A recent report by the state-run National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) predicts that Korea’s blockchain industry will grow about 61.5% per year to reach KRW 350 billion (over USD 301 million*) by 2022.
According to material from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) that quotes the report, the domestic blockchain currently stands at KRW 84.6 billion (almost USD 73 million). In 2020, that will grow to KRW 136.6 billion (over USD 118 million). By 2021, it will grow to KRW 220.6 billion (over USD 190 million), and by 2022, KRW 356.2 billion (almost USD 307 million).
IT market analysis and consulting firm IDC, too, predicted in an investment report released in March that the global blockchain market would record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 76% between 2019 and 2022.
The Korean-language blockchain news website The Bchain says this shows that Korea’s blockchain industry will grow at roughly the same rate as the global one.
NIPA predicted that enhanced smart contracts will link and develop various industries and come into wider use.
While blockchain technology is currently limited to the financial industry in the form of things such as cryptocurrency remittances and transactions, its use will expand to energy, public services, medicine and healthcare, logistics and distribution, and real estate.
The report said that though blockchain’s early ecosystem focused on financial transactions, the ecosystem would grow as more and more companies adopt enterprise blockchain solutions.
In particular, as corporations focus on high-utility enterprise blockchains over public chains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, we’ll see the use of blockchain expand even in those sectors where it is currently deployed.
The report noted, however, that while blockchain boasts potentially high market growth, its market is still forming and remains small compared to other software sectors such as cloud computing and big data.
* All USD amount conversions based on conversion rates as of Dec. 27, 2019.
