Could This Blockchain In Korea Be The First To Connect An Entire Country?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/elaineramirez/2017/08/09/dayli-icon-blockchain-south-korea/#6dd1a88f25a7While hundreds of blockchain projects are cropping up around the world, the technology’s true potential to seamlessly share information is still largely untapped. In South Korea, one company is vying to be the first to connect the country through a massive-scale blockchain, and it's already gaining momentum.
Dayli Financial Group, a house of Korean fintech startups, is working on creating an ecosystem called ICON that will allow government departments, universities, hospitals, securities, banks and any private company to interact without third-party networks that charge transaction fees or delay the process. The applications could range from trading not only digital currencies but also stocks, games, security information and even hospital databases. Eliminating the middleman using a blockchain network developed by Dayli's startup theloop, the makers are framing it as a decentralized public good that is not controlled by a single entity and operates for the benefit of society.
With heavily invested internet infrastructure, a strong push for smart cities, a rapidly increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency and a strong economy, Korea has perfect conditions for blockchain, says Min Kim, chief strategy officer at Dayli, formerly named Yello Financial Group.
“Any mom-and-pop shop can potentially take advantage of something like this,” says Kim. “If we connect every single company in Korea or even half of Korea on our network, that’s a massive success story.” Kim hopes that strengthening the blockchain network in Korea will build momentum to springboard into foreign markets.
Blockchain’s roadblock
Building a wide-scale blockchain network in Korea is still uncharted. See-eun Ha, cohost of The Blockchainers, a YouTube channel on blockchain for Koreans, says the country is quickly adopting cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin and Ripple. Initial coin offerings have been extremely popular in Korea since Ethereum gained traction earlier this year, Ha says.
But blockchain is a different story. People in Korea think of it first for its use as an investment vehicle to help them make money, but not necessarily its costs or other applications, he said. “Right now it seems people are slowly beginning to understand what this is technology capable of,” Ha says.
Ha believes development of blockchain technology in Korea is still far behind other major markets. Part of that is because Korea is unfamiliar with open-source software, depending instead on proprietary software such as Hancom, the Korean take on Microsoft Office that is used ubiquitously despite its errors or vulnerabilities, he says.
Another roadblock for developers is the language barrier that keeps them from collaborating with the world’s collective intelligence, Ha says.
ICON’S Edge
That’s where Ha believes ICON has a special role in the Korean ecosystem. The technology is already institutionalized, with the backing of the financial sector. It has signed on various projects for a securities consortium, a university, a hospital and insurance providers.
“I think what gives them leverage is that they have a working blockchain engine that is to be deployed in the banking, medical and university sectors,” says Ha, who is familiar with but has no stake in the ICON project. “We know they’re capable at the minimum, so that already puts them ahead of other ICOs that don’t have working products.”
There have been blockchain efforts in Korea like Coinplug, Blocko, Double Chain and IBM’s Hyperledger, but Kim from Dayli claims his project dwarfs theirs in scale because it already has all the infrastructure components in-house.
Kim claims that while many blockchain architects develop a project and expect clients to use it, Dayli builds the projects around clients' specific needs.
