The popular co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have tried to persuade the government in South Korea to deregulate the blockchain space. According to them, the current laws are overly restrictive and therefore inhibit innovation.

These comments were made by Buterin while he was speaking at a meeting of the South Korean parliament where he stated, “Blockchain is a technology that can be run without cryptocurrencies, but there is no crypto without blockchain. Public blockchains rely heavily on cryptography. Therefore, cryptocurrencies are absolutely necessary.”

“Blockchain, not Bitcoin”

The South Korean government’s stance on blockchain is something that Buterin disagrees with. The government’s stance goes, “blockchain, not Bitcoin” with officials repeatedly trying to push the promotion of blockchain but they simultaneously are undermining cryptocurrencies and even banning ICOs.

In response to this, Buterin said that both crypto and blockchain are one in the same thing and cannot be separated from each other. In addition, he then goes on to say that ICOs are starting to slowly recover from their less than favourable image they garnered over the past year due to a significant number of scams that were in relation to initial coin offerings.

“ICOs have certainly improved, and will continue to improve in the future.”

Crypto Winter

The crypto winter has seen a lot of investors go through hard times. The price of Bitcoin sunk near the $3,000 mark and the whole market seemed almost… dead,

Despite this, Buterin highlighted the recent crypto winter and said that it was actually a blessing in disguise because it chased out a lot of the con-artists and revealed which projects are here for the long-term.

“The recent crypto scandals and market recession have [uncovered which projects] turned out to be scams and which projects are going to be sustainable.”

The founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian is becoming a well-known figure in the crypto space and mirrors this sentiment of Buterin’s.

Earlier this year, the Reddit founder said that Bitcoin investors shouldn’t be put down on the prolonged bear market because the mass purge was good for the long-term health of the crypto space.

“The speculators have fled and that’s great. Because the people who are now building on crypto are true believers. They’re actually building the infrastructure that it’s going to take to really make this happen.”

Brutal Bitcoin Winter is Great for Crypto Industry: Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian https://t.co/vfbc7eEpdY — CCN.com (@CCNMarkets) 21 February 2019

As the crypto winter is in a stage of recovery at the moment, communities are growing. The South Korean government has banned ICOS under the liberal President Moon Jae-in. They have also stripped crypto companies of tax breaks in response to the high volume of crypto scams in recent times.

This harsh legislative approach to digital currencies has caused an uproar in South Korea’s continuously increasing crypto community, which grew despite the nation’s draconian anti-growth policies.

Blockchain adoption

In other parts of the world, lawmakers are trying to encourage their governments to start embracing blockchain and crypto, saying the innovative technologies can boost their economies.

In France, members of parliament want the country to invest around 500 million euros in programs related to blockchain in order to make France a ‘blockchain nation’.

Pro-Crypto French MPs Want to Invest 500 Million Euros to Make France ‘Blockchain Nation’ https://t.co/H4gxrZQKwJ — CCN.com (@CCNMarkets) 13 December 2018

On the other side of the world in the United States, lawmakers just brought in a legislation with the idea to promote cryptocurrency adoption across the nation in mind.

In December last year, congressmen Darren Soto and Ted Budd released a joint statement which highlighted the importance and ‘potential’ of cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

“Virtual currencies and the underlying blockchain technology has a profound potential to be a driver of economic growth. That’s why we must ensure that the United States is at the forefront.”

So with Vitalik Buterin speaking in South Korea this week, he also had a chance to speak with Nouriel Roubini, a well-known troll when it comes to Bitcoin.

You can see what went down here.