South Korea's crypto tour is planning environmentally friendly” NFTs for K-Pop fans

The head of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange has promised that his NFTS will be “environmentally friendly” with K-Pop stars after environmentally conscious young fans have triggered a counter-reaction.

Upbit started its marketplace for crypto art and plans in a joint venture with Hybe, the administrative company of the boy band, a number of non-fungi token with members of BTS.

But members of the powerful young fan base of the band have criticized NFTS and the crypto industry for energy consumption, which is connected to mining and persecution of the token.

SIRGOO LEE, Managing Director of Upbits operator Dunamu, said the Financial Times in an interview that the joint venture would use “low -carbon, environmentally friendly” technology to shape the NFTs.

LEE said that the NFT marketplace from Upbit Blockchain technology is used by another Dunamu subsidiary, Lambda256, which claims to consume 99.99 percent less energy on its Luniersee platform than leading blockchain-based platforms such as Ethereum.

"We will try to explain to the fans that this is not harmful to the environment," said Lee.

The first token that was bought on the platform, a picture of a painting of a girl who holds a cat, the artist Jang Koal called "Mirage Cat 3", was sold for Bitcoin worth around $ 173,000 in November.

luniverse claims that the energy consumption for its entire blockchain network, including NFTs, is estimated to be “around 842.53 kWh per year”, a lot that corresponds approximately to the monthly electricity consumption of a US household consumer.

South Korea has one of the world's largest markets for digital currencies. According to Dollar and Yen, the Korean Won is the third most common currency for Bitcoin trading and, according to data from Coinhills, an industry tracker, accounts for 3.4 percent of global trade.

LEE also said that global measures were necessary to tackle problems such as money laundering and cyber theft.

In 2019, cybercriminals chopped into the upbit and stole the Ethereum cryptocurrency worth around $ 49 million.

"One of my nightmares is to be chopped and lose everything [The Investors’] money. It is a great responsibility and it keeps them awake at night, "said Lee.

"I'm not worried about going to prison, I'm more concerned about being stabbed by our investors."

According to experts, many young South Koreans are enthusiastic buyers of digital assets, some of which are motivated by the high youth unemployment and rising real estate prices.

The cryptor nausea has led to a prize for Bitcoin in South Korea compared to other countries. Bitcoin is currently being traded with a surcharge of 2-3 percent compared to the United States and thus reduces a gap that reached 20 percent last year.

LEE rejected the criticism that debted young Koreans, who are attracted by NFTs, and large profits from the cryptoandel were exposed to excessive financial risk, and argued that their understanding of the investment class was underestimated.

"In the West, young people grew up with consoles after school while these young people go online in Korea to play games, they are used to collecting and buying digital items," said Lee. "These young people understand that digital assets have this value."