Innovating Public Services through Blockchain
The Ministry of Science and ICT is planning to provide innovative public services based on blockchain technology.
The ministry’s keyword for its blockchain development projects is service popularization. In this regard, the ministry will allocate a budget of 16.1 billion won for blockchain R&D and resume preliminary feasibility studies worth 400 billion won in total. “We will innovate public services such as facial recognition and tracking and mobile personal identification by using innovative digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain,” the ministry explained.
At present, the ministry and the Korea Internet & Security Agency are preparing to launch pilot blockchain projects. Participants are scheduled to be selected by March this year.
Specifically, the projects consist of blockchain-based digital evidence management platform establishment to be led by the National Police Agency, blockchain-based crop production and logistics management platform establishment to be led by the Rural Development Administration, blockchain-based welfare benefit management platform establishment to be led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, blockchain-based food safety data platform establishment to be led by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, blockchain-based chronic disease management platform establishment to be led by the Gangwon Provincial Government, decentralized identity-based public service platform establishment in South Gyeongsang Province, blockchain-based platform establishment for self-driving reliability enhancement in Sejong City, blockchain-based toll payment platform establishment to be led by Korea Expressway Corporation, blockchain-based water supply quality management system establishment in Busan City, and blockchain-based electric vehicle management system establishment in Jeju.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, which set up a national HACCP platform by using the blockchain technology last year, is going to establish an imported food data management platform by using the same technology this year. The new platform will be linked to the HACCP platform for better safety management related to imported food and food materials. In addition, the ministry is considering linking the platforms to the blockchain-based customs clearance service and livestock product history management system of the Korea Customs Service and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, which have been in the making since 2018.
Busan City began to provide blockchain-based disaster response services last year. This year, it is going to provide water supply quality information based on the forgery-proof technology so that more citizens can trust the quality of its water supply service. The city is planning to work on inter-platform connection so that linked services can be provided in fields such as freight logistics, tourism, public security and digital voucher.
Jeju will expand the scope of its blockchain project from last year’s waste battery tracking system establishment. The purpose of this year’s project is to form a blockchain-based energy storage system state management framework in relation to the batteries of the local government’s electric vehicles currently in operation.
The chronic disease management platform establishment project in Gangwon is a developed version of the blockchain-based medical and financial service integration that the Seoul Medical Center conducted last year. The project is to collect individual patients’ medical data with Internet of Medical Things equipment and manage and share the data with the blockchain technology so that customized self-care services can be provided for chronic patients.