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South Korea Announces Digital Currency System Expansion to Boost FinTech

Last Updated
Rebecca Campbell
Last Updated

South Korea announced today that it plans to promote the FinTech sector in the country through the expansion of digital currency such as bitcoin, reports The Korea Herald.

Not one to fall behind in the digital currency adoption race, the South Korean government is pushing ahead with the system expansion of the digital currency, in a bid to keep up with other countries. It will also offer three trillion won ($2.65 billion) in financial support over the next three years as it develops the FinTech sector in South Korea.

 

Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said in a speech at the 12th FinTech Center Demo Day event that:

The government will push for the systematization of digital currency on a full scale in tandem with a global trend in the U.S., Japan and other countries.

 

A consortium on blockchain is also expected to launch before the end of this year by the government and the financial industry within the country. Their intention is to establish pilot projects and joint research.

South Korea Embraces Blockchain

This, however, isn’t the first venture that the country has undertaken to involve itself with bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain.

In fact, 2016 has been a good year for the dynamic South Korea as it embraces blockchain technology.

At the beginning of the year, Korbit, a South Korean bitcoin exchange and wallet, announced that it was the first launching partner within South Korea to integrate BitGo Instant into their bitcoin transfer and instant transfer protocol.

In a bid to link sellers and buyers to trade securities directly, the Korea Exchange (KRX), South Korea’s securities exchange, developed a blockchain platform earlier this year. It was reported that the KRX had started the process of creating the platform to help trade securities between the two directly.

In April, Hana Financial Group, a South Korean financial firm became the first Korean financial organization to join the R3 blockchain consortium. It is reported that Hana Financial joined because manipulation, tampering, and hacking of data can be prevented through the use of blockchain technology.

Not only that, but in September, several South Korean FinTech firms petitioned the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) to object to Apple’s policy of failing to open its near field communication (NFC) to outside app developers.

Now, with the country announcing that it will expand its digital currency in a bid to boost its FinTech sector paints a clear picture that South Korea wants to become an attractive country for startups to flock to in the future.

Featured image from Shutterstock.