With all the uncertainty regarding Blockchain regulations in South Korea, you would think their Blockchain ecosystem would die down. However, that is far from the case. Blockchain adoption is consistently growing in Korea and is a huge part of South Korea’s 4th Industrial Revolution goals. Korea Blockchain Week continues to go strong, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government pledged over $100 million from 2020 to 2024 to promote early-stage startups incorporating Blockchain technologies. The South Korean government invested over $40 million in Blockchain projects in 2020/2021. Some of the top blockchain startups in Korea have developed their Blockchain platform, and this article will focus on those startups. However, we also cover Blockchain startups for Defi, NFTs, Gaming, and more, so check those articles out.
Klaytn has positioned itself as the Metaverse Blockchain for all. They are one of the few Korean Blockchain startups focusing on the Metaverse. Klaytn is an open-source, public Blockchain for those who wish to enter the Metaverse space. Therefore, they focus heavily on Blockchain gaming and the content creator industry. Klaytn was launched in 2019, and with it came the Klaytn Growth Fund, which helps startups using Klaytn expand into global markets. KLAY is the native coin of the Klaytn network. It uses a unique combination of 3 Blockchains in 1. Therefore, Klaytn has the potential to scale a lot faster and easier.
The Klaytn network offers a metaverse package with customized layer-2 solutions, smart contract libraries, Blockchain explorers, crypto wallets, and an ecosystem of supporting services like NFT marketplaces. Therefore, it is seen as a one-stop shop for businesses and industries in Korea looking to build something in the Metaverse or gaming space.
Klaytn has more than 40 initial service partners in various industries. This includes healthcare, entertainment, finance, gaming, and more. What separates Klaytn from other Blockchain platforms is that it operates a hybrid infrastructure combining the benefits of private and public Blockchains. The Klaytn Blockchain can process 4,000 unique transactions a second and has a lower gas rate than Ethereum by 10x.
One of the most popular Korean Blockchain startups is ICON. ICON is the largest blockchain network in Korea. They provide a Blockchain sharing ledger for industries such as hospitals, banks, securities, Universities, and insurance companies. In addition, ICON has its cryptocurrency token called ICX. It has done projects with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, National Election Commission, and Kyobo Life Insurance, among others.
ICON’s technical partner is called ICONLOOP, and it operates in South Korea, unlike ICON Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Switzerland. ICONLOOP is the developer of Loopchain, a technology to connect different blockchains separately developed by individual companies. It is a subsidiary of DAYLI Financial Group, one of the largest Fintech companies in Asia.
ICONLOOP has 27 companies within their my-ID alliance. These companies include banks, e-commerce, manufacturing, and security firms. Therefore, they have strong networks within the Korean government and Korean enterprises.
“ICONLOOP has been solidifying its presence in the Korean Blockchain industry as a technology partner of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea National Election Commission, Korea Financial Investment Association, and Kyobo Life Insurance,” said CEO of ICONLOOP, Jonghyup Kim.
ICONLOOP has partnered with Yeolmae Company to provide a Blockchain-based certificate issuance service for Yeolmae Company’s ARTnGUIDE platform. The “broof” service of ICONLOOP will record the ownership of the artwork and image to prevent the record’s falsification. Furthermore, the certificate will have a timestamp that displays the image and stamp signature. The records will be public and will have information regarding ownership status and a detailed change of ownership history. They issued Blockchain-based digital certificates at the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) graduation.
In addition, ICONLOOP has partnered with a job placement platform in South Korea called Saramin to build a Blockchain-based digital ID and authentication ecosystem called MyID.
ICONLOOP is one of the few Korean Blockchain startups in the AWS Partner Network. Therefore, they will use AWS services like AWS Lambda to build their globally dispersed network of blockchain nodes. Users can run proof of concept and product testing with a separately isolated cloud template. In addition, ICONLOOP will use Route 53 to configure its Global Server Load Balancing and S3 to store snapshots for data backup and recovery. ICONLOOP will allow global users to build blockchains on AWS easily.
ICONLOOP will develop a Blockchain-based mobile driver’s license under regulatory sandbox approval in South Korea. They were granted permission by the Ministry of Science and ICT to test their DID technology for driver’s licenses. The aim is to fight forgery and protect the user’s data/information. The DID technology is already being used in Korea for contact tracing and authentication of job applicant credentials. Moreover, mobile driver’s licenses are expected to be released in late 2022.
Furthermore, it eliminates manual, error-prone processes and information redundancy. Aergo has an easy-to-use development and deployment framework that allows developers from all levels of programming languages to build solutions with minimal effort and complexity.
Aergo has deployed Blockchain solutions for clients such as Lotte Card, Korea Exchange, Hyundai Motors, and Shinhan Bank, just to name a few.
The Luniverse platform was built with dynamic scalability, interoperability, and security in mind. Therefore, it can help organizations across different industries enter the Blockchain space. A business can build its private mainnet in 24 weeks. In addition, Luniverse offers 46% fewer transaction fees and gas fees compared to other popular private Blockchains.
Digital assets issued on CodeChain can be programmed and customized to comply with the regulations of a particular country. In addition, their mobile wallet offers a simple verification process, an easy-to-use interface, and fast/secure transactions.
CodeChain is the only project funded by two of the biggest exchange operators in Korea (Bithumb and Upbit).
“At Fantom, we focused on addressing the most pressing issues facing the industry by presenting a new implementation of Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)-based consensus, and the marked improvement in terms of both scalability and versatility of existing DAGs enable Fantom to build an ecosystem that could be deployed at scale in the real world,” said CEO of Fantom Foundation, Dr. Ahn Byung-ik.
Fantom partnered with the Afghan Ministry of Public Health for their Smart Medicine Pilot Project. The pilot project aims to solve the country’s counterfeit pharmaceuticals problem caused by a lack of proper checks in the supply chain process. Therefore, creating a blockchain certificate with the help of Fantom will create an immutable audit trail to ensure items are not corrupted at any stage of the supply chain.
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