South Korea’s Central Bank Using Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology to Create a Cashless Society
The central Bank of Korea has recently announced plans to use a cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to create a “cashless society” project, reports local news TokenPost.
According to a report, the Bank of Korea announced a document called the “2017 Payment Report” yesterday and announced in the document that the “Cashless Society” pilot project was formally implemented. The report also mentioned that the Bank of Korea has begun to explore blockchain and cryptocurrency application cases, such as the blockchain technology in the payments industry and so on.
The central bank also set up a mechanism for research digital currency and analyzing cryptocurrency impact on the entire financial system. The main purpose of creating a “cashless society” is to provide convenience to customers and reduce the cost of using physical currency. Last year, the cost of funds invested by South Korea in issuing physical currency reached 47 million U.S. dollars.
In addition, another purpose of the South Korean government to create a cashless society is to open its own underground economy.
“It can open the underground economy, and thus enhance equivalence in taxation. The shoe box full of 50,000 won banknotes that you see in movies will disappear in reality (with the advancement of a cashless society),” said a South Korean analyst from Shinhan Investment Corp.
According to the KoreaTimes report, the South Korean government began to consider the phase out of the use of physical currency as early as two years ago, and strive to become a cashless country by 2020.
In April 2017, the Bank of Korea launched a cashless social pilot project where consumers can deposit small transactions from transactions into banks and place them on prepaid or mobile cards for convenience stores and discount stores. And department stores.
In January, the Justice Department announced that it will ban independent cryptocurrency in the case of transactions between government departments and as so as cryptocurrency trading. The disagreement on the policy has puzzled Korean citizens. After a petition, the Finance Minister said that the government would not ban cryptographic trading, which was finally confirmed in February by the Minister of Government Policy Coordination Office.
Last week, it was reported that Bithumb, Korea’s largest crypto exchange, is promoting the use of cryptocurrency in the country. The goal of the exchange is to develop into a bank-like business to use cryptocurrencies more intuitively in everyday life.