The Ministry of Science and ICT of South Korea recently announced the country’s Blockchain Technology Development Strategy. According to the announcement, South Korea plans on investing 230 billion won in the development of Blockchain. That means more that 200 million USD invested in the next 4 years.
South Korea has multiple initiatives in sight
The Government of South Korea plans to finish the fundraising by 2022. In order to speed up the development of the blockchain technology, authorities will invest in the research activity of over 10,000 industry professionals and 100 companies. More than that, the government will distribute the money in different directions. Their main purpose is to contribute to the development of blockchain technology.
As the ministry explains, starting from 2019, the focus will be on six blockchain pilot projects. These projects are spread across different fields of activity. Thus, authorities hope to emphasize the multiple benefits blockchain can bring to several industries. More precisely, these are: electronic document distributions between countries; marine logistics; real estate; online voting; personal customs clearance and management of livestock records.
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) is another area where South Korea’s ministry plans on developing. The main purpose of the ministry is to offer support to companies specialized in the development of blockchain technology. Authorities have declared they will provide 10 BaaS purchase vouchers to companies. Said vouchers guarantee Government payments on a yearly basis to SMEs (small and medium enterprises).
Legislative aspects
The Blockchain Technology Development Strategy also implies that the ministry will establish research teams. These teams will work to strengthen the existing laws, that means that for the moment will be detained the adoption of blockchain technology in South Korea.
Making a clear comparison between Conventional legal contracts and smart contracts, the blockchain technology represents a priority. The announcement highlighted also the tax benefits for the blockchain technology developers.
South Korea’s National Assembly recommended back in May the legalization of ICOs under specific conditions. This announcement of blockchain development was good news for the cryptocurrency area and this looks to be a friendlier environment.
Source: https://bitcoinist.com/south-korea-230b-invest-blockchain/