On June 21st, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT announced a development strategy for blockchain technology that aims to raise 230 billion won by 2022.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said, “We will establish a roadmap for developing a block chain technology and plan to secure 90% of the technology level by 2022 compared to the world’s top countries. We will invest 10 billion Won from next year to next year, we plan to pursue a medium and long-term plan for expanding the blockchain service technology.”

As part of this effort, the Ministry introduced an initiative to expand and develop six existing blockchain pilot solutions. We did some research to find out which BaaS companies are involved with each of these pilot projects.

Management of Livestock Records

The first project is a livestock record management solution. This solution aims to shorten the information follow-up period from a maximum of 6 days to less than 10 minutes in the case of a problem. It uses blockchain technology to share the information of each stage in the process from breeding to slaughtering and sales.

After a lot of digging, there is no information online yet for which blockhain service provider has been chosen for this project.

2. Customs Clearance

The second project launched by the ministry is an effort to streamline the customs clearance process for Korean e-commerce, shipping, and courier companies. The order, shipment, delivery and clearance will all be recorded on the block chain.

It seems that ICONLoop has been chosen to lead this initiative. An article by helloiconworld wrote:

On May 28th, the Korea Customs Service and eight other organizations including Nomad Connection, Matrix2b, CJ Korea Express, and Lotte Global Logistics signed an MOU with the goal of launching a pilot project by the end of the year. KCS plans to apply blockchain technology to all e-commerce import and expert services shortly after.

Although tech-consulting company Samsung SDS had also developed a blockchain solution on their Nexledger platform that could be used for customs clearance, ICONLoop appears to be the preferred technology partner for this initiative.

https://medium.com/helloiconworld/loopchain-technology-to-be-applied-to-import-customs-clearance-procedure-for-the-korea-customs-9a7572b3c484

3. Easy Real Estate

Real estate transactions are conducted with the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The proposed pilot project will use blockchain technology to provide a one-stop service for real estate business by linking together the court, the National Tax Service, resident center, real estate comprehensive study system, and Korea Fair Trade Commission.

ICON has a new DApp coming on the network called My Early House. The solution aims to increase data accuracy & efficiency in the real estate market. It is possible that the ministry was referring to this project as there are no other explicit real estate — blockchain relationships published yet for Korea.

https://medium.com/helloiconworld/event-sketch-demo-day-962c1f3a8c6f

4. Online Voting

The fourth pilot project is for an online voting solution using blockchain technology for authentication.

… online voting by voters is recorded in the blockchain, and online voting, in which stakeholders such as candidates and observers verify the process of vote-and-vote process.

ICONLoop was recently chosen by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to develop a voting platform, as part of the Seoul Blockchain Standard Platform. It will be interesting to see whether this voting solution will extend to other major cities in Korea.

https://medium.com/helloiconworld/loopchain-demonstrated-to-seoul-blockchain-platform-1cdfd705285b

5. Electronic Document Distribution

The fifth pilot project is related to electronic document distribution. There has been little publicly released information about this project, however, it seems probable that ICONLoop is involved, given their current partnership with Chain2B and connections to other government-backed projects.

ICONLoop and Chain2B have been working together on a blockchain-based document management platform since December 2017. It will be interesting to hear more developments about this project, especially because ICONLoop is also working on ChainSign, a platform for contract management, which might also be of use for this project.

https://medium.com/helloiconworld/icon-theloop-and-chaintob-partnership-7b3fdce4483

6. Marine Logistics

Samsung SDS will be working with the Korean Government on developing the marine logistics solutions. They have partnered up with the Ocean Shipping Logistics Blockchain Consortium to streamline data flow for the shipping industry. Findings from the first Proof of Concept report that processes have been successfully digitized, confirmation processes have been automated, and smart contracts are also on the way.

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20171221000825

Concluding Thoughts

In summary, ICON seems to be involved in at least 3 out of 6 ministry blockchain pilot projects, beating out competitor Samsung SDS. This is a good sign for the project, as it is making headway towards integrating with major institutional movements towards blockchain adoption. If this continues, we can expect to see ICON and ICONLoop as central figures in Korea’s shift towards a digital economy.