In November, a special blockchain launch event was held in Korea as part of a $400m blockchain initiative. In the coming years, the Korean government hopes to bring 220,000 businesses and organizations on-chain. The new governor of the province og Gyeongsangbuk, Lee Cheol-Woo, specifically ran on a platform to make this region a leader in blockchain technology.
For the ceremony, RChain’s head of business development, Jonathan Kochmer, was in attendance as an honored guest, highlighting his advocacy in spreading the news of Korea’s efforts to become one of the world’s premier destinations for blockchain. He was invited to attend following his speaking engagement at the Global Leader’s Forum in Seoul on Nov 12.
In parallel with the governmental initiatives, a Blockchain/AI Tech Center has been constructed in the city of Gimcheon in Gyeongsangbuk Province. One of RChain’s portfolio companies, Swytch, is already working within the province to track and maximize green energy usage in large data centers. Taking advantage of the center’s explicit goal of fostering relationships with international blockchain and AI companies in establishing regional presence, RChain Asia was invited to be the first blockchain project presenting at the facility: a five-day, 25-hour training in many foundational aspects of blockchain, and basic training on RChain and Rholang to illustrate these principles.
The training will consist of three phases:
- Phase 1 builds a shared foundational knowledge through lessons, discussions, and lectures. Participants will explore consensus protocols through gameplay, become familiar with developer tools, and complete basic Rholang exercises.
- Phase 2 departs from the traditional teacher-student formula and moves toward teams of participants competing to solve challenge problems. During this competition phase, learners are able to choose which challenges interest them most and follow their own curiosity. Instruction continues in the form of optional breakout sessions that will be run throughout the day.
- Phase 3 will be spent designing and building final projects in which participants will apply the knowledge and skills developed during phases I and II. They will form teams, propose final project ideas, and peer-review each others’ proposals for scope and technical design. Learning will continue to happen through breakout sessions led by both instructors and participants as well as project status presentations.
About two dozen attendees have been chosen from fifty applicants for this class, which will be lead by Joshy Orndorff and Isaac DeFrain. In addition to exposing participants to general overviews of mobile process calculi, consensus protocols and related, these sessions may create opportunities for potential future relations in Korea for various RChain platform partners as RChain moves toward main net launch in 2019. Korean-English translators will be on hand, and remote training is also being considered.