South Korean Cities May Reward Cyclists with ‘Token’ Incentives

Local governments across South Korea could be set to hand out “blockchain-powered tokens” to cyclists who use city-run bike-sharing programs.

Per media outlet NBN, a number of governing authorities in some of South Korea’s most populous cities – including Seoul, Busan and Incheon – are now looking to incentivize their bike-sharing programs, concerned that not enough people are currently using them.

Councils have decided to act after a recent report claimed South Korean bicycle traffic is the lowest in the world, standing at a mere 2%, and lagging behind countries such as the Netherlands, where the figure is 36%, and Japan, where 17% of commuters travel by bike.

The media outlet reports that an unnamed number of the 14 cities running bike-sharing projects have successfully completed blockchain technology-powered pilots with private companies. The pilots saw riders rewarded with “tokens” every time they used a bike in the program, and local authorities are currently considering proposals to rollout the token rewards later this year.

Although the nature of these “tokens” has not yet been revealed, it is highly unlikely that they would be cryptocurrencies considering the central government’s hardline stance on Bitcoin and altcoins. It is more plausible that they would be the sort of stablecoins that many local authorities in the country have been eager to issue of late.

Some 14 South Korean cities have spent a considerable amount of money on bike-sharing programs, which allow citizens to pay for bike usage with smart transport cards.

Seoul Metropolitan City is hoping to introduce a rewards program using a forthcoming blockchain-powered S-Coin token, handing these out to citizens who pay local taxes and road tax bills online, receive health checkups or vote in opinion polls, per a Newspim report from earlier this summer. The new token is likely to see the light of day in November – along with a range of other blockchain projects – and will be redeemable in participating stores via QR codes.