South Korea to Roll out Digital IDs as Banks Push Blockchain Driver’s Licenses
South Korea may soon do away with plastic – and ditch physical forms of ID in favor of blockchain technology-powered alternatives.
Smartphone ownership is estimated to be upward of 88% in South Korea – with some sources claiming the figure may be as high as 95%. And tech firms, the government, the police force, and banks have responded by launching initiatives aimed at doing away with plastic driver’s license cards and social security ID cards. Instead, they now favor blockchain-powered digital alternatives.
Woori Bank, one of the nation’s largest commercial banks, announced that it would begin actively “promoting the issuance and use of mobile driver’s licenses” at the 2022 International Security Industry Expo, E Today reported.
Bank staff will begin informing customers on how to go about receiving a blockchain-powered ID. These digital cards can be obtained on-the-spot by using machines in nationwide branches of the National Police Agency and the Road Traffic Authority.
Banks – such as Woori – have also begun accepting smartphone-based driver’s licenses as a form of identification at branches this year.
The move comes hot on the heels of a report from Bloomberg this week, which quoted Suh Bo-ram, the Director-General of South Korea’s digital government bureau, as stating that smartphone-based ID cards would be the norm by 2024.
Suh told the news outlet that the government hopes to roll its solution out in 2024. Seoul hopes to transition 45 million of its 52 million citizens onto the cards by 2026.
Suh also confirmed that the solution will make use of decentralized identity (DID) solutions (also known as distributed identity authentication). He called the solutions an “advanced strand of blockchain technology.”
Suh stated:
“Ever
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