Interview / ALEX SHIN '#HASHED' CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER

 

Alex Shin is the Chief Business Officer of #HASHED. #HASHED is an investment created to identify, invest and support innovative decentralization projects. On July 22nd, we met Alex Shin during the break time while the “2018 Blockchain Partners Summit” was in full swing.

#HASHED is a renowned investment company, leading many investors. Could you briefly introduce yourself and pick the three most impressive projects (investment, acceleration) that you have done so far.

Is ICON trending? Originally #HASHED was Blockchain Partners Korea. At the time, several people came together as a group, two of whom became ICON founders.

There were about 10 people in the group, among them Joy Seul, Woo Gyun from Medibank, and so on. Because we all worked in the same field, we all enjoyed each other’s company. Woo Gyun and Eun Sol were developers and doctors so they decided to work with healthcare and ultimately created Mediblock. Rest said that we need a company in South Korea so we came up with ICON.

This decision was so important because before #HASHED, I think the Korean investors traded based on their guts and played guessing games. However, when ICON first listed the first day, my team messaged me at 2:30am, saying, "I am very proud to push the Korean project like this. At that time, the price raised more than 20 times its initial listing price. Since then, I gained confidence in starting projects in Korea. That is why Mediblock and ICON was significant. #HASHED became a brand that had an impact in the Korean market.  

The third company that I thought was interesting is KOCHAVA in Idaho (Northwest USA), the project name is 'XCHNG'. This KOCHAVA company is already doing very well. It is a project that validates and evaluates the advertisement of Facebook and Google, and is now the 1st and 2nd place in the world. There are about 150 employees and is 'Reverse ICO' (making a coin after the startup). I think there are about 50 companies in the world who are doing similar project, and KOCHAVA seems to be the best among them.

In fact, if we look at #HASHED's DNA, we are neither fund managers nor venture capitalists (VCs). We are all founders and start-up developers. What we do well is finding a good founder. The founder DNA of #HASHED is driving such mentality.

 

 

What are some of the core values?

The first is the founder's mind. All the founders worked together for a long time. Also, #HASHED has been operating for about a year and a half. However, among the ICOs I did last year, when I look at things that are going to be on the market now, the entrepreneurs who continues to thrive in this market are people who have made mistakes and suffered a few times in the past. They also work assiduously. I feel like sometimes when a person earns a bit of money, they become cocky and make many mistakes. So having the mindset of the founder is important.

In the past, investors have gained their trust in #HASHED because there is a saying that '#HASHED invests in cryptocurrency.' But in the recent years, the price of your coins is falling. What do you think about this?

One reason is the market. Last year, it didn’t matter who bought what, most of the coins were a hit on the market. In fact, if you bought 40 coins, 39 of them showed some kind of progress/were a hit. Also, #HASHED does not use AP money. We don’t gather money from the outside and invest for the investors. Since we are not under the power of investors, we can invest wherever we want. That is why we can think about impact investment. 

I personally think it's hard for Korea to compete with Facebook for AI, Machine Running, NOP and other hot technologies, such as Kakao speakers, Line speakers, and voice technology. It is already behind. Even Hyundai Motor and Samsung mobile phones are already losing their competitive edges in other countries. So I hope to see Korea finding its competitive edge soon. The best move might be tapping into the blockchain market.

 

 

I can feel your affection toward Korea.

I was born in the United States but my parents are Koreans, so that is why.

Anyway I can see that Korea is so well-networked. Internet speed is fast, world GDP rank is 11, and Korea is the fastest in the world in every direction. This is the first time I came to Korea for business and I am surprised. 
In order for Korean ecosystems to be healthy, People should educate themselves in blockchain. You need more than speculation and guessing games in order to survive in the blockchain market. Also, we want the Korean project entrepreneurs do well. That's why we are pushing Korean startup, TTC (called instagram of blockchain) and Watcha (movie recommendation service). Korea has only 50 million people, so competition is low. It is difficult to get investment for startups. Yet, we can take the ICO model and bring it to Asia. That is why we do a lot of reverse ICOs.

#HASHED wants Korea to see the light in the blockchain system in the future. In that respect, we are investing heavily in opening offices in Korea.

 

 

What do you think about the development of the Korean market?

Cyworld started in Korea in 1999. There is an acorn in Cyworld (point system), which is the first time such system was introduced in the world. It did not succeed in the US, which was a shame. However, what we know from Cyworld is that Koreans understand this digital environment well. In the world market, 50% of the transaction volume of  'League of Legends' (game) items occurs in Korea. That's because there is already a digital environment.

When I go to Silicon Valley, I'm hear a lot about the token economy, the ecosystem, and the decentralized app. Many think that these will be popular in Korea due to such reasons. 

Do you think evaluation and verification of coins to reduce the damage caused by irrelevant ICOs and scams are important?

Of course, the earliest stages of evaluation and verification are necessary. However, education is more important than simple verification system. This is investment, not speculation, and the Korean market has a tendency to 'die or ride together'. But if you know what this project is and if you want to participate, just invest in it.

 

 

Finally, could you say something for the Daily Coin News readers, and the cryptocurrency investors?

The investment trend seems to change a lot and the investment style is also very different. I know people who just bought Bitcoin for a long time. Yet, there are others who like to engage in day trading (frequent buying and selling) which is is dangerous to to some extent, but it is more interesting.

But If we don’t see the the progress in this token economy in six months, I think that token in this market is over.  We are investing and running the company to show the progress of the active token economy. So if you have people who are following us, please be sure to understand thesen first and then follow us.

Whether it's Hong Kong's Kinetic, China's SPG, or American polychain, each company has its own investment philosophy. So, I want you to make various investments. And I hope you don’t do “all-in” when investing. I think that there are some dangerous cultures in Korea where they-risk-their-all kind of culture.

Another is the gambling market, which shows how the cryptocurrency market works. Vietnam is fourth in the world in terms of gambling. So I know that there are many cases where exchange offices thinking about opening in Vietnam. Maybe it's the reason I'm trying to catch the bad in the speculation market.

And Korea seems to compete only with Koreans. It is not possible to understand that there is no need in wasting time when we can combine our strengths with each other. In Silicon Valley, India and China, people are powerful--Koreans not so much. But I want Koreans to help each other in the blockchain system and do well.
 

 

- Daily Coin News prioritizes the voice from the scene over others.(news@dailycoinews.com) -

[copyrightⓒ 2018 All rights reserved by Daily Coin News]

5 0 Write