The South Korean government has vowed USD 1.27m in funding for a contact-free, blockchain-based services platform for apartment residents in the country – which operators say it will allow residents to engage in electronic voting and arrange parking spaces, and more.
As announced by ZDNet Korea, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT has selected a domestic firm named Ksign as its operator.
The platform will make use of decentralized ID (DID) authentication technology. It will allow groups of residents living in apartment complexes to engage in online meetings and cast their votes in blockchain-powered ballots when they need to vote on security contractor selection or other matters.
The platform will also enable “electronic payments” – probably enabling residents to settle their monthly apartment maintenance fee bills using the platform. However, this could also include utility bills, which can be bundled into apartment costs in many areas.
Additionally, 50% of the South Korean population lives in apartment complexes, per Korean Statistical Information Service statistics, and reported by Bloomberg back in 2017. That number is as high as 85% in the capital of Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province.
Most significant networks hold regular meetings on residents’ issues. Still, most of these have been put on hold for the past few months due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As such, the government has been keen to pursue a wide range of “contact-free” solutions, making use of industry 4.0 innovations like blockchain, hoping that this will allow the nation to return to a semblance of “business as usual.”
Ksign spoke of creating a “token-powered ecosystem” that could be used on a local scale, and noted that the platform would be intuitive to the extent that “anyone can use it with ease, including homeowners, residents, and managers.”
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