[Interview] “Earn Coins Just Using Smartphones” Public•Private Block-chain Technology Combined…Expected to Launch this Summer

EDRA KOREA CEO Kwan Jungyu(43) is one of the nation’s Top Advertising Marketing Platform Expert. His ability was acknowledged in the advertisement and payment platform field by leading the Naver Knowledge Shopping and Yahoo Shopping Ad Project, opening SK Telecom and Chinese Fashion Marketplace, and launching the Korean Domain Service “Baroga”. In March, he found EDRA KOREA to enter the cryptocurrency and blockchain business. To be precise, he started research last year and established the company after he completed the technical developing. On May 3rd he launched the mobile device block-chain 'EDRA'. He ultimately aims to realize free phone charges using block-chain technology and cryptocurrency.

One of President Moon's key presidential campaign pledges was "Phone Charges Cuts." Amidst the controversy over the May 11th Regulatory Reform Commission, a bill (Telecommunications Business Law Revision Bill) that allows the government to determine the mobile telecommunication fee every two years and force it on mobile carriers to cut telecommunication costs, the CEO’s ambition to “Make Smartphone usage free” sounded noble. But as an information technology (IT) developer, he explained the reason collectively and logically. On May 14th, I sat with him at the EDRA KOREA headquarters in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul.

The English sign ‘EDRA’ at the entrance caught my eye. What does it mean?

“"EDRA, which means the earth, is said to have originated in ancient English in the 8th century. It means blessed soil and earth, and has since become the etymology of the Earth. It also means prosperity, wealth and good fortune, and I created the name with then intention to combine this prosperity and wealth with the newest IT to ‘make the world a better place to live and prosper’.”

Creating blocks without ‘mining’

Is block-chain IT making a new world? You recently released the block-chain platform ‘EDRA’ and the ‘EDRA Coin’.

“Yes. The technique of recording transactions in a distributed ledger is called a block-chain and as you know the block-chain is mostly created by network computing. When hundreds of thousands of computers create transaction ledgers, they give 'coins' in return. This 'public block-chain' has the advantage of being difficult to hack and reliable, but it has a drawback that it slows down when copying transaction ledgers. It takes 50 minutes for Bitcoin to transfer and 5 to 10 minutes for the Ethereum, so it cannot actually function as a currency. ‘Private block-chain’ like ‘Ripple’ complements these vulnerabilities and makes them suitable for enterprise systems. As a company scatters millions of blocks on the Internet network, it is inevitable to favor the private block-chain in terms of performance. In the case of ripple, the transfer ends within 10 seconds. We combined both of them. There are blocks that have already been laid out, and blocks that exist in smartphones and computers can be expanded. This is called a “Logical sharing block-chain” which does not require mining equipment to earn many coins.”

Bitcoin or Ethereum uses multiple mining equipment because they are a problem-solving operation type, but logical sharing block-chain….

“Does not need to manually calculate like problem-solving operation. It is a distribution technology in which coins are mined by sending a signal when it detects daily life 'activities' such as gaming, listening to music, web surfing, news search as 'time division'. If daily activities performed on smartphones are detected as events and sent as signals, blocks are created without any further actions. When you play a game, the game character sends a signal, and when you view a document or news slide, or use a Messenger, it sends a signal. If you just continue to use your smartphone like this, the signals are naturally accumulated and thus coins are created. It is not a Bitcoin-based, Ethereum-based, or Quantum chain-based block-chains, but a self-made block-chain."

For a moment, we need to take a look at public and private block chains. As the usefulness of block-chain technology such as Bitcoin became known, companies have tried to use block-chain technology in their system, and especially financial institutions have been studying the application of block-chain technology for a long time. However, there is a need to complement for the drawback that the internal information is disclosed and the processing speed is slow when the transaction content or data is exchanged in the block-chain. So I studied a private block-chain that made it suitable for enterprise systems. Unlike public block chains, which are freely available to anyone, the private block chain is called a "Permissive block-chain" because the operators can grant membership rights. If the public block chain focused on decentralization, the private block-chain retained the advantages of the block-chain's confidentiality, while maintaining the efficiency of the existing centralization. However, there remains a problem of trust in the operator.

If signals are sent in real-time, are there no personal information leakage issues?

"We do not send personal information as an event signal. In other words, the number of 'touches' on the smartphone is recognized as an event signal and the coin is paid in proportion to the signal. Therefore, event signals are sent when using various EDRA Applications or partner company’s games or Apps that have a SDK(Software Developing Kit) that works with our platform. This is why we recently signed a MOU with the Korea Mobile Games Association. These features are available when you install an app or use an embedded smartphone. We are currently preparing with a large company an exclusive EDRA phone. We plan to launch it soon."

There are already services that accumulates points when certain apps are installed or apps are touched. Consumer dissatisfaction was caused by excessive advertising exposure and low rewards.

"Instead of making the user perform "touch labor " on the Ad platform, you get the natural benefits of using the general content provided by the app. Using everyday contents such as fashion contents search, shopping, listening to music, magazine or Webtoon search, gaming, and etc., is rewarded with the cryptocurrency and is possible to pay the mobile phone charges with this money. It is a structure that the user receives money for using service rather than paying for it. The platform provides the user an Ad-free smartphone experience and allows the user to unconsciously earn cryptocurrency. Companies or individuals who want to post contents on the platform will pay for it and users are rewarded for using it."

