The South Korean[1] government is drafting major new industry classification standards for the domestic blockchain[2] industry, local crypto news outlet The BChain reports[3] Thursday, July 5.
Three Korean ministries - the National Statistical Office, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Information and Communication - are said to have been working since the end of last month to produce the final draft of a new blockchain industry classificatory scheme by the end of July.
The scheme will reportedly serve as a basis for policy making, notably aimed towards “blockchain promotion and regulatory frameworks,” and covers areas including blockchain systems construction, decentralized applications (DApps[4]) development, and cryptocurrency[5] exchanges and transactions.
The draft defines cryptocurrency exchanges as crypto asset exchange and brokerage, which is an important redefinition that “recognizes crypto exchanges as regulated financial institutions,” as opposed to their previous classification as “communication vendors,” according to a news outlet Hacked[6].
BChain reports that the move is “the first time” the Korean government has recognized the emerging sector as a legitimate industry.
With further input from 43 government ministries and 17 regional municipalities, as well as enterprises and financial institutions, the initiative is said to be drawing on consultations with over 160 institutions to assemble what will be the country’s first statistical survey of the sector.
The government has subdivided its industry classification scheme into three sectors, with ten further subdivisions under the guidance of the Korean Standard Industrial Classification (KSIC[7]). The subdivisions include detailed considerations of blockchain-powered infrastructure for DApps such as EOS[8], Ethereum[9] and NEO[10], blockchain-based cloud[11] computing services, and cryptocurrency mining.
The survey is
