Introduction of Alcohol Vending Machines
A leading convenience store chain in Korea recently announced that it provided an alcohol vending machine in a store located at Seorak Sun Valley Resort in Goseong (Gangwon Province) that started operating from July 12th.
The convenience store chain signed a contract to introduce alcohol vending machine this month with a company that was selected as a special company for demonstrating alcohol vending machines in Korea.
Until now, selling alcoholic beverages was only possible through face to-to-face buyer’s age verification process that are performed in places that obtained the license to sell. However, as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy recently approved a regulatory sandbox related to the project, it became possible to sell alcohol even without a license, opening the door for a new type of innovations for selling alcohol such as the alcohol vending machine. That said, even if a license is no more needed, how to make sure the buyer is an adult?
The alcohol vending machine leverages a blockchain-based technology enabling to automatically verify the age of the buyer. In this regard, it can interact with a mobile application proving whether the user has a driver’s license or not (warning: this is not the official digital driver’s license that RaonSecure is developing!) that is operated by Korean telecommunication companies. Through this app, buyers can be identified and prove their age using a QR or bar code stored in their mobile when identification is required.
In order to use the mobile app, the authenticity of the license and whether the applicant is the same person must be confirmed by the fingerprint or pin number. Thus, identity theft and personal information leakage can be prevented. Also, since personal information is stored in the secure area of the customer’s mobile phone, this is impossible to falsify or leak related data. After being verified as an adult, the customer can then select a product and receive it after proceeding to the payment with a credit card.
The convenience store chain plans to further introduce alcohol vending machines to hotels and resorts in ‘hybrid convenience stores’ (manned during the day and unmanned at night).
Source: https://www.fnnews.com/news/202107120903323603
Our View: The introduction of alcohol vending machines has been discussed for a while in the food and beverage industry as it can significantly enhance the customer experience while preventing the sale of liquor to minors. In this regard, the solution that is used for verifying buyer’s age shall be highly secure and reliable. The current mobile app that is being used provide a secure means for verifying the identity and authenticity of the customer based on the Korean drivers’ license. That said, this is not officially recognized by the government as a means for replacing existing plastic drivers’ license. In particular, since the government is collaborating with RaonSecure on the development of the official digital drivers’ license, it will be interesting to see whether the app used in this use case will keep being leveraged once the digital drivers’ license will be released by the beginning of next year.
