Can the Korean Mobile Driver’s License Unlock Blockchain’s Potential?
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOIS) is working on the implementation of a national mobile driver’s license in the form of a blockchain-based Decentralized Identifier-based (DID) System. LG CNS and RaonSecure are in charge of the project and are currently building it.
As blockchain technology is applied to the mobile driver’s license that will serve as ID cards along with resident registration card and that will be used by over 30 million people, the project is considered as the largest blockchain project in Korea that is unrelated to cryptocurrency.
The mobile driver’s license will be introduced by the end of 2021. Driver’s license holders will then be able to receive both existing physical and mobile driver’s licenses. Upon issuance of a mobile driver’s license, a digital wallet app provided by the government should be installed to store it. The digital wallet app will be able to contain various credentials and certificates that are not related to the mobile driver’s license such as national merit certificates, etc.
Once issued and stored in the digital wallet app, the mobile driver’s license will look like an image, but it is actually data that supports a variety of technologies such as QR code, NFC (Near Field Communication), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), etc. In addition to storing digital credentials, the digital wallet app will provide functions to verify these credentials.
The mobile driver’s license leverages the blockchain technology. Among the important variables to consider when assessing the underlying blockchain technology, there is the infrastructure nodes’ configuration. In the case of mobile driver’s license, the consensus node is known to be operated by three government agencies: the National Police Agency, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation. For example, if the Road Traffic Authority is commissioned by the National Police Agency to issue mobile driver’s licenses, these nodes will agree and record the related information. By entrusting the management of nodes to government agencies that have interests in mobile driver’s license, the MOIS has selected an approach that enhances security on driver’s license’s management system.
The mobile driver’s license system also consists of verification nodes that are deployed separately from the consensus nodes. Verification nodes are leveraged to verify mobile driver’s licenses by comparing read-only mobile driver’s licenses to data recorded in the consensus nodes. For example, if Bob submits his mobile driver’s license to Bank B for identification, Bank B can verify if the mobile driver’s license belongs to Bob on the verification node.
Although consensus nodes are in a network dedicated to node operators, verification nodes are public on the Internet. In addition, when information on issuance is added at the consensus node, it can be disseminated to the verification nodes. The verification node will initially be operated by government agencies, but private companies will be able to participate in the future.
The mobile driver’s license, which will be directly stored in the digital wallet app upon issuance, can be provided to various places as a means of non-face-to-face identification. Taejin Kim, the CTO of RaonSecure, emphasized that mobile driver’s license system has a different approach from existing public IT systems as it is based on Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) concept.
Taejin Kim explained that “the mobile driver’s license has been configured so that ‘where’ and ‘how’ the holder uses it cannot be identified upon issuance from an issuing authority. In case of verification nodes, they can only check data that are completely unrelated to personal identifiable information (PII) in the consensus nodes.” He concluded that “SSI will become a keyword symbolizing blockchain projects.”
Source: http://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=411726
Our View: the adoption of the mobile driver’s license by up to 30 million Korean drivers is likely to lay the groundwork for further large-scale blockchain adoption not only in Korea but also in countries looking for digitalizing their systems while enhancing the security of their infrastructures. While being under development, this is still hard to measure the real impact that the release of the mobile driver’s license will have. That said, provided that it is based on the technology that has been used for developing the Mobile ID card for public officials, we are confident in the success of the deployment of this project, that leverages OmniOne. OmniOne is the Decentralized Identifier-based platform developed by RaonSecure.
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