The Korea Exchange has launched a new service that provides a marketplace where the equity shares of startup companies can be traded in the open market, called Korea Startup Market (KSM). Blocko Inc., a Blockchain startup from Korea, participated in the project and implemented its blockchain technology for document and identity authentication. The KSM service has applied this technology by using Coinstack, Blocko’s proprietary blockchain-based development platform.
Blocko raised series A round funding of $1.3 million from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation in July 2016.The startup provided its Coinstack platform to Korea’s JB Bank, Lottecard, KISA, Paygate and other Korean institutions. Coinstack is offered in two ways, Cloud and On-premise, and supports all types of applications and protocols available via the Bitcoin blockchain. Furthermore, Coinstack is a development platform that supports both blockchain-based contracts and Ethereum-based smart contracts, enabling companies to apply blockchain-based functions to its services.
Won-Beom Kim, Blocko Inc. CEO, said: “This is the first example of commercialization in which blockchain is applied to the Korean over-the-counter stock market.” He added: “We are striving to advance our product by partnering with Samsung SDS, CISCO and others to apply blockchain to a wide range of industries in the future, beyond existing uses such as bonds, promissory notes and points within the financial sector.”
Earlier this month it was reported that Seoul-headquartered Shinhan Bank (KRX: 055550, NYSE: SHG) is about to launch a new service based on the Bitcoin blockchain for people who need to send remittances between Korea and China, powered by Streami.
