Shinhan Card, South Korea’s biggest credit card company, has been recently granted a patent for a blockchain-based payment system. According to the reports, the company has developed a blockchain-powered credit transaction process that offers credit card functionality along with setting spending limits, making monthly installments, and carrying out payments. On this achievement, the company’s official stated that the services using the key features and functions of credit cards would be extended to this blockchain payments system. The official further mentioned that the blockchain payments system is a noteworthy advancement from the status quo, where most blockchain-based services were restricted to cash writing or user identification of online transactions.
The company has patented the blockchain system about 18 months after carrying out a feasibility study, which examined how efficient the technology would be in offering the kind of functionality sought initially.
As per the reports, the patent could soon permit cardless credit transactions that would see many users of this system in making payments via apps on their smartphones. With such kind of development, the traditional card system based on three intermediaries, namely, the credit card firm, value-added network service provider (VAN), and the payment gateway, would be disrupted immensely.
This technology has come on the heels of a new platform set up by the parent company to the Shinhan Card, known as Shinhan Financial Group. This year in May, they had unveiled a new blockchain-based platform speeding up the loan process by verifying the necessary terms to approve credit lending.
Shinhan Card is now expected to expand the patent beyond South Korea and has already filed a Patent Application the US, Europe, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. However, the status of those patents at this point is still unknown.