South Korea To Roll Out Blockchain-based Identity: Report

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  • Cit­i­zens will be able to access their dig­i­tal IDs via their smartphones
  • The tech-savvy nation ranks high­est among devel­oped mar­kets for smart­phone use

South Korea plans to lever­age blockchain tech­nol­o­gy for the use of dig­i­tal iden­ti­ty cards as the coun­try piv­ots towards a post-COVID-19 era of remote work and online ver­i­fi­ca­tion processes.

The country’s gov­ern­ment will allow cit­i­zens to ver­i­fy their iden­ti­ty via dig­i­tal IDs embed­ded into their smart­phones, replac­ing Korea’s res­i­dent reg­is­tra­tion cards by 2024, Bloomberg report­ed Sunday.

It comes as South Korea — one of the most dig­i­tal­ly devel­oped coun­tries glob­al­ly — seeks to bol­ster eco­nom­ic growth fol­low­ing the pan­dem­ic. The coun­try was among the most sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact­ed among devel­oped nations.

Accord­ing to a recent report by the Unit­ed Nations Con­fer­ence on Trade Devel­op­ment, the pan­dem­ic accel­er­at­ed the shift toward dig­i­ti­za­tion. As such, cyber­se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns are front and cen­ter in an increas­ing­ly hos­tile envi­ron­ment safe stor­age of sen­si­tive data.

Blockchain-based IDs are one attempt to alle­vi­ate some of that strain placed on coun­tries seek­ing to bol­ster their defense against cyber­at­tacks which have, at times, wreaked hav­oc across Europe, the US and Aus­tralia.

The ini­tia­tive will lever­age the ben­e­fits of stor­ing user data in a decen­tral­ized man­ner while keep­ing cit­i­zens’ phone data, includ­ing how and where they use their dig­i­tal IDs, pri­vate from the gov­ern­ment, per the report.

South Kore­ans rank as some of the most tech­no­log­i­cal­ly-savvy indi­vid­u­als across the globe.

Research con­duct­ed by the Orga­ni­za­tion for Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion and Development’s Pro­gram for Inter­na­tion­al Stu­dent Assess­ment in 2011 showed its younger gen­er­a­tion topped oth­er nations for use of online learn­ing.

South Korea also ranks at the top for smart­phone own­er­ship, with rough­ly 96% of all Indi­vid­u­als of any age own­ing at least one smart­phone and using it at least once per month. The US stands at rough­ly 80% on the same metric.


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  • Sebas­t­ian Sinclair

    Block­works

    Senior Reporter, Asia News Desk

    Sebas­t­ian Sin­clair is a senior news reporter for Block­works oper­at­ing in South East Asia. He has expe­ri­ence cov­er­ing the cryp­to mar­ket as well as cer­tain devel­op­ments affect­ing the indus­try includ­ing reg­u­la­tion, busi­ness and M&As. He cur­rent­ly holds no cryptocurrencies.

    Con­tact Sebas­t­ian via email at [email pro­tect­ed]

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