Highlights:

  • One of the largest commercial banks, KEB Hana Bank, has joined the Korea Expressway Corporation to build enhanced blockchain-based toll booths.
  • The key aim behind the application of blockchain technology is to avoid the COVID-19 spread.
  • To take advantage of the service, motorists can use KEB’s smartphone banking app, Hana One Q.

As per a report, South Korea (S. Korea) is anticipated to see blockchain-powered toll booths on highways before the end of 2020.

KEB Hana Bank is one of the major business-related banks in South Korea. The bank has made an agreement with the Korea Expressway Corporation, a state-backed highway operator, to use blockchain-based services across the country’s highways toll systems.

The use of blockchain technology will help to ease the toll services by allowing drivers to decide to postpone toll payments, receive refunds, or pay in a lump sum. This can be done using KEB’s smartphone banking app, Hana One Q.

As per Crypto News, it will be easy for drivers to sign up using the bank’s app in a new registration field.

KEB Hana Bank and the Korea Expressway Corporation together decided to use the blockchain solution with an aim to stop the coronavirus spread (COVID-19). Thus, helping remove credit card and cash-based payments to offer contactless assistance.

“We will continue to expand customized non-face-to-face (contactless) services to the public by applying blockchain technology, which is part of the Korean version of the digital new deal policy to lead the global economy after the coronavirus,” said Kwang-Ho Lee, Head of the Sales Division at the Korea Expressway Corporation.

The deal was approved by the Korea Internet and amp; Security Agency and the Ministry of Science and ICT. KEB Hana received permission for its blockchain mobile electronic verification program from the same agencies in the past year.

Lately, the South Korean government revealed its interest to invest about USD 48.2 billion in blockchain and other industry 4.0 technologies by 2025. The major aim is to support the digitization of industries in the upcoming post-pandemic era.

A city in the Gyeongbuk province of S. Korea, Andong, recently declared that it received permission to function as a free-trade zone for manufacturing hemp.