[Public Voices] "Potential Beyond K-pop"... K-DID Expands Globally Through Open Source

Lee Ki-hyuk, President of the Korea Digital Certification Association.

Following last year’s milestone of K-pop’s overseas sales surpassing 1 trillion won for the first time, the export value of ‘K-Food Plus,’ encompassing Korean agricultural products and related industries, has exceeded 16 trillion won. Just as K-pop and K-Food have elevated Korea’s global status, the tech sector is now focusing on ‘K-DID,’ which holds enormous potential.

The global market size for decentralized identity verification (DID), widely known domestically through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s implementation of mobile IDs, is estimated to grow at an average annual rate of about 59%, reaching approximately 53 trillion won by 2031.

Notably, South Korea is securing leadership in this field. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety began issuing blockchain-based mobile driver’s licenses in 2022 and started issuing mobile national veterans registration cards last year.

Starting this December, mobile resident registration cards will be issued to all citizens. The DID technology applied to South Korea’s national mobile ID stores users’ identity information on their own smartphones, establishing data sovereignty and enabling integration with various industries. For trust verification in this integration, issuance information is confirmed via blockchain. The issuance data is stored on distributed nodes of the blockchain, preventing any illegal access or forgery.

South Korea’s mobile ID is the world’s first blockchain-based national digital ID, making it a benchmark for many countries. In fact, last April, the World Bank visited RaonSecure, an IT security and authentication platform company that built the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s mobile ID issuance system, to discuss ways to expand the Korean-style mobile ID to developing countries. Several countries, including Indonesia, Costa Rica, and the Philippines, are collaborating with the Korean government to introduce national digital IDs.

To further elevate the nation’s status by expanding the K-DID ecosystem globally, the key strategy is ‘open source.’ By open-sourcing K-DID technology, developers worldwide can participate in the K-DID community, enhancing the technology’s completeness and enabling the emergence of diverse K-DID-based services.

With many developers reviewing and contributing to the code, the technology’s reliability and transparency can be strengthened. Additionally, leveraging blockchain’s hyperconnectivity and scalability, innovative and creative services can be developed across various industries such as finance, healthcare, and education. Free from dependence on specific devices or platforms, countless ideas from large corporations, startups, and independent developers will be integrated into DID, forming a rich ecosystem.

Currently, mobile IDs using DID technology allow safe and convenient use of services such as non-face-to-face account opening, government civil services, and educational qualification verification. As private sector openness expands, mobile ID usage will become available on various lifestyle apps including Samsung Wallet, Naver, Kakao, and Toss, fostering a richer ecosystem linked to companies’ own services.

With expanded global participation through open source, more advanced services will be developed. At the B2B level, new business models based on identity verification will emerge, driving market innovation. If this broad ecosystem is activated around K-DID, South Korea’s national competitiveness will be further strengthened.

Globally, it is estimated that over 1.3 billion people in regions such as Southeast Asia and Latin America lack identification, leaving them excluded from protection against crime and welfare services. The international community, including the UN and the World Bank, is actively promoting the spread of digital IDs.

Advanced countries have also seen increased demand for digital identity verification amid digital transformation and the COVID-19 era. With many countries benchmarking the Korean-style digital ID, now is the optimal time for K-DID to take the lead in the global digital ID sector.

To achieve this, ongoing government-wide activities and support related to K-DID open source must continue, along with active cooperation from companies possessing relevant technologies. Open source will be the key to turning the potential of K-DID?surpassing that of K-pop and K-Food?into a reality that elevates national status and strengthens national competitiveness.