To Build Business Ecosystem on Its Metaverse Platform
Shinhan Bank is considering investing in virtual assets as it is planning to issue stablecoins next year.
To issue stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar, "platform coins" are needed as a basis. Platform coins act as a coin generation tool for creating other coins. The Altcoin that Shinhan Bank has its eye on is Hedera Hashgraph's Hedera. Hedera Hashgraph owns public distributed ledger technology.
Shinhan Bank plans to issue stablecoins to build a business ecosystem on its own metaverse platform.
The bank has already selected metaverse platform developers through open bidding. It plans to expand its business area to virtual asset transactions and financial services within its own metaverse. For this, blockchain-based virtual assets are needed.
However, considering that laws and systems related to virtual assets have not yet been established in Korea, Shinhan Bank will limit the use of its stablecoins. If the bank issues stablecoins, they are likely to be used by Shinhan Bank customers only.
Coins currently distributed in the virtual asset market can be largely divided into platform coins and utility tokens (DApp). Platform coins are an operating system (OS) such as Google Android and Apple iOS, and utility tokens run on them. In other words, the stablecoins to be issued by Shinhan Bank is a utility token to be based on Hedera Hashgraph's platform.
Currently, Shinhan Bank is known to have no Hedera Coins. The bank has joined the Hedera Hashgraph's board, but is not directly participating in node operation.
"We are participating in the board and receiving technical support from Hedera Hashgraph," said Yoon Ha-ri, head of Shinhan Bank's Blockchain Lab. "We believe it is an already verified blockchain platform as global companies such as Google and IBM are participating in its board."