A lot will change for the Blockchain ecosystem in Korea after the elections on June 13th. Depending on who gets elected or re-elected, there is a legit chance that ICOs will be back in Korea. The public is behind the movement to bring ICOs back to Korea. As well as being the innovators in Blockchain technologies moving forward. This is why the mayor of Seoul has promised to support blockchain development as he goes for re-election.
In Korea before the elections, a lot of politicians in Korea try to gauge the public opinion. Currently, the majority of the public supports Blockchain innovation.
Therefore Mayor Park Won-Soon has no choice but to support Blockchain development movement if he wants to be re-elected. The real question is whether or not he will follow up on his promises.
Mayor Park has been the mayor of Seoul since 2011. He will be looking to get his third term. In order to do that he will need to win over the public. In order to win the public, he will need to prove he is going to help the Blockchain ecosystem in Korea.
He announced that he was committed to helping the city of Mapo become the center for blockchain incubation and foster blockchain innovation in Seoul.
The government will turn the Mapo Fintech Lab into a hub for not only Fintech but also blockchain development. This will be the first proposal from the Seoul Metropolitan Government to support blockchain technologies.
Startup Radar brought this topic up at a Blockchain event meetup in Seoul to Foresting CEO Daniel Eom who stressed that after the June 13th elections the Korean government will lay out the guidelines regarding cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technologies. What the Federal government does is much more important than what the city of Seoul does.
“You can’t support Blockchain development without supporting ICOs. They go hand in hand,”
said Daniel Eom.
Daniel brings up a good point. What separates Korea from a country like the United States is that in the United States a particular State can have separate laws. In Korea, the federal government is much stronger than the local government.
So when it comes to ICOs, Blockchain development, cryptocurrency trading, and etc. it will be the central government in Korea that will be leading the way.
The government’s support of Blockchain development has been a theme lately. They are looking not only to make their own cryptocurrency (S-Coin) but to use blockchain technologies in many public services such as municipal administration and government management.
This will allow for more transparency in the government and a faster service to the public. The city’s cryptocurrency will be used to help social programs in Seoul and be used as a fund to help the growth of Blockchain Startups in Seoul.
Featured image: Seoul, South Korea via Pixabay