BC Card using KT blockchain technology to settle rewards points

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According to a report in the Chosun Ilbo, the largest payment processing platform in South Korea is now using blockchain technology to settle their rewards points accounts. BC Card has now been using the platform provided by KT, the second-largest telecom company in South Korea and the owner of BC Card.

By using the KT Hyperledger Fabric-based offering, BC Card is taking advantage of using a secure platform to process the orders and exchanges of points that were paid out to affinity partners in the form of VIP points and vouchers. This is a much more efficient system than what BC Card has offered to this point, as rewards had been handled manually through the first half of 2019.

The payment processing platform had recognized early on that the use of an automated system would greatly enhance the efficiency as well as provide a more accurate system. It would nearly eliminate the risk of errors and fraud, and allow customers to see an update on their points almost immediately. As a result, the blockchain application had been in the development process for much of the first part of this year.

The hope was that they would be able to create a ledger that would make the settlement process automated and seamless. That appears to have been achieved, as the company reports that processing times have been reduced by as much as 50%, with errors seeing a sharp decline as well. Now, they intend to use this new technology for the remainder of this year and into the foreseeable future.

This platform continues the vision of KT, which realized early on that blockchain technologies were the wave of the future and dedicated themselves to the development of platforms and technologies that could help to improve the efficiency and security of their systems. They introduced their first blockchain network in July 2018, partnering with one of their largest shareholders, NTT Docomo.

In February, KT Corporation had announced that they were launching a new service platform (BaaS) using this form of technology as the foundation. A total of 43 companies were part of the initial testing of the new platform, as KT was looking to create a network using blockchain technology that would allow several different networks to be interconnected using a blockchain network.

Now KT looks to use this technology to help automate one of their own subsidiaries. If successful, this could easily be a platform that could be used by several large companies across the globe.