Latest news on next-gen authentication tech in Korea (June 10, 2021)
A DID-based mobile wallet service for militaries to be launched in November
From November of this year, a disruptive DID (Decentralized Identifier)-based mobile wallet service aiming at enhancing the welfare of the Korean military personnel will be released.
RaonSecure announced on June 2nd that it was selected by the Korean government as the final operator to build a blockchain and DID-based digital wallet civil service. The company is building this new service in collaboration with the Military Manpower Administration (a.k.a. MMA), which is the Korean public institution responsible for conscription, convocation, and other affairs related to military administration.
The DID-based digital wallet service will provide online welfare services to the enlisted persons, military veterans, and professional soldiers while enhancing convenience and security. Until now, a variety of military service documents could be viewed through the MMA’s website, but they had to be printed out to be used. With the adoption of the new digital wallet, it will be possible to not only receive and store up to 28 types of military-related digital documents (e.g., military service certificates, notice of enlistment, etc.) in PDF format in the mobile digital wallet but also, to submit such credentials to easily get access to services from service providers.
By enabling to securely store and use military-related digital documents in a DID-based mobile app wallet, this new service will enhance convenience and security to the persons related to MMA when digitally applying for various military benefits and civil complaints, such as applying for a leave of absence and return to university, signing up for military-only financial and telecommunications services, obtaining discounts at movie theaters, etc. Leveraging DID technology here will enable users to quickly and easily prove their qualifications online without over disclosing their personal information. In addition, Koreans who performed their military services and who live abroad will be able to obtain their military service certificates, which were difficult to obtain in the legacy system due to lack of proper online authentication method.
The introduction of the DID-based digital wallet service will provide a variety of benefits not only to the users of the MMA’s services but also, to the public institution itself as the cost and time associated to the administrative procedures are expected to decrease with the removal of several paper-based processes (e.g., document management and storage, issuance of plastic certificates, etc.).
This service has been developed by RaonSecure that plans to support the MMA in the issuance and use of various digital documents and digital ID cards related to MMA services with blockchain-based DID technology. Thus, to nurture the use of the digital wallet service, RaonSecure has already completed a variety of business agreements with public and private institutions such as KB Kookmin Bank, Chung-Ang University, and Military Mutual Aid Association C&C that will contribute to the project by issuing blockchain-based digital wallet credentials.
The project takes part of the ‘2021 blockchain pilot project’s program promoted by the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT in cooperation with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). Both public institutions have been promoting blockchain pilot projects every year since 2018 with the aim of nurturing the deployment and diffusion of blockchain technology in the Korean economy for enhancing the creation of innovative public services.
Our view: The development of this new service highlights the progress made by Korea toward the adoption of Decentralized Identifier technology. Deploying DID in a service linked to a military-related institutions, which is a highly sensitive institution, also reflects the level of trust that the Korean government is granting to the technology. Also, the number of potential users of the MMA services is quite high given that Korea does have compulsory military service. In this regard, every year there are more than 200,000 enlisted persons in Korea, which means that every year, a lot of new users might use the digital wallet. Eventually, by selecting RaonSecure to lead this project, MMA places its trust in the company again as RaonSecure already supported the public institution in the improvement of its website with the deployment of a blockchain and DID-based simple authentication service. You can have a look at this use case by clicking here and here. This new project confirms the reliability of OmniOne, the DID platform built by RaonSecure.
Source: https://www.fnnews.com/news/202106021715566255
Applications of blockchain technology in Korea are on the rise
The promotion of blockchain technology by the Korean government through blockchain pilot project’s program as mentioned above seems to have laid the groundwork for the application of the technology in a variety of use cases.
The Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is being applied to facilitate daily life ranging from salary contracts to mobile driver’s licenses. One of the main strengths of the blockchain that is being leveraged in most use cases is its ability to help prevent arbitrary manipulation and forgery via its inherent system based on decentralized data. As the demand for security increases, its use in various fields is expected to grow in Korea, that is increasingly recognizing the disruptive value of the technology.
The number of ICT companies that leverages DLT to provide disruptive services and solutions is constantly increasing in Korea. One of the promising use cases is the one built by RaonSecure in collaboration with LG CNS consisting in developing a blockchain-based autonomous vehicles trust platform in Sejong City. The implementation of blockchain and its association with Decentralized Identifier (DID) enable the creation of a secure authentication and operation system where each self-driving vehicle participating in the use case is being associated with a DID. In this regard, blockchain has been deployed to increase the reliability of big data process resulting from the analysis of operational data generated by autonomous vehicles. In this regard, the use of DLT frees autonomous vehicles from threats such as hacking.
Blockchain is also being used to improve reliability and convenience to in-house employment agreements. Until now, employment agreements use to be signed manually by employees. With the use of blockchain, a company has developed a use case where these contracts can be digitally signed and the corresponding digital signature can be recorded on the ledger, simplifying employee authentication and signature process while offering the possibility to reduce costs associated to legacy processes.
Identity authentication service providers are also increasingly leveraging blockchain to enable their users to keep their credentials in their smartphone wallets and prove their identity without over disclosing their personal information. Most of these services are combining blockchain with W3C decentralized identifier methods to prevent the risk of personal information leakage while increasing usability by enabling users to reuse issued credentials. In this regard, RaonSecure has developed a DID-based platform, OmniOne, that leverages blockchain technology to enhance security and privacy when using identity authentication service. OmniOne is already being leveraged by a variety of clients, highlighting the interest of blockchain-based identity authentication services in Korea. You can review the list of use cases of OmniOne here.
Our view: Private companies, and in particular ICT companies are increasingly building new services and solutions leveraging blockchain technology. These efforts are made possible thanks to the Korean government that keeps promoting the development of new use cases based on the DLT. The positive stance of the government can be reflected by the development of the national digital mobile driver’s license that will leverage the blockchain technology. The digital mobile driver’s license should offer the same right than a physical ID card unlike the mobile driver’s license verification services that has been launched by private companies such as Korean telecommunication companies or large tech companies. In this regard, we will provide further explanation on this in a blog we will release next week. Please stay tuned for more info. 😊
