South Korea is set to introduce real-world digital currency payments. For this purpose, it is launching a pilot called ‘Project Han River’ next month, as part of its efforts to keep pace with the rapidly evolving payment landscape. Bank of Korea, the central bank, has issued digital currency to participating local banks, which will, in turn, provide tokenized deposits to a total of 100,000 individuals.
Participants will be able to use the deposits to purchase goods and services from 1April to 30 June. Five major banks – Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori and NongHyup – will each invite 16,000 users to take part in the pilot, while the policy lender Industrial Bank of Korea and regional lender Busan Bank will gather 8,000 users each.
Korean residents aged 19 or older who hold savings accounts at the participating banks are eligible participants.
