Gyeongsangbuk-do is pursuing industrialization of medical hemp using blockchain technology.

On July 7, Gyeongsangbuk-do and Andong-si announced that on the 6th, the 3rd Special Committee on Regulatory Freedom, which was chaired by the Prime Minister, announced that Gyeongbuk was finally designated as an “industrial hemp free zone”. Gyeongsangbuk-do and Andong-si plans to build a blockchain-based hemp management system in consideration of the special characteristics of hemp to promote safe industrialization to prevent unexpected spills.

Gyeongbuk Industrial Hemp Regulatory Free Zone aims developing biomaterials and medical products by extracting active ingredients from low-drug varieties among hemps that are classified and managed as drugs. However, since hemp is still recognized as a drug, the problem of safe management measures due to deregulation has been continuously raised.

Gyeongsangbuk-do presented an alternative to overcome hemp safety management with a local IT company with a blockchain-based hemp comprehensive management system. Since all operators participating in the special zone can cross-validate each other with a book for the same history information, it is possible to prevent the risk of leakage in advance.

An official from Gyeongsangbuk-do said, “By applying blockchain technology, it is possible to prevent data forgery and falsification, and to enable rapid tracking of transaction records, reducing the transaction cost among participants in the market.” For this, the blockchain system will be essential and the system built by Gyeongsangbuk-do will be used as the national standard in the future.”

Lee Cheol Woo, governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do, said, “It is also true that to many citizens blockchain technology has negative cognition because of previous incidents with virtual assets. Throughout this project, I wish citizens’ view toward blockchain technology change and be recognized as a necessary technology that can be used for various industries.”

번역: 김동우 기자