Audition Voting Platform Service Nextlust CEO Lee Min-jae
Challenges Global Market with 'K-Platform'
"Based on participation in domestic competitions, we aim to advance to global competitions." There was confidence in the voice of Minjae Lee, CEO of NextTrust. His ambition is to challenge the global market with a blockchain-based platform that can be applied to online voting in various competitions.
On the 28th, CEO Lee said in an interview with Asia Economy, "We have initially signed MOUs with domestic organizers of global competitions," adding, "We plan to increase operational staff as early as next year to expand overseas."
NextTrust is a startup that provides the audition platform ‘MyStarPick,’ which uses blockchain technology to fundamentally block any possibility of tampering with voting records. MyStarPick, launched in the second half of last year, has already been applied to 14 different domestic competitions. Voting for various auditions?from Mister International and Miss Grand Korea to fitness competitions, model contests, senior competitions, and kids competitions?has been conducted through MyStarPick. There are also cases of cooperation with local governments, such as the National Chunhyang Selection Contest in Namwon City and the Mayor’s Bodybuilding Competition in Goyang City. CEO Lee explained, "In reality, voting is never free from tampering issues, as manipulation problems have surfaced in audition programs. MyStarPick, based on blockchain, transparently discloses records in real time, blocking tampering and enabling verification."
Although MyStarPick has been in service for less than a year, it has attracted numerous competitions and currently records a cumulative total of 530,000 votes. Since participants prefer competitions where they can trust the results, the introduction of a reliable voting system leads to the success of the competitions. Organizers can prove that no manipulation occurred by comparing records stored on MyStarPick and the blockchain in case of unfairness disputes. CEO Lee said, "In the second half of this year, we expect to apply MyStarPick to voting in more than double-digit competitions and surpass one million cumulative votes."
NextTrust is also discussing cooperation with broadcasting companies conducting K-pop idol audition programs in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. If successful, it could achieve export results of the ‘K-Platform’ along with K-pop culture. NextTrust has completed domestic patent registration for the related technology and also filed a patent application in China.
CEO Lee, who majored in financial engineering at KAIST and worked as a fund manager in Singapore, began preparing for a startup while investing early in blockchain-based technology companies. He said, "There were continuous disputes over voting unfairness, but no services existed to restore trust. I judged that blockchain technology is suitable for enhancing voting reliability." He also expects MyStarPick to provide an opportunity for blockchain technology, which has not yet been felt directly, to come closer to our daily lives.
Ultimately, the goal is to apply it beyond popular voting in various competitions to public elections. CEO Lee said, "Blockchain-based voting is already being conducted overseas, and we believe various votes in Korea can also shift to online methods. We are preparing with the aim of applying it to multiple fields."
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