“It is Labor Day, not Workers’ Day!”
Lee Nak-yeon, representative of the Democratic Party, recently participated in the #Labor Day Challenge on Facebook. Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Su-jin (proportional) started saying that May 1 should be called Labor Day, and named Lee as the runner after the campaign. The content of the campaign is simple. ‘Working’ (勤勞) means’working diligently’. On the other hand, it is argued that’labor’ (勞動) is a more value-neutral term as’working by moving the body’.
Language reflects consciousness. Looking at what terms the other person uses reveals his values and position. In the term’worker’ that works diligently, the position of the employer is subtly buried. On the contrary, the labor world has steadily demanded that the legal term be changed to Workers, Labor Day. When the standing position changes, not only the scenery but also the language changes.
A new industry, the blockchain industry, also has this term. It is the higher concept of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Globally, the terms have not yet been unified, and cryptocurrencies, virtual assets, virtual currencies, and digital assets are used interchangeably. There is also a reason that the underlying technology, blockchain, has been conceptualized for only 12 years. There is also a way to interpret the term in each position, such as’blindfolded, touching an elephant.
In the blockchain industry, it is mainly called cryptocurrency. It is a literal translation of English Crypto Currency. It means that it is a currency applied with encryption technology. Digital files are easy to copy, but the point is that digital money is prevented from being used in many places by using encryption technology. The people involved in the development of bitcoin were software developers who were proficient in cryptography, and many who entered this industry afterwards were from the information and communications (IT) field, so they focused on’cryptography’.
The most widely used term is virtual currency. This also comes from the English Virtual Currency. In 2017, when there was the first bitcoin investment boom, the government called it a virtual currency, and after that, the media used a lot of similar virtual currency. At the time, Minister of Justice Park Sang-sang said that bitcoin was not a currency and called it a virtual token. The key here is’virtual’.
In the English dictionary, virtual means’de facto, almost… It means’no different from’. However, in the Korean dictionary, the hypothetical is’thinking assuming that it is true that it is not true or whether it is not clear’. This is the reason why the government, which does not like bitcoin, has always chosen virtual.
The legal profession, such as lawyers, prefer virtual assets. Because it is a legal term. This term is used by the International Anti-Money Laundering Organization (FATF), which is a member of 37 countries, including Korea, the United States, and China. In March last year, the National Assembly revised the relevant law in accordance with the organization’s recommendation, and the term was taken over. The point to note this time is that money has turned into an asset. The bitcoin white paper released in 2008 said it was currency, but it shows that it is now being treated as an investment asset.
There are also digital assets. It is mainly used by financial sectors such as Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, which are considered new investment assets. Kakao’s blockchain affiliate Ground X (X) and Exchange Upbit also use this term. Their explanation is that they will deal with not only Bitcoin, but also currency, real estate, artwork, and rights that will be digitalized in the future. However, it also reads efforts that do not want to touch the minds of the financial authorities, using the broadest possible terminology.
No one knows how the blockchain, which is still in its infancy, will grow. Other technologies may develop and central banks may not adopt blockchain for digital currency (CBDC) to be issued in the future. Or, bitcoin and the like could beat the dollar and become the world currency. The choice of terms hurts, but one thing is clear: we are seeing the birth of a new form of money or asset.
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