“You can’t take away the fact that we are ICON’s accelerator. It’s also kind of interesting to be an accelerator of a blockchain platform. That’s a very unique thing. It’s like a very specific internet you’re trying to get apps on.”

Markus Jun, Investment Manager and Head of Research of Deblock, sits in a conference room in the company’s bustling office on the seventh floor of Euljiro’s WeWork Building. It’s another busy day for the VC firm and accelerator recently named ICX Station’s Seoul Launchpad.

Over the last month, Markus’s team has met with 50 projects, typically at a rate of five per day. Their goal is to let business focus on their projects – projects they hope will contribute to the ever-growing ICON ecosystem.

A guiding hand

Founded in April by ICONLOOP, the company developing ICON’s blockchain engine, and AD4th Insight, a leading blockchain-based marketing company, Deblock aims to grow the ICON ecosystem by not only incentivizing projects to build on the ICON platform, but by making sure they build on it correctly.

“We give projects a lot of different guidance,” says Jun. “It can be guidance related to token economics, guidance related to marketing, or guidance related to networking and funding.”

And in a country like Korea, proper guidance can be crucial. The country has taken a keen interest in crypto as of late. In November, the government will be sponsoring “Blockchain Promotion Week,” complete with a state-hosted hackathon. At least one province has a plan to create its own cryptocurrency, and the governor of the island province of Jeju is even lobbying to turn the jurisdiction into a blockchain and ICO free zone. Nearly a quarter of Koreans in their 20s want to invest in cryptocurrencies

The country continues to pose challenges to crypto, however. Concerned about scams and hacking, Seoul placed a ban on ICOs last year, a measure lawmakers are currently revisiting. The ban has forced Korean blockchain firms, including ICON, to go overseas for their ICOs. At a pair of recent seminars at the National Assembly, experts worried the legal environment could hinder the development of blockchain technology and lead to an exodus of national wealth.