With the help of ICONLOOP, South Korea’s SBI Savings Bank has launched a blockchain-integrated personal authentication service dubbed “SBI Simple Authentication” on its mobile banking app.

ICONLOOP said in a Medium post (Apr 1) that SBI Simple Authentication is already in effect. ICONLOOP is the founder of cryptocurrency technology ICON, and crypto token ICX. It was selected as the blockchain operator for the Seoul Standard Blockchain Platform commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, where its work involved projects on decentralized voting and payments.

SBI Simple Authentication uses a blockchain-based personal identification number (PIN) or fingerprints to verify an app user, and transfers can, therefore, be made without a public certificate, security card, or one-time password (OTP).

A smart contract called SCORE is used to authenticate data integrity. Private and public key structure are also applied while being compatible with existing certificate standards by adopting their specifications.

ICONLOOP claims it will now be “impossible to falsify information and misuse the certificates”, while increasing customer satisfaction from not needing separate security plug-ins. In the future, SBI Simple Authentication’s timestamping function on the public blockchain will also add cost savings by replacing the use of public certificates.

SBI Savings Bank ranks top in Korea in terms of assets, reaching $6 trillion in September 2018, and has been looking into using fintech and blockchain since 2016.