e-CNY scam investigated; S Korea gets metaverse bug

Transcript

China’s first e-CNY scam has grabbed our attention today.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast November 4 2021. I’m Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief of Forkast.News covering all things blockchain.

Well, China’s e-CNY plans continue to accelerate with 140 million people opening digital wallets as part of pilot trials. But could a scam prove to be a setback? Police in Henan province have cracked down on what may have been the first money laundering case involving the digital renminbi.

We’re going to take a look at that story and a whole lot more coming up.

Let’s get you up to speed from Asia to the world.

All right, let’s kick off with some of the top stories coming out of Asia today. First up, crypto is a hot topic for younger investors in Korea, and one candidate in the upcoming presidential election is looking to sway their vote.

Korea’s JTBC reports that Democratic Party runner Lee Jae Myung’s campaign may include opening an office dedicated to supervising virtual assets like crypto, with its functions set to include protecting investors from market price manipulation, cross trading and hacking.

And over in China even before an official launch, e-CNY stats are mind blowing.

While China’s e-CNY has not yet been officially launched, it’s already hit US$9.5 billion worth of transactions, with over 140 million people opening digital wallets.

However, speaking at Hong Kong Fintech Week, a PBOC representative said ensuring security remains a key concern.

“CBDCs are easy targets of hackers. Therefore, security is the first priority of system development.”

And you can find more on those stories at Forkast.News.

Sticking with the security of China’s digital renminbi an investigation is now underway into what could be the first scam and money laundering case involving the CBDC.

Police in Central China’s Henan province have arrested 11 suspects in a case which saw the victim lose over 200,000 Yuan. That’s just over US$30,000.

Forkast.News, Timmy Shen has more.

Police revealed that the victim received a phone call claiming they would receive compensation over a quality issue with an item they bought online.

However, after transferring over 200,000 yuan in multiple transactions as part of requests to verify their identity, the victim became suspicious.

Police found that the money had flowed to a specific electronic wallet, which further investigation found to contain e-CNY and belonged to a 26 year old suspect from the southeastern province of Fujian.

Eleven suspects were subsequently arrested on suspicion of facilitating money laundering through the U.S. envoy for a fraud ring based in Cambodia.

Police said it could be the first scam involving the highly anticipated digital yuan, which many expect to be formally launched in time for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

July’s PBOC white paper on the currency noted that it is necessary to guard against the misuse of the e-CNY in illegal and criminal activities such as health fraud, internet gambling, money laundering and tax evasion.

The paper also notes that the fact that while the e-CNY is not a 100% anonymous system, it collects less transaction information than traditional electronic payment and does not provide information to third parties or government agencies unless otherwise stipulated in laws and regulations.

For Forkast.News, I’m Timmy Shen, Taipei, Taiwan.

Meanwhile, South Korea has caught a serious case of the metaverse bug.

Gaming giants, Kakao Games and Com2us are just two of the many Korean corporations that are building NFT platforms, which they believe are key to entering the metaverse. Kakao Game calls it a season two of operations.

Forkast.News Danny Park has more.

The two CEOs of Kakao Games, which has just had its biggest quarter yet, say the company is moving “beyond game”, with one of their ambitions being to build an NFT exchange focused on sports games and the metaverse.

They promised investors that it will utilize various Kakao Group content to push into the metaverse business.

Meanwhile, Com2us recently announced investments in both the Series B round of The Sandbox, the blockchain based metaverse platform under Animoca Brands and in Series A of Upland, a virtual property trading game metaverse.

And AfreecaTV, Korea’s online live broadcast and streaming service launched its NFT trading platform, AFT Market this week.

It will auction off NFTs of e-sports highlights, video on demand content and 3D avatars of popular streamers.

The avatars can then be used on its metaverse platform, set to be launched next month. So why are Korean tech firms so keen on getting their ticket to the metaverse?

“Compared to the difference in life between the before and after of the internet or mobile technology, a far greater disruption will be caused (by the metaverse). For any firm that wants to survive and thrive 5, 10 or 100 years later from now, preparing for the world with metaverse, is not in the area of choice, but survival.”

Park says South Korea’s booming creative industry with K-pop, K-drama and movies have even bigger potential in the borderless metaverse.

For Forkast.News, I’m Danny Park.

One day soon, all roads shall lead to the metaverse.

And that’s The Daily Forkast from our vantage point right here in Asia.

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For more visit Forkast.News, I’m Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau. Until the next time.