“World’s First Real Economy Cryptocurrency”

EDRA KOREA CTO Seo Hyunchul is presenting at the ‘Convergence of Mobile Block-chain and Contents Industry in the 4th Industrialization Era’ conference held at Seoul Yeoido Conrad Hotel on May 17th. [Image provided by EDRA KOREA]

According to his explanation, the cost of advertisement exposure on Naver or Daum apps is approximately KRW 0.1 won. Whereas, the cost of advertising on Facebook or Kakaostory is KRW 5 to 20 won. Although the cost is 50 to 200 times higher, users feel less fatigue to advertisements on Facebook or Kakao. In some cases, users even perceived some advertisements as general content.

“Let’s say a certain company’s milk is consumed or there is a game character wearing a global brand shoes. Users will perceive they are playing a game with a familiar brand, but the game itself is an advertisement. The key is that it is focused on the enjoyment of the user and not causing fatigue to the user. Furthermore, cryptocurrency will be rewarded each time contents are used, and phone charges can be paid with this cryptocurrency. This will allow both mobile phone users and contents providers’ in a win-win situation. I am confident because we have been in this field for a long time.”

In order to utilize various Fin Tech (financial + technology) such as mobile device mining, real-time cryptocurrency financial service, and other cryptocurrency (coin) exchange in a short period of time, block creating should be done fast. Doesn’t it consume a lot of battery?

"Block-chain was developed with genius, but real-time payment for the real market was missed. While it was called money, it could not be used for the real economy. An app needed to be installed for cryptocurrency payment, and it took a long time. The existing cryptocurrency would take up to 50 minutes to create a new block for billing, while the EDRA platform is designed to handle it under 10 seconds. Because it does not go through the calculation process, battery consumption is only about 1.3% even when mined with a smartphone. Based on this technology, I would like it to become the ‘World’s First Real Economy Cryptocurrency’. Real-time payment is important, but the volume of transactions must be large as well. So, we will distribute EDRA Coins will be primarily mined on Smartphones and distributed. Later, user can pay the mobile device price and phone charges with coins. When this becomes reality, an era with free mobile phones will come true.”

What is the situation now? The total volume of EDRA Coin is 100 Billion.

"I was invested in the pre-sale just before the company was established. The company has established a joint-venture with two Chinese companies and will hold a business meeting next week in Dalian. Uzbekistan is preparing to open an international cryptocurrency exchange. EDRA Coin's issuance is 10 times more than other coins, generating 1 billion coins a year and 33 coins a second. Growth potential is the most important for Coin value, and 4 billion people are using the smartphone, half of the world's population. Amidst the situation in which smartphone users are demanding that data rates to be cut down, providing a "Killer service" is possible. In many ways, I thought it was the right time.”

Why is that so?

"Currently, Korea is the world's most mobile-powered world, and many of our apps are available in any country. Many platforms such as I Love School, Cyworld, and delivery food related apps were made in Korea. In the past, 'Made in Korea' products have not been recognized, but now people acknowledge Korea's mobile base technology, and Korean IT companies are also seeing the world market trend. Now that the ‘Korean Wave’ culture is spreading, I think it is time for Korean companies to lead the world market. Like Google, it is important to take advantage of the global market. Web-based Google is not optimized for mobile. We are seeing opportunities at that point. It's a chance to be the Next Platform based on smartphones."

“The time to take advantage of the global market”

Where did you get the business idea?

"For nine years, I have been constantly thinking about mobile platforms, especially in the areas of commerce and advertising platforms. Since last summer, I have been engaged in discussions and research with key personnel and completed development in February this year. So, we established a company in March and are conducting research with 48 employees. We have completed a test event, and are currently filing for 7 to 8 US patents, including "block name patent," which is a simple, easy-to-memorize cryptocurrency address that are like e-mail nicknames. It is common to propose an idea and receive investment, but we proceeded with development found the company."

EDRA KOREA is currently developing technology with former Samsung Electronics Researcher, Chief Technology Officer Seo Hyun-chul(CTO), Lee Sang-yong, former Senior Researcher at developing Daum Shopping and 11th Avenue, and Lim Seok-hun EDRA Block-chain Research Director, who designed the world’s first Visa-Master Card connected cryptocurrency bank.

Uzbekistan International Cryptographic Exchange is said to open, but does the state operate the exchange.

"Uzbekistan Ministry of Information and Communication is in charge of this project. When it is opened, it becomes the first state-led exchange in the world. When I met officials of the Uzbek government, they tried to make economic development through financial services. Utilizing the geography, resources and economic advantages of Uzbekistan and the credibility of the state exchange on the basis of EDRAs block-chain technology and operation capability, it is expected that it will be able to successfully open and operate an exchange. We also want to make good use of the block-chain and raise national competitiveness. "

Recently, there is still anxiety because cryptocurrency firms are being searched by prosecutors.

"Yes. As the value of the cryptocurrency soars, some people recommended to wait until laws related to cryptocurrency were prepared. But since we have the technology, we decided that it is faster and safer to take over the global market. Demonstrating value creation through the block-chain can show potential as a growth engine for the nation as well. I want to present and lead the way. It is significant that we can provide a smartphone free of charges and device costs through block-chain."

Weekly Donga May 23rd, 2018 #1139 (p34~37) | Bae Suegang Reporter bsk@donga.com





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