Dec 28, 2017

12/28/2017: Why is South Korea so obsessed with bitcoin?

A view of bitcoin medals. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks. KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

(Global Edition) From the BBC World Service ... South Korea makes up just 2 percent of the global economy – but South Koreans account for 20 percent of all bitcoin transactions. The country’s obsession with the crypto-currency has led government authorities to threaten that they might shut down bitcoin exchanges – leading to yet another price swing in an already volatile year. Then, nearly a decade on from the financial crisis, countries around the world are rebounding. But in some places the scars still run deep – nowhere more so than the Italian island of Sardinia, which has taken radical steps to insulate itself from the next crisis by returning to a 4,000 year old form of finance.

(Global Edition) From the BBC World Service … South Korea makes up just 2 percent of the global economy – but South Koreans account for 20 percent of all bitcoin transactions. The country’s obsession with the crypto-currency has led government authorities to threaten that they might shut down bitcoin exchanges – leading to yet another price swing in an already volatile year. Then, nearly a decade on from the financial crisis, countries around the world are rebounding. But in some places the scars still run deep – nowhere more so than the Italian island of Sardinia, which has taken radical steps to insulate itself from the next crisis by returning to a 4,000 year old form of finance.