Seoul Mayor, Park Won-Soon, has announced plans to continue to develop the use of blockchain technology in the South Korean capital.
This renewal of interest in the technology comes after South Korea’s official announcement earlier this year that there would be no ban on cryptocurrency in the East Asian country. The original declaration by the South Korean ministry of justice that it proposed to ban cryptocurrency caused a massive backlash against the government. This caused the ministry of strategy and finance and other members of the cryptocurrency task force to refute the announcement.
Park indicated that he would work towards establishing an institutional framework for the creation of Seoul’s own digital currency which would be known as S Coin and said he was committed to addressing the current views of the South Korean government. He expressed his concerns over recent government activities regarding the use of cryptocurrency trading in his country, suggesting that with evidence of success further development would then follow:
“the people protested strongly over against the Ministry of Justices plan to ban cryptocurrency trading…The role of provincial and regional governments… is to apply technology first and demonstrate progress to the central government…”
Mayor Park stated that adopting blockchain technology would represent great prospects and economic benefits for the people of Seoul and envisaged savings on utilities such as electricity, water, and gas. He also suggested that this would also benefit the young unemployed.
Local South Korean news source Hani state that Seoul’s blockchain planning is scheduled for completion this month. At the end of last year, Hani reported that the Seoul metropolitan government would be collaborating with Samsung SDS regarding the development of a blockchain information strategy plan for the capital.
Park moves ahead with these plans with a positive outlook for the South Korean capital, suggesting that Blockchain technology represents a way of powering “most of Seoul’s government activities” in the future.
