When you think of blockchain, Mongolia may not immediately come to mind. But for this resource-rich Asian country, blockchain technology is alive and gaining traction. We had the opportunity to have Gantig Bayarmagnai, co-founder and COO of Karvuon in the studio recently for The Blockchain Asia Show to share the growing Asia digital story in Mongolia, and what the future holds for the energy sector, crypto mining, and cryptocurrency in blockchain’s adoption in to the mainstream.

“Not a lot of people understand how it works.”

Soft spoken, yet deliberate, Gantig Bayarmagnai is one of Mongolia’s pioneer blockchain evangelists. The documentary Banking on Bitcoin had a “big effect” on him, especially on how Bitcoin was to revolutionize the monetary system from skepticism to mainstream capitalism, in a similar parallel how Marco Polo found amazement in the paper currency issued by Kublai Khan’s Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Taking us back to the present, Gantig looked to what modern Mongolia has to offer toward the development of blockchain technology.

Many agree that the entry point to mainstream blockchain adoption is cryptotrading.

Gantig began giving small lectures and classes to “regular people” to encourage an understating of Bitcoin, reducing friction in the cryptotrading process, and to “try to let them understand the WHY, not how much money they will make”.

Gantig Bayarmagnai — COO of Karvuon

Mongolia is the second, leastdensely populated country in the world, yet it is one of the world’s most energy-rich. An abundance of sunny days, wind, and coal resources give Mongolia the blockchain edge that will bring success to the harnessing of processing power, and the creation of data centers and crypto mining facilities. Due to the low costs of energy, Mongolia sees the potential for exporting energy to neighboring countries, facilitating the blockchain pipeline.

For now, this is the beginning of the Mongolia’s blockchain journey, as there is a current lack of blockchain developers in the country of just 3 million people, where more than half of the population lives in the capital city of Ulanbaataar. As the government continues to ease Mongolia into digital payment behaviors via telcos, and the prevalence of Bitcoin ATMs begins to rise, we will see the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency, and resultantly, more blockchain developers may flock to the country.

Article by: Michelle Wonderland

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blockchain-mongolia-growing-asia-digital-story-michelle-wonderland/