Seoul government uses Samsung SDS for city-wide blockchain deployment

The municipal government of the South Korean capital of Seoul’s intends to apply Blockchain technology to the city’s entire administration. The tender has been won by Samsung SDS, the Internet technology solutions unit of Samsung Group.

The project is a part of the government’s plan to implement Blockchain technology across the entire municipal administration of Seoul over the next four years. The application will be focused on the city’s welfare, transportation affairs, traffic, and public safety, among other municipal matters. The Seoul Metropolitan Government hopes to enhance citizen convenience and administrative transparency through this initiative.

According to the contract, Samsung SDS will establish a blockchain-backed Information Strategy Plan (ISP) that will examine the environment for five months to enable the implementation of this technology. The software solution development unit of Samsung will be working both on the creation and systematic implementation of future models across the city’s government and the public sector.

Initial applications will be seen in areas that need to use personal information, such as the sale of used cars and payment of unemployed youth grants. The technology will later be applied to all sorts of municipal affairs in the long run. CEO Hong Won-pyo has stated, “Samsung SDS intends to contribute to the city becoming a world-class city by strengthening the transparency, fairness and civic convenience through its own Blockchain technology and consulting capability.”

Blockchain is no longer an unfamiliar concept. The distributed ledger technology was initially deployed only in financial sectors, as it enabled transactions that allowed digital information to be distributed but not copied. Now, governments all over the world are eager to utilize it.

Although cryptocurrencies themselves are not appreciated everywhere on the globe, their underlying technology has become widely popular. South Korea, despite having banned the trade of digital currencies, has not shied away from the use of blockchain. The country already has an on-going blockchain-based project aimed at creating a joint bank chain authentication business. The initiative, also signed by the Samsung SDS, will be connecting 18 major banks of the country onto a single platform.

The Seoul city's project attempts to introduce blockchain to the public sector on a large scale and is a notable endorsement of blockchain technology.