Gyeongbuk Province Ventures into Hemp Industry... Blockchain Technology to Prevent Risks

Gyeongbuk Industrial Hemp Regulatory Free Zone Promotion... "Establishing Leakage Prevention System with Blockchain Technology"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] Gyeongsangbuk-do announced on the 5th a plan to establish a 'leak prevention system' applying blockchain technology to promote the 'Gyeongbuk Industrial Hemp Regulatory Sandbox' project, which was submitted as an agenda item to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' review committee.

According to the press release distributed by Gyeongsangbuk-do on the same day, the 'Gyeongbuk Industrial Hemp Regulatory Sandbox' is a project aimed at extracting active ingredients from low-psychoactive varieties of cannabis (HEMP) classified and managed as narcotics, to develop bio-materials and medical products.

However, due to the unexpected risk of leakage of cannabis, which is still perceived as a narcotic, issues regarding regulatory relaxation alongside safe management measures have continuously been raised.

In this regard, Gyeongsangbuk-do proposed a solution to overcome hemp safety management by partnering with local IT companies to implement a blockchain-based comprehensive HEMP management system. Since all businesses participating in the sandbox will have ledgers of the same transaction history information and can cross-verify each other, the risk of leakage can be preemptively blocked.

In the regulatory sandbox project, companies will demonstrate security solutions related to cannabis industrialization, and based on these results and know-how, they will have the opportunity to secure leadership in the future cannabis management system market.

Blockchain technology, which gained attention through Bitcoin, is rapidly evolving by demonstrating applicability across industries. Having passed the 'Blockchain 1.0' era used for simple transactions and payment methods, it has moved into the 'Blockchain 2.0' era featuring smart contracts, and now into the 'Blockchain 3.0' era expanding across various industries.

At this point, Gyeongsangbuk-do explains that applying blockchain technology to the special field of cannabis and promoting a demonstration project is an appropriate business for the 'Blockchain 3.0' era.

A Gyeongsangbuk-do official stated, "When blockchain technology is applied, it prevents data tampering and forgery, enables rapid tracking of transaction records, and reduces transaction costs among market participants," adding, "For the industrialization of cannabis, which is still a narcotic, a blockchain system will be essential, and the system built by Gyeongsangbuk-do will be used as a national standard in the future."

Gyeongsangbuk-do Governor Lee Cheol-woo said, "It is true that blockchain technology has a negative perception among the general public due to concerns about virtual currencies," but added, "I hope this regulatory sandbox project will provide an opportunity for blockchain technology to be recognized by the general public as an essential technology applicable to various industrial fields."

Meanwhile, since 2018, Gyeongsangbuk-do has been investing 3.796 billion KRW with a goal through the end of 2021 to carry out the 'Blockchain Platform and Business Model Development ITRC Project' together with the Ministry of Science and ICT and POSTECH Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation. Through this project, 19 domestic patent applications have been filed, 20 master's and doctoral-level personnel have been trained, and the strategy is to establish a blockchain industry foundation in the region.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.