South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea (BOK), officially selected Ground X, Kakao Corp.’s blockchain technology subsidiary, as a preferred bidder for its pilot central bank digital currency (CBDC) program.
Reinforcing Blockchain Technologies’ Value
Besides developing scalable blockchain infrastructures, Kakao’s Ground X aims to lead the mass adoption of blockchain-optimized services. Ground X stated that the move would enable it to reinforce the utility and value of blockchain technologies further.
Moreover, Ground X’s most notable achievement is the development of Klatyn, a worldwide public blockchain platform. In addition to offering user and enterprise-friendly UX and UIs, Klatyn provides a first-class Developer Experience (DX) environment.
Klatyn’s DX environment also allows developers to create blockchain services for diverse applications, driving social impact. What’s more, Ground X recently formed a strategic partnership with the US-based software tech company ConsenSys.
Similarly, ConsenSys had collaborated with central banks across Australia, Singapore, and Thailand, enhancing their electronic currency adoptions’ capacity and performance.
Digitalizing Financial Services
Previously in May, BOK shared that it plans to study the functionality of launching a digital won platform. BOK’s announcement follows the recent large-scale increase in electronic currency adoption from global central banks.
At present, the world’s most technologically advanced nations have been laying the foundations for digital currency implementation, aiming to stimulate the ever-growing global digitalization of financial services.
Accordingly, BOK plans to conduct the CBDC project, evaluating digital won’s practicality and efficacy. To this end, it allocated 4.9 billion won ($4.4 million) to the initiative and sought collaborations with domestic technology innovators.
Additionally, Ground X outperformed the pilot project’s previous bidders, such as the media and tech conglomerate Naver Corp. Ground X also surpassed SK C&C, SK Group’s IT service provider unit.
Accelerating BOK’s CBDC Program
Furthermore, BOK would conduct the CBDC program’s two stages in a virtual setting. The first stage involves creating a simulation environment and assessing basic functions, while the second stage includes testing more complex aspects, including privacy protection.
According to the Korea ON-line E-Procurement System, BOK offered Ground X a partner position to transform the latter’s Klatyn into a private blockchain platform specialized for CBDC. Ground X would also carry out the CBDC project’s distribution, issuance, cross-country remittances, and virtual payments.
