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Commencement of Public Blockchain Projects including 'Online Citizen Voting'
Today, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) announced that they will officially proceed with projects utilizing blockchain technology this year.
These projects are being carried out as part of the government's 'Blockchain Industry Promotion Strategy' and will receive a total investment of 20.7 billion KRW. The primary focus of the projects is to discover excellent blockchain-based services that can be directly experienced by citizens and to promote them in the global market. The budget for these projects has been increased starting from this year.
The projects will be divided into public and private sectors. The Ministry of Science and ICT has signed agreements with companies participating in the public sector and has begun full-scale service development.
For example, the Korea Industrial Training Corporation is conducting the 'National Qualification and Training Digital Badge' project. This project aims to provide mobile-based 'badges' for certifications and vocational training records, eliminating the inconvenience of scanning and submitting paper documents or printing them from the web. This will make it easier for individuals to submit certifications for employment or school admissions.
In addition, the National Election Commission is implementing the 'Online Citizen Voting' project, allowing anyone to easily participate in local resident voting through online platforms. With the amendment of the Resident Voting Act to allow online voting, the existing online voting system operated by the Election Commission will be improved to enable approximately 10 million people to participate in large-scale voting. Future plans include strengthening server infrastructure and encryption systems to accommodate large-scale participation and ensure the protection of personal information.
Various other projects utilizing blockchain technology will also be carried out in both the public and private sectors. The National Pension Service will streamline face-to-face procedures into non-face-to-face procedures to reduce administrative costs, while the Ministry of Justice will enhance the utilization of electronically notarized documents generated online for offline purposes. Additionally, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority plans to enhance its system to issue drone pilot licenses and documentation for drone flights conveniently through mobile platforms.
In the private sector, PARAMETA will issue residual lifespan evaluation certificates for electric vehicle batteries, which can be used for insurance and used car transactions. RECYCLENET will record the history of waste cooking oil on the blockchain to facilitate the export of domestic waste cooking oil. SK Planet will offer non-fungible token (NFT) concert ticket services, and ILJU EN&S will establish a service that allows citizens to invest small amounts in power plants.
In this way, various projects based on blockchain technology will be implemented. Song Sang-hoon, the Ministry of Science and ICT's Director of Information and Communication Policy, stated that "this blockchain technology-led project demonstrates the direction of South Korea's blockchain fostering policy" and "blockchain is a technology that guarantees trust in the digital era, providing convenient and secure public services to citizens and playing a leading role in the global market."