South Korea to use the Ethereum Blockchain for Digital ID’s? Here’s what the government plans

• The government of South Korea forecasts gaining 60 trillion won ($42 billion), or 3 percent of GDP, in economic value within a decade after digital ID adoption.
• Smartphone-implanted IDs have emerged as a top priority for most governments intending to tap into blockchain technology.

South Korea intends to issue digital identification (IDs) through the Ethereum blockchain. As such, the South Korean government has projected a bump in the country’s economy in the coming decades. Moreover, South Korean people can access global online services seamlessly with digital authentication. Otherwise, using physical IDs on online services, which involves taking a photo, will not be required for South Koreans after implementing digital IDs.

The government has tapped the largest smart contract platform, Ethereum, which recently migrated to PoS via the Merge event, to broaden its GDP output.

“Every service that hasn’t been able to transition online fully will now be able to do so,” said Suh Bo Ram, director-general of Korea’s digital-government bureau, spearheading the plan.

Reportedly, South Korean citizens with smartphone access will be able to use the digital ID once the plan is implemented. Smartphone-implanted IDs have emerged as a top priority for most governments intending to tap into blockchain technology. Moreover, blockchain technology offers a secure platform for businesses to scale operations globally.

“Digitals IDs can yield huge economic benefits in finance, healthcare, taxes, transportation, and other areas and may catch on quickly among the Korean population,” said Hwang Seogwon, an economist at Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute. “But there has to be more risk assessment technologically to make sure the danger doesn’t outweigh the benefits,” he said.

South Korea taps into blockchain technology

The government of South Korea forecasts gaining 60 trillion won ($42 billion), or 3 percent of GDP, in economic value within a decade after digital ID adoption.

Furthermore, the World Bank refers to digital IDs as a “game-changer”, whilst McKinsey & Co. sees their potential to increase a nation’s gross domestic output by up to 13 percent and cut business costs by trillions of dollars.

Reportedly, the country intends to roll out digital IDs in 2024, with the government estimating that 45 million of its people will adopt them. 

Consequently, government services will be smoothed as few people will need to go to offices for ID renewals.

The Ethereum network is expected to benefit significantly from the deal, as it will reciprocate a new Dapp with major volume flow. Furthermore, the ETH network is capable of handling more transactions per second currently than when it was under the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism.

Blockchain technology has constantly been at the core of global geopolitics, especially in the past three years since the onset of the Covid pandemic. In fact, two countries, El Salvador and the Central African Republic have adopted Bitcoin, the blockchain pioneer, as legal tender.