South Korea launches digital IDs as banks send blockchain driver’s licenses
South Korea may soon do away with plastic – ditching physical forms of ID in favor of blockchain technology-powered alternatives.
Smartphone ownership is estimated to be upwards of 88% in South Korea – with some sources claiming the number could be as high as 95%. And technology companies, the government, police forces and banks have responded by launching initiatives aimed at ridding plastic driver’s licenses and ID cards of social security numbers. Instead, they now favor blockchain-powered digital alternatives.
Woori Bank, one of the country’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 site using machines in nationwide departments of the National Police and Road Traffic.
Banks – such as Woori – have also started accepting smartphone-based driver’s licenses as a form of identification at branches this year.
Blockchain ID Push Intensifies
The move comes hot on the heels of a Bloomberg report this week, which quoted Suh Bo-ram, the director general of South Korea’s Digital Government Agency, as saying that smartphone-based ID cards would be the norm by 2024.
Suh told the news outlet that the government hopes to roll out the solution in 2024. Seoul hopes to transfer 45 million of its 52 million residents to 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 piece of blockchain technology.”
Suh stated:
“All services that have not been able to go fully online will now be able to do so.”
DID solutions have been in development for several years in South Korea. Both the private sector and authorities are keen to develop contactless, web-based ID solutions that use blockchain technology. Tech giants such as Samsung and LG have entered the fray, with some predicting a coming “war” of rival blockchain-powered ID offerings.
After a successful launch in 2020, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced in July this year that residents across the country could use mobile driving licenses stored in their own app.
Earlier this year, two of Woori’s rivals, Kookmin Bank and IBK Industrial Bank, announced they would use DID services to give military personnel online access to banking products. The solution will allow soldiers to prove their identity without having to visit brick-and-mortar branches.
