Shin\u2019s decisive encounter with blockchain came from an unexpected source. While handling matters related to traditional Korean clan associations, he studied genealogical records and felt an epiphany.<\/p>\n
\\”Blockchain is ultimately a culture of record,\\” he said. \\”But I couldn\u2019t find any project anywhere using it to preserve proper records. Most efforts went toward currency \u2014 Bitcoin, Ethereum \u2014 and the technology hadn\u2019t migrated to areas that could preserve human history indefinitely. That made me think: isn\u2019t genealogy the best fit for blockchain?\\”<\/p>\n
Shin argues that physical monuments such as pyramids may erode over millennia, but if you record construction techniques and material compositions digitally, you can recreate them later. Just as fictional starships combine elements to produce tools or food, blockchain \u2014 which assigns verifiable value to digital records \u2014 can become a permanent repository for human heritage. He pointed to 3D printing as an early example of that potential becoming reality.<\/p>\n
The practical challenge was that most people who gather at clan meetings are elderly. Asking people in their 60s to 80s to download an app, register, and create passwords would collapse the project. So Shin rejected complex onboarding and instead designed mutual verification.<\/p>\n
If people install the same app and confirm one another \u2014 \\”this is my father,\\” \\”this is my son,\\” \\”this is my uncle,\\” \\”this is my nephew\\” \u2014 the ID completes itself automatically. \\”I patented the idea, and the more I studied it, the more I realized it reaches back to primitive social structures. In old times, the people around you \u2014 your family \u2014 affirmed who you were,\\” he said.<\/p>\n
Today, governments unilaterally issue IDs that read, \\”You are Shin Geun-young\\” or \\”You are Hong Gil-dong.\\” Once that centralized data is breached, everything becomes vulnerable. Korea has seen repeated leaks from government agencies. Shin argues we must invert that model: nothing is safer or more reliable than parents and siblings confirming your identity. When family members mutually verify one another, a family tree forms automatically; link those trees and you build a genealogy. Genealogies are records of trust networks validated over centuries.<\/p>\n
\u25a0 Why name it \\”Chon\\”? \u2014 The math aligns precisely with DNA proportions<\/strong><\/p>\n Shin selected the name Chon after careful calculation. The Korean concept of chon-su \u2014 the degree of kinship \u2014 is not just a label; it closely aligns with the mathematical proportion of shared DNA.<\/p>\n All organisms inherit roughly 50% of their DNA from each parent. Thus a father and son are one chon, sharing about 50% of their DNA. With a grandson the share drops to roughly 25%, making grandfather and grandson two chon; a great-grandson shares about 12.5%, so three chon. Each generation halves the share.<\/p>\n The first person to formalize this mathematically was American geneticist Sewall Wright. In his 1922 paper in American Naturalist, \\”Coefficients of Inbreeding and Relationship,\\” Wright provided formulas to calculate the proportion of genes two people share. Today, global genomics firms such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA use Wright\u2019s coefficients to estimate kinship. Shin admitted the scholar\u2019s name didn\u2019t come to him instantly, but he emphasized without hesitation that Korea\u2019s chon-su aligns precisely with a Western genetics formula developed nearly a century ago.<\/p>\n One example Shin often cites is the expression \\”an in-law at the eighth degree.\\” Why eight and not seven or nine?<\/p>\n Up to seven chon, the DNA share is about 1.45 percent. At eight chon it falls to roughly 0.78 percent. That threshold, he says, marks a shift in social distance. Traditional funeral customs reflect this: mourners up to the eighth degree wore full mourning attire; beyond that, they might only don a head covering. Without knowledge of DNA, people in the past intuitively and wisely distinguished kinship distance.<\/p>\n Centuries before Sewall Wright, Joseon-era scholars had arrived at similar conclusions. Shin saw global potential in that single syllable, Chon.<\/p>\n It also makes for effective storytelling to foreigners. English groups all cousins under \\”cousin,\\” but Korean encodes kinship distance numerically. That clarity, Shin thinks, makes for a powerful brand \u2014 the \\”chon\\” as a node or joint, like a bamboo node.<\/p>\n His claim that one term can encompass kinship, DNA, Korean tradition, a global brand, and a blockchain identifier felt like a semester-long lecture compressed into five minutes.<\/p>\n \u25a0 From a 2000 KOSDAQ listing to the 2018 ICO association \u2014 always attracted to industrial shifts<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked why a software veteran of more than 30 years was drawn to blockchain, Shin answered simply: he felt the trend. He benefited from the IT bubble when he listed his company on KOSDAQ in 2000, and he sensed another major transformation when blockchain emerged in 2017\u20132018.