Daegu, the fourth-largest city in South Korea, recently announced their plans to allocate over $6 million towards blockchain and artificial intelligence education. According to Up Korea, Daegu’s officials aim to solve what they consider a “serious shortage of resources in the core technologies of the 4th industrial revolution.” The city’s government plans to bring talented individuals to Daegu from other regions by offering courses in blockchain, AI, and other big data sectors. Daegu's ICT Innovation Square will oversee these free blockchain courses over the next three years. Up Korea clarified that Daegu's educational programs will offer the ability to study …

Jeju Island, a southern island in South Korea, is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Koreans and has about 15 million visitors annually. It now requires those visitors to use a decentralized identity (DID) blockchain technology based app that claims to offer private, secure COVID-19 contact tracing. An August 19 announcement said that Jeju Province had reached an agreement with South Korean blockchain company ICONLOOP to introduce the system. Starting this week, visitors will be required to download the Zzeung mobile app when arriving on the Island and verify their identity using a Korean telecom service. A verifiable …

Ethereum recently turned five years old, and coincidentally, it also appears to have reached an inflection point for user adoption. In the second quarter of 2020, daily active Ethereum users nearly doubled to 1.26 million, up from 637,000 in the first quarter, according to a recent report from Dapp.com. The sudden spike is widely attributed to the release of Compound’s COMP governance token. In the same report, several other numbers stand out. Notably, after Ethereum, the two blockchains with the most daily active users are Klaytn and Terra, with Klaytn having been far ahead of Ethereum in daily active users …

South Korea’s well-known chat application, Kakao, bolsters its presence in blockchain and crypto with its partnership with a non-fungible token-powered trading platform and its new crypto wallet Klip. According to Hanguk Kyungjae, the trading company Angel League will receive support from Kakao’s Klip platform for its digital certificates based on NFTs. Angel League allows groups of investors to jointly purchase the stocks of startups in the “pre-IPO” stage. The members, known as “lead angels,” are selected through a recruitment process to incorporate new people willing to sign a stock trading contract to operate on the platform. The trading company will …

South Korea’s Woori and Shinhan banks have just announced their intention to introduce “crypto-asset services”. That means that four of the country’s top five banks, holding a combined value of more than $1.2 trillion in assets, are now poised to introduce crypto services. Each of the banks aims to hold and manage cryptocurrencies for clients. Both Shinhan and Woori announced their plans in direct response to the amended Special Financial Transactions Information Act which will change legislation around crypto assets, coming into force next year. Shinhan bank previously announced plans for crypto storage in 2017, but these plans were thwarted …

One million South Koreans have foregone their physical drivers license in favour of a blockchain-powered digital alternative used in conjunction with the PASS smartphone app. This represents more than 3% of the entire driving population in South Korea, which sat at 32.6 million licensed drivers in 2019 according to Statista. This is the first authorized digital identification card to be used throughout South Korea and received approval by the nation’s Ministry of Science and ICT in September 2019. The project was launched in May by the National Police Agency in partnership with the Korea Road Traffic Authority, and the country’s …

A major satellite city in South Korea, Seongnam, is preparing to expand its existing blockchain-powered payment program by issuing new digital gift certificates. According to Kyunghyang Shinmun, the city’s Blockchain infrastructure will rely on a mobile app named Chak app. This app will be built by the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation, or KOMSCO. Seongnam’s project hopes to make it easier for elderly and middle-aged residents to utilize the city’s existing Blockchain technology. They also hope to strengthen the use of contactless payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local media outlets said that three digital gift certificate types – representing …

KEB Hana Bank, one of the biggest commercial banks in South Korea, reached an agreement with the state-backed highway operator, the Korea Expressway Corporation, to bring blockchain-based toll payments system across the nation’s highways. According to D Daily, the project is expected to launch before the end of the year. The system will connect KEB Hana’s smartphone banking app, Hana One Q, for motorists to arrange their toll payments, defer them, or even receive toll fee refunds. The report states that both parties involved in the deal reached to implement the blockchain solution aim to remove the cash-based or credit …

A pilot project run by Bitbeat-affiliate company CIC Enterprise wants to provide crypto payment solutions at two of the busiest beaches of the country for tourists to use. According to ZDNet Korea, the firm partnered with card and cash payments provider Innotech for the token-powered payments solution in the Haeundae Beach System on the beaches of Busan in South Korea famous with tourists. The program will allow people to pay for water sports-related activities, life jackets, and even parasol rentals, among others, with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), along with MCI and WAY ERC20 tokens through a smartphone-based application. A faster …

KB Kookmin Bank, one of the largest banks in South Korea, has partnered with blockchain venture fund, Hashed, and crypto trading platform, Cumberland Korea, to establish “strategic technology cooperation” on the custody of digital assets. The companies belonging to the partnership state that their inception into the crypto custody business is a response to regulatory changes. These changes encouraged them to look into new business models — specifically ones which rely on blockchain technology. Simon Kim, CEO of the Seoul and San Francisco-based firm, Hashed, stated: "Combining our insight in the blockchain industry and providing both technical and commercial consultations …

The crypto-powered Esports streaming platform Theta has partnered with South Korean social gaming platform Ludena Protocol to reward its gamers for viewing or streaming content. The partnership will see Theta protocol integrated into GameTalkTalk, Ludena’s first decentralized application (DApp) — allowing the gaming-centric social platform’s more than three million users to access Theta’s streaming services through the platform. Ludena’s users will be rewarded for engagement in the form of Theta’s TFUEL token. Theta TV to integrate GameTalkTalk The agreement will see an exclusive GameTalkTalk channel added to Theta’s streaming platform, Theta TV — allowing Ludena to tap into Theta’s audience …

South Korea’s Buyeo County, located in the rural province of South Chungcheong, has been witnessing strong interest in a local blockchain-powered stablecoin since its creation in early 2019. According to a report published by Donga, most of the county’s population is made up of elderly residents. Census data indicates that around 75,000 people live there in total. In 2019, the county created a local token named “Goodtrae Pay” at a cost of over $267,000. Launched to increase contactless payments As of press time, around $48.5 million in tokens have been used in an effort to strengthen the adoption of contactless …