The Korea Exchange, the sole securities exchange operator in South Korea, has launched a new service – a blockchain-powered marketplace where the equity shares of startup companies can be traded in the open market. 

Called Korea Startup Market (KSM), the platform has been developed with participation from Korean blockchain startup Blocko Inc., which implemented its blockchain technology for document and identity authentication. The KSM service has applied this technology by using Coinstack, Blocko’s proprietary blockchain-based development platform.

Coinstack is serviced in Cloud and On-premise and supports all types of applications and protocols available via the Bitcoin blockchain. It is a development platform that supports both blockchain-based contracts and Ethereum-based smart contracts, enabling companies to easily apply blockchain-based functions to its services.

“This is the first example of commercialization in which blockchain is applied to the Korean over-the-counter stock market”, Won-Beom Kim, Blocko Inc. CEO, said. “We are striving to advance our product by partnering with Samsung SDS, CISCO and others to apply blockchain to a wide range of industries in the future, beyond existing uses such as bonds, promissory notes and points within the financial sector.”

Blocko has secured the highest number of client references within Korea by providing its Coinstack platform to Korea’s JB Bank, Lottecard, KISA, Paygate and others. The startup raised a series A round funding of $1.3 million from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation in July 2016.