[Korea] Moa Pay and local currency: a solution for developing the local economy in Korea

When a neighbourhood develops fast, small shops are usually the first to feel the pressure. Rents rise, foot traffic changes, and most of the money people spend can leave the area to flow into big chains and outside e-commerce platforms.

In Seoul's Mapo district, out of that concern, the Mapo Community Economy Network Moa developed MOA, a local-currency model later run on the Moa Pay platform.

The starting point was not to build yet another payment app. The question they asked was: how can the money residents spend keep creating value for small shops, trusted organisations and the very community they live in?

By 2019, around 594 million won worth of MOA had been issued; the currency was accepted at 159 locations in Mapo, including the whole of Mangwon Market. A share of the value of each transaction accumulates in a community fund, which has supported a basic-income experiment for young people at Sungmisan School and the repair of the Mapo Hope Truck, a public truck serving the community.

Moa Pay also gives users a reason to take part: when buying or topping up through the platform, users receive a 3% “good consumption support”. For participating shops, the system lowers credit-card costs, brings in regular customers and connects them with the local resource network.

The story raises a question close to home for Vietnam's big cities. As cities grow fast, independent restaurants, small bookshops, cultural spaces and initiatives built by local people can gradually disappear, and with them the livelihoods, identity and relationships that once gave a neighbourhood its life.

Can we design ways of consuming, and economic tools, that keep more value in the places we live? Is Moa Pay a suggestion for Vietnam, not to copy wholesale, but to re-ask the question together: whom should the urban economy serve, and who benefits from development?

That is why Vcil Travel School Korea IV looks at Moa Pay: not just to learn about a piece of technology, but to observe how a community tries to keep resources, livelihoods and vitality in its own neighbourhood.

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Vcil Travel School Korea IV: From the Miracle on the Han River to Alternative Pathways
Dates: 14–24/10/2026
Organisers: Vcil Community (Vietnam) & Jungto Society (Korea)

Ask about the programme at:
https://vcil.community/travel-school/han-quoc-102026#program_register-form

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