<\/p>\n \\”Blockchain assigns verifiable value to the digital,\\” he said. \\”Before blockchain, copies made it hard to know what was original. Blockchain solved that. I thought it was a new world and that it would open major opportunities for startups.\\”<\/p>\n He was, however, deeply disappointed by the ICO craze. \\”I watched unscrupulous people raise several tens of billions of KRW (several tens of millions USD) and create waves of victims. I thought, ‘I\u2019ll try an ICO myself,’\\” he said. His idea at the time was a crowd-guarantee model: when a startup or small business needed 100 million KRW (75,000 USD) or 200 million KRW (150,000 USD), guarantees would be split into small units \u2014 1 million KRW (750 USD) or 5 million KRW (3,750 USD) \u2014 and neighbors would pool guarantees in modest amounts. He said he drew inspiration from India\u2019s microfinance models, such as Mela Bank.<\/p>\n \\”The project received the most applause, but then a friend came and told me, ‘Chairman, you can raise 20 billion KRW (15 million USD), but you must give me 10 billion KRW (7.5 million USD).’ When I asked who would take responsibility, he said, ‘You will.’ So I shut the company down,\\” he recalled.<\/p>\n His willingness to cut losses swiftly \u2014 to close a company the moment it fails to deliver \u2014 explains how he survived 13 failures across 20 ventures. \\”If a venture doesn\u2019t produce what I want, I shut it down without mercy,\\” he said. The funds from his KOSDAQ sale made such decisive action possible. The crowd-guarantee patent he filed and shelved during the COVID years has resurfaced; he plans to commercialize it within Chon.<\/p>\n Perhaps his most valuable asset is not technology or capital but the courage to start over. He keeps a running tally of 13 failures and calls this twentieth challenge his final one.<\/p>\n \u25a0 Humans do not exist alone \u2014 the philosophy of relationship-centered DID<\/strong><\/p>\n The identity verification market is crowded: government mobile IDs, telecom PASS systems, OAuth from global tech firms, and numerous DID projects. Shin\u2019s reason for launching Chon is clear: while most DIDs are individual-centered, Chon is relationship-centered.<\/p>\n Most DID projects focus on the individual, but humans are social beings: family, relatives, friends, colleagues \u2014 we are always connected. Chon makes the human relationship itself the verifying ID, he said.<\/p>\n Government-issued IDs have value, but once those centralized systems are breached, everything collapses. In contrast, a decentralized identity constructed through mutual verification is difficult to hack; attackers would struggle even to locate the relevant nodes. Above all, human relationships are nearly impossible to replicate or forge. Even if quantum computers break RSA encryption, faking a web of relationships accumulated over decades is a different and far more complex challenge.<\/p>\n There has been no ID that proves human relationships. That is Chon\u2019s differentiator. It does not seek to supplant existing DIDs; it complements them. Government IDs retain their value, and Chon adds a layer of human verification on top.<\/p>\n Korea\u2019s specific social context gives Chon an edge, one Shin insists global projects cannot match.<\/p>\n Korea has one of the world\u2019s richest genealogy cultures: records spanning more than a thousand years, over 50,000 clan associations, and mathematically precise trust networks \u2014 four chon, eight chon \u2014 already embedded in society. Real-world community data is generated there every day. In Web3, few markets offer such a rare and valuable foundation.<\/p>\n In the U.S. and Europe, distant relatives often get lumped together as \\”cousin,\\” but Korea distinguishes kinship degrees precisely. That is why Shin sees potential for a Universal Digital Genealogy. Sewall Wright\u2019s 1922 kinship formula has found new life a century later as an algorithm for blockchain identity in the hands of a Korean first-generation IT founder.<\/p>\n (Part 2 will continue with Chon\u2019s core technical applications and business strategy, including voice-phishing prevention, distributed storage of private keys, and human authentication in the AI era.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The interview reveals Shin Geun-young’s unique blend of blockchain entrepreneurship and humanities expertise, showcasing diverse references.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2025-0041\/thumb-d24bb8c3-7eb9-4f22-87af-c8923a544d38.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"data-height=535\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/image\/2026\/05\/CP-2025-0041\/image-ab31a64f-c222-4b44-8c5b-46e43eb76a79.jpeg\")
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