A lot of things happen in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Omise and OmiseGo recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shinhan. Having such a major South Korean bank on board will undoubtedly lead to some interesting developments down the line. Shinhan Bank is Pro-CryptocurrencySouth Korea is home to one of the most vibrant cryptocurrency ecosystems in the world. Even so, local banks are still hesitant to serve most companies and service providers in this space. Shinhan Bank is one of the very few exceptions in this regard. The second-largest bank in the country keeps an open mind toward cryptocurrency as a whole, which is a positive sign. More specifically, the institution servers a fair few local Bitcoin exchanges and trading platforms. This decision was made after the country’s largest bank shut the door on all companies active in this nascent industry. Kookmin Bank made it clear they want nothing to do with cryptocurrencies now or in the future. It created an opportunity for Shinhan bank to step, which is exactly what they did. Exchanges were quick to jump on this opportunity as well. Korbit explained users should switch to the Shinhan bank to use KRW deposits and withdrawals. It does not happen all that often exchanges advise their clients to simply switch bank accounts. It has certainly earned South Korea’s second-largest bank a lot of brownie points with the cryptocurrency community. The Road Ahead for Omise and OmiseGoFrom that point forward, the bank has continued to explore new opportunities and technologies. It now seems it has found a valuable set of partners in the form of Omise and OmiseGo. With all parties signing a Memorandum of Understanding, a new chapter is waiting to be written. There appears to be mutual interest to advance the ShinhanCard digital offerings in the growing mobile payments market. This new framework will mainly focus on close collaboration between the different parties. Shinhan may look at ways to leverage Omise’s portfolio of payment solutions. Additionally, OmiseGO provider’s server and mobile SDK to on-ard e-wallet providers. All of these tools seem to complement the ShinhanCard quite nicely. No official proof of concept has been announced at this stage. With a lot of new use cases to explore, South Korea continues to lead the charge in terms of cryptocurrency innovation. When a major bank shows such a great interest in these technologies, good things are bound to happen. While this may not impact Bitcoin directly, all cryptocurrencies will benefit from these developments in one way or another. Image Courtesy of ShutterstockOmise and OmiseGo Sign MoU With South Korea’s Crypto-Friendly Bank was last modified: April 6th, 2018 by JP Buntinx