Blockchain Association and a member of Busan Blockchain Free zone committee. Simon studied Computer Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology.

   

Kima Kim entered the gaming industry with NCsoft, a Korean game company. After his time in NCsoft, he was appointed as a Korean board member of the Japanese game company SEGA, where he served for over a decade.

Since then, he established Caliverse to create various and innovative high-quality content and patent technologies, starting with 'Hana-B', an interactive VR cinema experience. In 2021, Caliverse merged and was acquired by Lotte Group, a leading Korean company, to create a "Hyper-real Metaverse" that connects the digital and real world.

Caliverse offers an amazing experience in the shopping, entertainment, UGC and gaming sector. It is distinctly different from the traditional metaverses, Caliverse are implementing the circulation of the real world and virtual reality through the blockchain technology.

Caliverse received acclaimed reviews for its PC, VR, and 3D TV demonstration at CES 2023 and it is scheduled to launch next year.

Lasse is a co-founder and Director of 1kx Capital. He is a co-founder and Director of the Investment Manager and 1kx GP, the general partner of the Fund. Before joining 1kx, Lasse was one of the most active token angel investors in Europe. Prior to that, from 2015 to 2017, he was the founder and CEO of WeRide GmbH (“WeRide”) in Berlin, a mobility technology company. Lasse was a scholarship recipient at the European Business School in Madrid.

   

Dan believes that Bitcoin is for everyone. He has been a marketing leader committed to making crypto products accessible and approachable, leveraging more than decade of knowledge and relationships. He’s currently a Bitcoin educator with over 850,000 followers on social media, and marketing advisor at Trust Machines. He was formerly the Director of Growth Marketing at Kraken, one of the world’s biggest and most well-known crypto exchanges. He is a serial crypto entrepreneur with two exits (Interchange > Kraken, ZeroBlock > Blockchain.com), and has a wide span of experience across 5 Bitcoin companies over 10 years. In between his time in crypto, he was on the Growth Product and Marketing teams at Uber. He was part of the original 2013 crypto meetup group in SF which was comprised with the founders of Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, and others.

Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink, the industry-standard Web3 services platform used by global enterprises and leading Web3 projects at the forefront of the blockchain industry. Chainlink oracle networks enable smart contracts on any blockchain to reliably connect to any external API and leverage secure off-chain computations for building feature-rich applications. Chainlink currently secures tens of billions of dollars in value for smart contracts across decentralized finance (DeFi), insurance, gaming, and other major industries. Contributing to building an industry-standard oracle solution used by leading banks, insurance companies, and large technology firms has given Nazarov a unique perspective on what is required to drive the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology and build a world based on cryptographic truth.