The Korean-language blockchain news outlet Block Post has taken a deeper dive into Seoul Metropolitan Government’s recently revamped citizen participation platform “Democracy Seoul.”
As reported earlier, Democracy Seoul implements blockchain technology, more specifically, ICONLOOP’s “loopchain” engine. ICONLOOP has been providing blockchain technology to the city since 2018, when it was selected as an operator of Seoul’s standard blockchain platform for the “Seoul Blockchain Demonstration Project.”
The adoption of blockchain into Democracy Seoul is part of Seoul Metropolitan Government’s “Blockchain CIty Seoul” project. Announced in 2018, the initiative aims to implement blockchain into 14 administrative tasks by 2022.
The platform will use the blockchain module to record voting data on the blockchain in real time.
Democracy Seoul encourages citizen participation in the policymaking process by allowing them to suggest policies, which are then debated, voted upon and — if they receive sufficient support — reflected in real-life city policy.
By using blockchain, the city aims to improve the transparency of the process, bolster trust between the public and government and prevent vote tampering.
An official from Seoul’s internal blockchain team told Token Post that besides voting, the city is pushing to convert several administrative services into blockchain-based ones. It has already conducted a trial program to make used car sales more trustworthy and a national trial program using blockchain to protect the rights of hourly workers using blockchain.
The official said because several administrative services were going on the blockchain, they had to check the storage capacity every week. The city plans to spec-up if they run out of storage.
The revamped Democracy Seoul platform allows for public debate on any city proposal that gets at least 100 votes. If the public debate gets at least 1,000 participants, Seoul’s mayor has to issue a direct response. The previous thresholds were 500 and 5,000 people, respectively.
Since 2017, Democracy Seoul has received 5,963 public proposals, 59 of which were implemented as city policy, including support for women undergoing IVF treatments and mandatory protection for street cats in zones undergoing reconstruction or redevelopment.
Seoul Metropolitan Government isn’t the only South Korean government body that’s bullish on blockchain.
Korean-language blockchain news site Block Media reports that many public institutions both national and local are stepping up blockchain efforts. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, for instance, is recruiting entities to conduct research on using blockchain transactions and smart contracts to administer archive records. The National Election Commission has begun building a blockchain-powered online voting system, Busan is expanding its blockchain-based services and the province of Jeollanam-do is applying blockchain to its school lunch management system.
ICONLOOP Communication Team Lead Minhwan Kim says on the subject, “As the leading companies and public institutions continue to discover the possibility of blockchain, practical use-cases are increasing. ICONLOOP will continue to deliver the value of blockchain to mass adoption and ‘Hyperconnect the World’.”
