Blockchain technology is one of the most exciting technologies around. It is being adopted across different industries, from financial services to supply chains and many other industries. Industries in Korea are being transformed by Blockchain technology by offering greater transparency, enhanced security, increased efficiency, and faster transactions. While many think of the financial industry when it comes to Blockchain technology, it has become a key driver when it comes to the 4th industrial revolution. The enterprise Blockchain market is estimated to grow globally to $20 billion by 2025. Many Blockchain startups in Korea are emerging to aid in Blockchain development with industry-specific applications. Since Blockchain is essentially just a distributed secure database, it can be applied to most industries.

Industries in Korea Being Transformed by Blockchain Technology

Real Estate Industry – Kasa Korea

Kasa Korea is a Korean Blockchain property tech startup. They aim to have digital certificates backing a particular property. Investors can sell digital property certificates through Kasa Korea’s Blockchain platform. However, the actual property certificates will be held by Kasa Korea. Furthermore, Kasa Korea has a consortium that includes financial institutions such as Hana Bank, KB Bank, Korea Real Estate Management Company (KORAMCO), Korea Association Information & Technology (KAIT), and Korea Real Estate Management and Trust (KOREIT). All these institutions will use the Blockchain platform to sell and manage data related to real estate management and trust business. The Blockchain platform offers security in issuing, trading, and managing real estate trust certificates. In addition, they have already raised over $20 million in funding from VCs such as Kakao Ventures, Kakao Investment, Bon Angels, and Mashup Angels, just to name a few.

“Kasa will collaborate with strategic investors to become Asia’s leading proptech startup. We will do our best to launch the service so that anyone can easily and safely indirectly invest in commercial real estate through the Kasa platform,” said CEO of Kasa Korea, Ye Chang-wan.

Kasa Korea to Tokenize Real Estate

Kasa Korea has partnered with SK Securities, a Korean financial services provider, to tokenize real estate. They will work together to develop the “Digital Real Estate Beneficiary Distribution Platform” service. Blockchain technology will allow for a secure way to invest in real estate securities not only in Korea but all around the world.

Kasa Korea to Launch a Blockchain-based Funding Platform

Kasa Korea has partnered with Sparkplus, an office-sharing company, to launch a Blockchain-based funding platform that will allow people to indirectly and collectively fund real estate. Furthermore, Sparkplus will open coworking centers in buildings on the Kasa Korea platform. Sparkplus already has 12 coworking locations all across Seoul.

Healthcare Industry – Medibloc

Korean Blockchain startup Medibloc uses Blockchain technology for the healthcare data system. It is very difficult for healthcare providers to get the complete data of a patient. Therefore this complete data is important for getting an accurate diagnosis for the most effective treatment. Furthermore, MediBloc provides a data integration system that gathers patients’ medical information through real-time updates. In addition, the patients are in control of their medical records. The records are kept confidential according to HIPPA regulations. Therefore, the patients are the ones who can grant access to their medical data.

MediBloc also offers a secure and transparent data storage system. Therefore, all new entries come with a location and time stamp. The MediBloc system their token called MEDX will serve as the primary medium of exchange between all users on MediBloc. In addition, MediBloc has strategic partnerships with many institutions in both the healthcare and financial industries.

Severance Hospital & MediBloc to Build a Blockchain-based Medical Information Platform

Severance Hospital is one of the largest university hospitals in Korea. They will work with Korean BioTech Startup MediBloc to build a medical information platform. In addition, they will create an insurance claims billing platform and a medical data forgery detection system to facilitate the sharing of medical information between individuals.

“We will continue our comprehensive consultation for building a platform with Severance Hospital, which is recognized for its excellent medical team and service,” said Co-CEO of MediBloc, Allen Kho.

Beauty Industry – Cosmochain (FitsMe)

Korean Beauty blockchain startup Cosmochain is the creator of a Blockchain-based app service called FitsMe. FitsMe is a personalized beauty recommendation service that uses past purchase data and preference data to recommend the best cosmetic products. The Dapp was created to help customers who have difficulties deciding which cosmetic products to purchase amidst the overflowing information and to offer content to guide them through their purchasing decisions. They already have attracted over 150,000 users from their beta service. Furthermore, they got $2.5 million in investments from a U.S. hedge fund. Furthermore, Samsung Electronics also selected Cosmochain as an initial DApp partner for its Galaxy S10  smartphone. In addition, the Galaxy Keystore, the cryptocurrency wallet for the Galaxy S10, supports CosmoCoin (COSM), the cryptocurrency used in FitsMe.

