This is a translation of an interview published by BLOTER on November 11th in Korean. If you would like to see the original version please visit this link.
In October, global consulting firm PwC predicted that the impact of blockchain technology on global GDP improvement over the next 10 years would be $1.76 trillion (about 1990 trillion KRW). In particular, the firm paid attention to five applications: supply chain management, financial services, identity management, contract, dispute settlement, and customer management. In addition, the case of DID (Distributed Identifier) as an infrastructure concept for the solid spread of these services is becoming more concrete recently.
DID stands for Decentralized Identifier. The difference from the existing Internet ID is that users have a complete sovereignty over the recorded personal information, thereby allowing users to selectively provide only the information they need when they want to. In addition, all data can be safely stored without the risk of leakage and forgery, and the authenticity of the data can be verified by information recorded in the blockchain. These features are also in line with the recent trend of strengthening the concept of privacy and MyData.
Until now, however, DID has only been a limited means of authentication for certain services. In order to expand the base wider, it was necessary to find examples of everyday service concepts that people could experience.
‘User-Oriented’ application for Busan City
Ryan Uhr, Coinplug’s CEO, stated “For citizens, the important thing is how their life changes with the introduction of blockchain applications, not the technology itself”. He added “In order to address this, B PASS is an easy DID-based platform that simplifies the use of public services”.
B PASS is a DID-based integrated service developed by Coinplug as part of the Busan Blockchain Regulation-free Zone project. After installing the B PASS app, the registration and authentication process in Busan public services will be greatly simplified. In addition, the application will link the different services specially developed for the blockchain regulation-free zone. Currently, B PASS provides access to the Busan Citizen card, Busan City Hall visiting card, Busan library membership card, mobile family love card for multi-child families, Haeundae District resident card, and Busan TP employee card. In addition, digital vouchers and citizen safety reports are being provided.
Uhr said, “In the past, we had to download individual apps to use each public service, and even that was completely supplier-oriented. An example is the public library in Busan, which is used by 1.5 million people who had to repeat complicated issuance and entry procedures every time they visited.”
DID, technology that breaks barriers
Busan Digital Vouchers are digital points that the government provides to businesses or individuals, and can be used like cash within the scope of the partnership. For example, if a specific mission or a report on improvements related to the city of Busan are carried out with the Public Safety Report app linked to B PASS, users can get digital vouchers as compensation for their participation.
It is a Win-Win situation: citizens can be paid for carrying out public activities, and the city can perform transparent compensation payments and history management for civic contribution activities. Furthermore, if such a model is solidified, it will be possible to provide various compensations for each public institution and local government and to provide public services with higher quality and participation.
DID is also being used as a means to connect local governments and citizens. “DID-based public service platforms allow local governments to efficiently carry out more public affairs,” said Ryan. “When conducting public opinion, surveys, voting, and signatures, they can be resolved with a push (app notification) online without having to contact and visit the citizens one by one.” Coinplug has already successfully conducted more than 330 simple surveys on 450,000 people so far through the operation of THEPOL, a DID-based voting platform that launched in March.
Personal information is not collected unnecessarily with DID-based surveys and voting. Depending on the purpose, only the required information or the unidentified attribute information among the identity data stored in the DID is given. Local governments may create a virtuous cycle in which saved budgets in the digital processing operation can be converted back to civic compensation such as vouchers. Furthermore, in the future, it is expected that public services will be able to be linked in a wide range of areas such as CBDC (Civilian Digital Currency), personalized welfare benefits notification and verification, tax, real estate, and 24hours civil certificate service.
DID technology is not just for people
Of course, the introduction of public DIDs is only a small test bed for verification of the technology. How far can the role of DID expand in the future? “DIDs don’t have to be limited to people,” Ryan said. “DIDs can also be given to items owned by individuals such as cars and real estate.” In this case, it will be possible to implement convenience such as automatic payment with a card connected to a personal DID or real estate sales.
Regarding the development of DID technology and policy support in Korea, Ryan said, “I am satisfied.” In Korea this year, DID projects are being supported more actively than ever, including standardization of DIDs, operation of the Busan Regulation Free Zone, and the launch of a joint public-private DID consultative group, focusing on the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
However, it is regrettable about the government’s budget for supporting blockchain that was cut in the preliminary feasibility study this year. Ryan said, “It is time for the government to further strengthen its budget support so that more public institutions can engage in blockchain demonstration projects in the future.”
Meanwhile, he says DID is not all about blockchain. “The strength of blockchain technology lies in trust and asset tokenization,” Ryan said. “In the future, DID will continue to grow as a blockchain infrastructure technology, and on top of that, various real assets, including intangible assets, will be tokenized. A real digital world will come where tokenized physical and virtual assets are traded based on DID.”
Coinplug’s website: https://www.coinplug.com/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/coinplug
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coinplug
LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/6394451
