Korea May Use Blockchain to Verify Food and Livestock, with Waltonchain Partnership

The development company behind the Internet of Things (IoT)-focused public blockchain network, Waltonchain, has secured a strategic partnership with the South Korea Food and Livestock Promotion Center, to encourage the usage of the blockchain in the agricultural and food distribution sector. The South Korea Food and Livestock Promotion Center is an agency that was formed in March of 2017, led by lawmaker Jung In-hwa from the People’s Party, a major opposition party in South Korea, to protect farmers and distributors of livestock.

What the Partnership Means to Waltonchain

On July 17, the Waltonchain team released an official announcement which read:

“Waltonchain attended the Korea Blockchain Enterprise Promotion Association’s founding conference held at the Korean National Assembly and signed a partnership agreement with Korea Food and Livestock Promotion Center.”

Apart from the partnership itself, the Waltonchain team did not release any additional information on the nature of the deal and potential cooperation between the government of South Korea and the development team of Waltonchain moving forward. Still, the partnership is particularly noteworthy because it is the first deal an agriculture and livestock industry-related organization backed by the government of South Korea has signed with a blockchain company.

The deal also comes in a time wherein the government of South Korea is expected to implement its new cryptocurrency and blockchain regulatory framework that will legitimize the blockchain sector and startups within it. Earlier in July, local publications leaked a document entitled “Blockchain Technology Industry Categorization Adjustment Plan,” a regulatory framework drafted by the financial authorities of South Korea. Local analysts said that the government is planning to finalize the most recent version of the cryptocurrency regulation draft by this summer, with hopes of integrating it by the end of 2018.

Korean Standard Statistics Classification, a state-funded organization that created the document on behalf of the government, revealed that the blockchain sector of South Korea will be divided into nine sub-industries that include:

Blockchain-based gaming software development and integration Blockchain-based mobile game software development and integration Blockchain-based system software development and integration Blockchain-based applicable software development and integration Blockchain-based computer programming service Blockchain-based computer system provider Blockchain-based hosting service provider Blockchain-based digital asset exchange Blockchain-based information service provider

Under the new regulatory framework, if Waltonchain and the South Korea Food and Livestock Promotion Center create a blockchain-based platform or a decentralized application (dapp) on the Waltonchain network to process and verify the distribution of products, it will fall under the fourth category: blockchain-based applicable software development and integration.

Local analysts have firmly emphasized that the legitimization of the blockchain sector and the categorization of startups within it will fuel the deployment and adoption of dapps and improve the blockchain ecosystem of South Korea. In the upcoming months, more conglomerates and government-backed agencies will continue to cooperate with both public blockchain networks and private blockchain companies in an effort to commercialize the blockchain across major industries.

IoT + Blockchain

Similar to major economies like the US and Japan, the government of South Korea has recognized the blockchain, IoT, and AI as the main technologies that have the capability of leading the next industrial revolution, which President Moon Jae-in personally addressed prior to his election.

The Value Internet of Things (VIoT) network of Waltonchain, a blockchain-enabled protocol that supports establishments to incorporate retail, logistics, and product manufacturing on top of the blockchain, could appeal to local companies that consider the blockchain as an emerging technology with significant hype and anticipation around it which needs to be integrated.