Why Did Ahn Cheol-soo, People Power Party Lawmaker, Visit UDC?

Ahn Cheol-soo: "Expand Blockchain to Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam Megacity"
First Learned About Blockchain in 2015 Economist Cover Story

"Introduce Blockchain to Open Public Data to Private Sector... Killer App Is Medical System"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] On the 23rd, Ahn Cheol-soo, a member of the People Power Party, said, "Since Busan has been designated as the first blockchain special zone at the city level in our country, the next step is to gradually expand and develop it into the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongsangnam-do (Bu-Ul-Gyeong) megacity, which can also become an export industry."

On the same day, Ahn made a surprise visit to the Upbit Developer Conference (UDC) held at the Busan Port International Exhibition & Convention Center (BPEX) and said, "Since Busan has been designated as a blockchain special zone, we plan to provide various supports to lead the blockchain special zone."

UDC is an event held annually since 2018 by Dunamu, the operator of the virtual asset exchange Upbit, to dispel distrust in virtual assets and share blockchain technology. This year, it has been held in Busan for two days starting from the 22nd.

Ahn first encountered blockchain through the cover story of the October 2015 issue of the British economic weekly The Economist. He said, "I was surprised at that time" and added, "I thought this was really important and would become a major trend."

However, the only country utilizing blockchain was Estonia, and Ahn even visited Estonia himself. He said, "Estonia first laid the entire government system infrastructure on blockchain, which enhanced transparency, greatly increased people's trust in the government, and there were no walls between governments. I was very envious."

He said, "Since data exchange between governments is not well established here, we need to take the next step to fix this," adding, "It cannot be done all at once, so it must be done gradually."

Then Ahn emphasized, "The first thing to do is to establish a digital platform government," and said, "We need to enable free exchange of data between government and government departments, and actively open public data that is not related to national security to the private sector."

He explained that when public infrastructure data is utilized by the private sector, it will not only advance the data industry but also artificial intelligence. He said, "The killer application of blockchain will be the medical system," and added, "Currently, patient information is owned by hospitals centrally, and data is scattered across hospitals, but with blockchain, patients become the owners of their data and can have tags that can be used in emergencies."

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