Major corporations, financial industries, and blockchain industry are planning to start on a blockchain project worth $7.72 million (8.7 billion KRW). This project is for Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) to apply blockchain technology to various industries such as finance, telecommunication, and education.
MSIT announced that MSIT and KISA (Korea Internet & Security Agency) will be pushing for this year’s first national blockchain project that is led by private companies.
This is part of MSIT’s strategies from last year to develop blockchain industry and it will develop and commercialize blockchain services based on ideas from private companies.
MSIT had held a public participation from this project from the 6th of December of last year until the 31st of January and it selected 3 consortiums out of 24 consortiums (80 companies) to be preferred bidders.
They will sign contracts sometime in the middle of this month after negotiations. South Korean Government and consortiums will invest $3.99 million (4.5 billion KRW) and $3.73 million (4.2 billion KRW) respectively.
This project is comprised of decentralized donation platform, development of used car platform based on blockchain, and development of services in finance, telecommunication, and education based on blockchain ID and authentication network.
Decentralized donation platform is supervised by E4NET, which is part of a consortium that includes Dunamu, Inoblock, and ChildFund. They are hoping to solve low credibility towards transparency of money management within donation groups through blockchain technology. ChildFund is planning to carry out a donation campaign through a decentralized donation platform at the end of this year.
Hyundai-AutoEver, which oversees development of used car platform, will work on preventing financial damage from used car transactions due to information asymmetry. Hyundai-AutoEver is part of a consortium that includes Blocko, ABC Solution, and Hyundai Glovis. Important data from each step will be recorded into blockchain. They are going to establish an online transaction platform by end of this year and perform trial runs.
A consortium that is comprised of SK Telecom, LG Uplus, SK Planet, Hana Bank, Woori Bank, Koscom, Coinplug, and Haechi Labs will be responsible for development of services in finance, telecommunication, and education based on blockchain ID and authentication.
They are going to start various services in finance, telecommunication, and education this year. They are going to utilize blockchain ID and authentication for verification process that is needed for investments into startup companies. They are planning to prevent falsification and forgery by uploading venture certification and business registration of startup companies onto platforms and verify startup companies in real-time. They are going to start mobile ID service and university and group proof application service within telecommunication and education industries respectively. They are planning to select three universities by end of this year and demonstrate proof application service.
“It is urgent for us to create a blockchain industry ecosystem that is led by private companies to secure competitive edge in blockchain technology and industry.” said Kim Jung-won, who is an officer for MSIT’s Internet Convergence Policy. “South Korean Government will play a role of priming water through political support to create a positive cycle where technologies, manpower, and companies can grow together.”
Staff Reporter Ham, Jihyun | goham@etnews.com