The Ministry of South Korea, Science and ICT are preparing to implement innovative public services based on blockchain technology.

The ministry’s keyword for its blockchain development projects is service popularization. In this respect, the ministry will allow a budget of 16.1 billion won for blockchain R&D and continue preparatory utility studies worth 400 billion gained in total.

“We will innovate public services such as facial recognition and tracking and mobile personal identification by using innovative digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain,” the ministry revealed.

At present, the ministry and the Korea Internet & Security Agency are planning to start pilot blockchain projects. Participants are programmed to be elected by March this year.

Precisely, the projects consist of blockchain-based digital data management platform establishment to be managed by the National Police Agency, blockchain-based welfare benefit management platform establishment to be led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, blockchain-based crop production and logistics management platform establishment to be led by the Rural Development.

Administration, blockchain-based food safety data platform establishment to be led by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, decentralized identity-based public service platform establishment in South Gyeongsang Province, blockchain-based chronic disease management platform establishment to be led by the Gangwon Provincial Government, blockchain-based water supply quality management system establishment in Busan City, blockchain-based platform establishment for self-driving reliability enhancement in Sejong City, blockchain-based toll payment platform establishment to be led by Korea Expressway Corporation, and blockchain-based electric vehicle management system establishment in Jeju.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which set up a national HACCP platform by utilizing the blockchain technology last year, is going to build an imported food data management platform by using the same technology this year.

The new platform will be connected to the HACCP platform for more reliable management linked to imported food and food materials. Also, the ministry is considering relating the platforms to the blockchain-based customs clearance service and livestock product history management system of the Korea Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, which have been in the production since 2018.

Busan City started to provide blockchain-based emergency response services last year. This year, it is going to give water supply quality information based on the forgery-proof technology so that more residents can trust the quality of its water supply service. The city is preparing to work on inter-platform connections so that associated services can be provided in fields like public security, freight logistics, tourism, and a digital voucher.

Jeju will extend the scope of its blockchain project from last year’s waste battery tracking system establishment. The goal of this year’s plan is to create a blockchain-based energy storage system state management framework concerning the batteries of the local government’s electric vehicles currently in development.

The chronic disease management platform establishment project in Gangwon is a refined version of the blockchain-based medical and financial service integration that the Seoul Medical Center attended last year.

The project is to assemble individual patients’ medical data with the Internet of Medical Things equipment and manage and share the data with the blockchain technology so that customized self-care services can be provided for chronic patients.