Though South Korea is not a leading country in the crypto world, now it is moving fast to adopt crypto and blockchain technology to solve most of social challenges.
With an anticipated global reset of the financial system through crypto adoption and blockchain technology, South Korea is laying a firm foundation not to be left behind. The country has been among the leaders in the early crypto adopters.
Recently, South Korea’s Woori and Shinhan banks announced their intention to introduce crypto services to their customers. As a result, four of the top five South Korea’s financial institutions will be offering cryptocurrency services.
South Korea Financial Institutions Adopt Crypto Industry
The NH Nonghyup Bank and Kookmin Bank have already coordinated blockchain teams to implement crypto custodial features. With Nonghyup being the most advanced, it hopes to launch the services for institutional investors in the near future.
This is a huge move for the banks as they will be at a vantage point to compete with global competitors. Especially with major banks from the United States that were recently clear by the respective regulators to offer cryptocurrency custodial services.
With the global digital asset hype that is pushing crypto adoption away from the bubble stage, South Korea will be poised to be future leaders among other countries in the crypto industry.
Other Notable Projects
Besides the financial institutions offering crypto custodial services, the South Korea police department has adopted the blockchain technology to solve some of their security pressing issues.
Among them, is the blockchain-powered driving license that was made possible by partnering with PASS smartphone app. The project was launched in May by the National Police Agency in partnership with the Korea Road Traffic Authority, and the country’s three major telecommunication providers.
With a few months in operation, around one million South Koreans have foregone their physical driving license in favor of the new blockchain-powered documents.
This represents more than 3% of the entire driving population in South Korea, which sat at 32.6 million licensed drivers in 2019 according to Statista.
The police department is anticipating to use the blockchain technology to fight crime and also offer better services for the South Korea people.
Retailers in major South Korea cities are also developing crypto payment systems. A major satellite city in South Korea, Seongnam, is preparing to expand its existing blockchain-powered payment program by issuing new digital gift certificates.
The city’s blockchain infrastructure will heavily rely on a mobile app called Chak app, which was built by the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation, or KOMSCO.
Notably, retailer shops along a popular beach in South Korea enabled payments for beach items with Ethereum last week.
All these among many other projects put South Korea on the global map of early crypto adopters.
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