Two South Korean ministries have declared their support for the blockchain industry in the country with programs to allow up to $3.2 million in funding to local startups to promote the application of such technology.

According to a March 16 report, the Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and the Ministry of Information and Communication Industry Promotion will start a pilot program named “Blockchain Technology Validation Support in 2020” to carry out the project.

The plan is to choose nine projects by free public offerings and grant each one up to 450 million won ($360,000) in funding.

Amongst the program’s chosen criteria are the superiority of current performance, the feasibility of future performance, solid business goals and savvy, the feasibility of technology verification, expected results, and level of jobs expected to be created.

Project’s key targets

The companies elected, according to the project, must give services that can generate economic and social value by blockchain technology.

Concerning the program, Park Yoon-kyu, Minister of ICT, stated the following:

“We plan to support domestic specialized companies to rapidly grow and activate the ecosystem in the early stage of the blockchain market.”

Beyond blockchain, the project supports participating startups to build business models based on the IoT (Internet of Things), artificial intelligence, and big data.

According to the declaration, the companies decided last year applied to nine copyrights registrations, five patents, and two investment rounds.

The pivotal moment for blockchain development across South Korea

The news arrives at a crucial moment for the evolution of the blockchain ecosystem in South Korea. On March 5, the country enacted a law to interject a permit system for cryptocurrency exchanges.

On February 18, the Bank of Korea was seeing to use blockchain in bond market technology, which would enable the distribution of bond records among all participants.