Busan announced on the 13th that it released its own local currency, “DongBaekJeon,” as a Busan Bank card.
The city claims that “the local currency which has been contributing to the revitalization of Busan business district is now available as bank card,” adding that “it will increase the accessibility and convenience of the Busan citizens to the currency.”
On the 30th of the last December, the city created its blockchain-based currency DongBaekJeon in order to revitalize the local economy and ease the management burden of small business owners. Deriving its name from the camellia flower (DongBaek Flower in Korean), it means putting the efforts together (“Dong”), the local economy will revitalize and bring hundreds (“Baek”) of happiness and joy to people. KT was selected as a service agency for this currency, and has been participating in the project since. The currency can be used in small businesses and stores, but not a department stores or big malls.
Until recently, the DongBaekJeon card was only available from HanaBank. With the recent change, now the card is available from all BusanBank locations and its mobile application, as well as the DongBaekJeon application. The users may use the existing Hana Card and newly-issued BusanBank card in parallel. Additionally, Busan Bank is planning various launch events such as giving away 10,000 DongBaekJeon to the first 1,000 customers.
Moreover, the city extended the period of the current event ‘cashback 10%’ until the end of April in order to countermeasure the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.
Additionally, Busan also introduced a full-refund feature for all unused amounts within 7 days for all Android machines. By the end of April, DongBaekJeon can be used to pay taxi fees for all Busan taxis. However, the DongBaekJeon card issued through Busan Bank will have to wait until May for taxi payments.
