One of the significantly technologically developed cities in South Korea is aiming to expand its payments programs through digital gift certificates based on blockchain technology. One of the goals is to educate the elderly on contactless payments.
According to a recent news report, the new establishment of South Korean Seongnam city would be accessible through a mobile app. The main idea is reaching out to its elderly residents and getting them to understand a genuinely simplified payment process via blockchain technology.
During the last years, the city has established itself as a technological center, adopting blockchain to run its payment system.
Korea’s Minting and Security Printing Corporation (KOMSCO) is also involved in the project. The card-type gift certificates will be accessible to people through the Chak mobile app. The new process is planned to be as simple as it gets – users will be able to execute payments with no need for QR codes.
45,000 merchant locations in the Seongnam area will be included in the platform. One-third of them will reportedly be able to accept mobile payments, using the gift certificates. The process will only require existing debit and credit card readers to run payments. People will have to enter their PIN, which the mobile app would provide them with, so the payment process will be completed.
Among its benefits, the new program aims at a bit confined and hardly tech-accessible cluster – the elderly. The plan is to get them on board with the technological whirlwind, giving them not only access but also knowledge of contactless payments. Another benefit is that this would be an effective method in limiting the spread of COVID-19.
As per the news report, the new blockchain-based payment program will be available next month.
Seongnam’s new blockchain-based payment system is far from its only one technological endeavor. For example, the industrial complex Pangyo Techno Valley (PTV) is located just in the city of Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which is also known as the “Silicon Valley” of Korea.