Korean government to start the blockchain technology verification support program
The Korean government plans to support a variety of proof of concepts (PoCs) that may lead to the creation of disruptive services; ranging from a project aiming at deploying smart contracts using NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) for tracking used luxury goods transaction to a project that leverages blockchain to identify the status of construction site workers and pay wages directly in connection with a financial company.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) initiated the ‘2021 Blockchain Technology Verification Support’ program with a two-day initiation briefing session held on June 29–30. The main purpose of this program is to support 12 consortiums (including a total of 36 companies) selected through a public offering that was held in February 2021. This program is worth 5.1 billion won (about 4.5 million USD), with about 430 million won (about 375,861 USD) allocated per project.
The consortiums selected to participate in this program will perform technology verification tasks and develop prototypes that they will demonstrate by the end of this year. NIPA will support expenses for (1) blockchain service model planning (2) prototype design and implementation (3) system testing technologies enabling feasibility, stability, and security technology verification. Among the projects selected, here are some of the most promising ones.
One of the consortiums plans to develop and demonstrate a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) based on Cloud. Developing a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) “verified” by the government will provide a trustworthy cloud-based blockchain development environment, making it simple to add and remove nodes from a blockchain network. It can also provide a reliable programming model that can create blockchain applications by abstracting the basic blockchain infrastructure.
A second consortium is working on a project aiming at developing and get verified a Smart Contract-based platform that utilizes NFT to track second-hand luxury products transaction. Through this service, users should be able to record and verify the entire product distribution process.
A third consortium will develop and test a blockchain-based wage payment financial solution that identifies the status of construction workers and secures related data transparency and reliability by being connected with a financial company.
Another consortium builds a blockchain platform helping seniors manage their health by testing senior health care assistance services through simple data transaction while enhancing data security using homomorphic encryption.
The Korean government is continuously exploring new use cases related to blockchain. In addition to this program, the government is conducting the ‘blockchain pilot project’ program, which is part of the digital new deal.
Source: http://www.dt.co.kr/contents.html?article_no=2021062902109931650004
Our View: through the MSIT and the NIPA, the Korean government keeps spurring adoption of the blockchain by supporting a variety of exciting use cases. With the ‘2021 Blockchain Technology Verification Support’ program, it seems that the government is looking for fostering the blockchain industry while ensuring that the underlying decentralized infrastructure is highly secure and reliable so that these services can be broadly used by Koreans. Another aspect worth noting is that the Korean government support has been extended for the first time to services such as a BaaS — to spur the Korean BaaS service sector — and local technology verification support projects for helping them entering new markets such as the South-East Asian market. With this program, it seems that the government is eventually looking for ensuring the global competitiveness of its local blockchain industry.
