South Korea bank tests Crypto wallet for customers

As Coinivore reports, Shinhan, the second largest commercial bank in South Korea by market valuation in the country is testing a Bitcoin vault and wallet service for its customers that is expected to be released by mid-2018.

A representative of Shinhan Bank told Naver News, a media publication in South Korea in an interview : “It is a service that keeps the blockchain key through the virtual safe provided by the bank. We are looking for ways to provide a free service when depositing and charge a fee when withdrawing.”

“Shinhan is testing a virtual bitcoin vault platform wherein the private keys of bitcoin addresses and wallets are managed and issued by the bank. The bank intends to provide the vault service for free and charge a fee for withdrawals,” the representative added.

This interest in cryptocurrency security seems to have been inspired by the attack on Bithumb in June, in which the data of 30,000 users was compromised. Bithumb is South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency trading venue.

In 2016 the bank reported a total of US $192 billion in assets and over 13,000 employees according to News Bitcoin. The bank stated that the service wouldn’t be ready until the second quarter of 2018 but has begun testing the network for the services.

The service will incur zero fees to deposit Bitcoin to store in their cold storage instead a slight fee will be taken during the withdrawal process. They will also be rolling out a mobile app that will contain a dashboard for viewing stats and deposit information for their customers.

It’s unclear whether or not Shinhan will offer Bitcoin brokerage and trading services to enable their existing clients and customers to purchase or sell Bitcoin.

South Korea has been a hub for cryptocurrency and somewhat of a safe haven for established digital currencies since, unlike other countries, they have embraced digital currency as a means for change. Earlier this month, Choe Heung-sik, chief of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), stated that the South Korean government would not impose strict regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges in the foreseeable future.

“Though we are monitoring the practice of cryptocurrency trading, we don’t have plans right now to directly supervise exchanges. Supervision will come only after the legal recognition of digital tokens as a legitimate currency,” Choe said.

Bitcoin’s growth in South Korea in the past few years has been nothing short of extraordinary. It has been so explosive, in fact, that two major Korean exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone, unveiled walk-in stores in Seoul where people can buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Companies based in South Korea, including Samsung, have also expressed interest in integrating digital currencies into their corporate infrastructure.