Korean Blockchain technology development has become easier and use cases have increased.

In 2020, the Korean blockchain industry had a year to lower the barriers to entry. This is the impact of the release of several blockchain clouds and development tools.

As development became easier and the industry matured, many practical use cases appeared. In Korea, blockchain-based decentralized identity authentication (DID) has greatly expanded its use, and DApps (Decentralized Applications) with a large increase in the number of users have also appeared.

◆ Introducing Blockchain Without Experts = Blockchain is a technology that can be introduced in an infinite number of fields. Blockchain technology can be used by all companies that want to prevent forgery or alteration of data and secure service transparency. However, there have been barriers to entry. As it is a new technology, it is not easy to find specialized block chain developers.

This year, blockchain technology companies have focused on lowering this barrier to entry. Blockchain services have been increased by allowing technology to be introduced using cloud and development tools, even without blockchain experts.

In particular, companies that developed blockchain platforms stood out. A blockchain platform can be marketable only when there are many services developed based on the platform. If companies release their own development tools, it helps to gather services.

Ground X, a blockchain technology subsidiary of Kakao, launched a cloud-based service-type blockchain (BaaS, Blockchain-as-a-Service) 'KAS (Klaytn API Service)' in October. The intention is to allow anyone to develop services based on Ground X's blockchain platform, Clayton. Companies that want to develop services can use KAS to provide functions on the blockchain in the form of APIs.

Lambda 256's Luniverse, the original BaaS, also focused on lowering the barriers to entry. By providing a sidechain connected to the Luniverse blockchain, customers can create services independently while using the sidechain in the form of a private blockchain. In July, Luniverse also launched a shared blockchain that allows multiple companies to share this sidechain. The intention is to further reduce development costs. In this way, Luniverse attracted more than 1,200 corporate customers as of October.

Line Blockchain of NAVER (www.naver.com)'s subsidiary Line also reinforced its progress as a platform by releasing the development tool 'Line Blockchain Developer'. In October, it announced eight companies that introduced LINE Blockchain using development tools.

◆ Increasing use cases centered on DID… Blockchain that has become commonplace = As more and more companies introduce blockchain to services, practical use cases have also increased. For example, the karaoke DApp “Something” surpassed 500,000 downloads and 330,000 users as of November, as more users visited “home karaoke” due to the spread of Corona 19. Something, developed based on Clayton, recently decided to develop a DApp version of the LINE Blockchain. The intention is to target the Japanese market established by Line.

The increase in use cases was even more pronounced in the DID field. DID means verifying one's identity without a central authority through blockchain technology. Users can directly store the issued DID authentication in their own device rather than other organizations. After that, whenever authentication is required, it only needs to provide the necessary information to prove your identity.

In Korea, an alliance has been established in the form of blockchain companies creating DID platforms, and member companies seeking to introduce them to participate. Currently, the domestic DID alliance is ▲'My ID Alliance' led by Blockchain technology company Iconloop ▲'Initial DID Alliance' led by SK Telecom and joined by the rest of the telecommunication companies ▲'MyKeypin Alliance' led by Blockchain Technology Company Coinplug ▲ There are four such as 'DID Alliance', which is centered on security company Raon Secure.

From the end of last year to the first half of this year, the alliances focused on attracting member companies, but from the second half of this year, they focused on creating practical use cases. ICONLOOP applied MyID to check visitors for the prevention of Corona 19 in Jeju Island. While introducing MyID to Shinhan Bank's mobile application SOL, DID technology was applied to banknotes, and MyID was also introduced to the certification service of people in the recruitment platform.

The coin plug of the MyKeepin Alliance also applied DID technology to the pass of the Busan Startup Support Center. In addition, in cooperation with HP Retail, an unmanned convenience store company, DID was also used for access to unmanned convenience stores.

Raon Secure introduced its own DID platform 'OmniOne' to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security's mobile civil service card. In addition, the DID-based civil petition system of the Military Manpower Administration and the DID-based Domin card issuance project of the Gyeongnam Provincial Office are being conducted based on OmniOne.

With the spread of Corona 19, non-face-to-face authentication and the abolition of public certificates, DID is expected to gain more attention. Jin-young Oh, head of the KISA Blockchain Promotion Team, who recently held the DID standardization forum, said, "As the non-face-to-face society has expanded recently with Corona 19, securing the reliability of data has become important, and DID is a customized technology optimized for this."