Personal Data Industry – Carry Protocol

Korean Blockchains startups Carry Protocol is focused on building a sustainable purchase data platform on the Blockchain. Consumers will be rewarded with CRE tokens when they share their purchase data or view ads. Therefore, the consumer has full control over their data and its monetization. Consumers can use the tokens as currency to pay merchants within the Carry ecosystem. Consumers receive CRE tokens from 3rd party advertisers as payment for accessing the consumer’s transaction data Blockchains. Merchants can use CRE tokens to create branded tokens or smart contracts.

“There are few Korean projects currently listed on Binance, and we are the first Korean project to participate in the Binance Community Coin Vote campaign. We are excited to participate and hopefully, there will be more opportunities to reach out globally,” said Co-CEO at Carryp Protocol, Richard Choi.

Partnership with Dodo Point

South Korea’s largest SMB loyalty platform Dodo Point has partnered with Carry Protocol for a data collection feature that rewards Dodo Point users. This means that whenever a user claims loyalty points at a Dodo store, they can rate the services provided by the store and be eligible for giveaways. These giveaways include AirPod Pros, Starbucks coffee coupons, and reward points. Dodo has over 20,000 cumulative stores and 23 million registered users.

Art Industry – ARTBLOC

Korean Blockchain startups ARTBLOC has created a marketplace platform where you can purchase and sell fractionalized ownership interests in investment-grade private artworks. Now people can invest in a diverse portfolio of art pieces.  They aim to make art investing easier for the next generation of buyers. They are making art ownership factional, meaning a piece of art will be put into sections. Therefore, this will create works of art more affordable to the everyday consumer. In addition, all ownership and trading will be stored on a distributed public ledger.

Their first test was with David Hockney’s work (Pictured Gathering with Mirror). This was the first introduction of fractionalized ownership to the general public. Furthermore, of all the buyers, 71% of them were in their 20s/30s. Therefore this further shows the potential of the next generation of art buyers in the digital space. This project has a lot of potential to disrupt the art world. In addition, they open up new markets for artists to showcase their talent and creativity.

“ARTBLOC will seel high-end art to the public. We can sell fractional ownership to normal people,” said CEO of ARTBLOC, Jun Kim.

Home-Sharing Industry – WeHome

Korean home-sharing Blockchain startup WeHome is looking to disrupt Airbnb in Korea by giving the power back to the guests and hosts. WeHome takes 0% in commissions. Therefore guests and hosts are the true owners of WeHome. Furthermore, the WeHome team has over eight years of domain expertise in the home-sharing industry. Guests can book a property on WeHome using their HOM token. They also take BTC and ETH. The HOM Token is listed on CPDAX.com. Coinplug, one of WeHome’s strategic partners, operates it.

Disclosure Industry – Crossangle (Xangle)

Industries in Korea might all need the services of Xangle. Xangle is one of the major providers of verified data and other disclosures for over 800 cryptocurrencies. Xangle collects, verifies, and integrates corporate disclosures from global projects and companies that have issued crypto assets. The platform provides the public access to both off-chain corporate disclosures and on-chain metrics and analytics. In addition, they have a network of over 60 exchanges in countries like South Korea, Japan, China, the U.S., and European countries.

Contract Auditing Industry – Haechi Labs (Henesis)

Korean Blockchain startups Haechi Labs is an expert in smart contract audits. There they are more of a Blockchain security company that does security audits on Blockchain companies. They have done audits for Ground X’s Klaytn and worked with them on launching their mainnet. Their focus for 2022 will be on their Blockchain SaaS solution called Henesis. Henesis removes technological barriers for companies looking for Blockchain adoption. Therefore, the solution will reduce the time and cost involved with Blockchain development. In addition, companies can easily collect, process, and deliver their Blockchain data in real-time. They aim to be an all-in-one platform for Blockchain integration.

HAECHI LABS partners with SK Telecom

The two companies will work together to implement a point of concept (POC) to commercialize Blockchain technology. They will develop a Blockchain-based smart contract system.

“It’s essential to make various attempts in many fields to make Blockchain a valuable technology. It’s very significant that SK Telecom and Haechi Labs agreed to cooperate to commercialize Blockchain technology,” said CEO of HAECHI LABS, Kim Jong-ho.

KODA – A Digital Asset Management Company

Haechi Labs, KB Kookmin Bank, and a Blockchain investment company called Hashed launched KODA (Korea Digital Asset). KODA offers a wide range of services that include:

• crypto-assets consignment
• Anti-money laundering solutions
• over-the-counter transactions (OTC) for corporations/institutions