South Korean Gov’t to Invest $200 Mln in Blockchain Initiatives 🚨 This article is 7 years old...
News ▸ South Korea ▸ Adoption
South Korean Gov’t to Invest $200 Mln in Blockchain Initiatives
2 min read
Updated: Mar. 24, 2020 at 6:49 am UTC
Photo by Dmitriy Berdnik on Unsplash
Despite recent exchange hacks, the blockchain industry continues to thrive in countries worldwide. On June 21, 2018, the South Korean government announced intent to invest over $200 million into blockchain initiatives by 2022.
Cryptocurrency Wanes, Blockchain Thrives
On June 21, the South Korean Ministry of Sciences and ICT announced their “Block Chain Technology Development Strategy” – divulging plans to invest over 230 billion KRW (~207M USD) into public and private blockchain projects.
The Ministry revealed plans to use the allocated funds to enhance South Korea’s competitive advantage in the future of blockchain integration across applicable industries.
The Initiative will hire 10,000 professionals to foster the development of 100 enterprises and create a blockchain-powered ecosystem for public and private sector services.
Already underway, the Ministry is currently working on six blockchain pilot projects to provide solutions in the public sector:
“… we promoted 6 block-chain pilot projects and expanded the number of tasks from 19 to support commercialization through multi-year support. Livestock products management, personal clearance, easy real estate transactions, online voting, cross-country electronic document distribution, shipping logistics.”
Starting next year, the Ministry plans to begin commercialization and expansion of these initial projects along with several new services, such as a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) platform built to enable testing and quick integration of blockchain solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
The Initiative will also work in conjunction with lawmakers to prevent legal obstructions in blockchain advancement:
The ‘Block Chain Regulation Improvement Study Group’ will be operated in order to preemptively respond to regulations and systems that hamper the introduction of blockchain technology and services .
Stated in the official announcement, the ultimate goal of South Korea’s bold government-sanctioned initiative is to create a society that can depend on the power of decentralized technology to improve daily life:
“This blockchain technology development strategy will contribute to innovating the domestic industry and creating a digital trust society.”
Despite recent exchange hacks at both Bithumb and Coinrail earlier this June, South Korea continues along an industry-forward path of blockchain integration – indicating rapid growth in the industry and long-term plans to see blockchain as a basis for society.
