Today South Korean telecoms firm KT Corp announced plans to launch Dongbaek Mall, an online mall designed to use Busan City’s blockchain-based local currency Dongbaekjeon, which launched in December last year.
As of August, 850,000 people had used the currency, with around 920 billion won ($831.4 million) worth of transactions. This and other local currencies are designed to encourage local consumption by offering cashback of 10% when using the currency for small transactions or 5% for larger transactions. It’s effectively a local subsidy.
The mall is now live and is in pilot mode until the 27th of November. Consumers access the online mall via the currency app.
Additionally, Busan City announced the coming launch of QR code mobile payments for the currency. To date, payments were made using a physical card, similar to a debit card.
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