CHON to Begin Wide Rollout of Free Digital Membership and Event Pass Services Built on Verified Relationships

CHON’s free membership service and MOIM PASS will debut at Investor Day at COEX in Seoul on September 16.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, September 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- CHON Inc., a South Korean digital trust company, announced that it will begin large-scale distribution of two free services, a customer membership solution for small businesses and a digital event pass called MOIM PASS, following its Investor Day at COEX in Seoul on September 16, 2026. Both are built on the company's mutual authentication technology, in which two parties confirm a relationship from their own devices and the resulting connection is stored on those devices rather than on a central server.

The problem: relationships owned by someone else
Small merchants know their regulars by face but rarely by contact. When a regular stops coming, there is no way to reach them; when a new menu item launches, there is no way to tell them. The customer records exist, but on search portals, messaging platforms and delivery apps. To reach their own customers, merchants pay for advertising, pay a commission on every order, and pay again to rank higher in search.
Event organizers face the same problem in a different form. An alumni association treasurer collects RSVPs in a group chat, retypes them into a spreadsheet at night, checks names at the door with a pen, and still cannot say afterward who actually came. Seminars see no-show rates approaching half of registrations, with no record of which registrants attended and no way to invite them to the next event.

Membership cards that live on the owner's phone
With CHON, a customer scans a QR code at the table, confirms the connection in a few taps, and receives a digital membership card and points on the spot. Owner and customer are now directly connected without an intermediary platform. The customer list accumulates on the owner's smartphone, from which the owner can send a greeting to a regular who has not visited in a while, announce a new item, or encourage a return visit with points. There are no advertising fees, no commissions and no middle platform.
For customers, the points from each neighborhood store gather in a single app instead of as paper coupons lost in a wallet. CHON has been running the service in pilot at retail locations in Seoul and provides it to merchants free of charge.

MOIM PASS: a one-time pass that knows who is holding it
An organizer creates an event in the CHON app and sends an invitation link. Recipients open the link, confirm in a few taps, and receive a one-time digital pass. Responses are tallied in real time. At the door, a single QR scan admits the guest, and re-entry after stepping out is automatic. When the event ends, an attendance list distinguishing registrants, no-shows and actual attendees is delivered to the organizer's phone as a spreadsheet.

Because each pass is bound to a verified identity, a screenshot of someone else's QR code does not work, and uninvited guests cannot slip in. The company expects this to matter most for invitation-only events. After the event, the pass expires and is deleted, consistent with CHON's "Nothing to Steal" principle that personal data with no remaining purpose is kept nowhere. With the attendee's consent, however, organizer and guest can form a lasting connection, so a one-time pass for an annual reunion or club meeting can become a permanent membership.

CHON's Investor Day on September 16 will be the first live use of MOIM PASS. Invitees receive their passes when they RSVP and enter the venue with a single QR scan, with nothing about them retained on CHON's servers.
Relationships as the user's own asset

CHON frames both services around one principle: the customers of a shop belong to the shop owner, and the members of a group belong to the group, not to whichever platform happens to hold their list. The company describes this as the practical meaning of Web3, a structure in which people own their own data and relationships, and it chose to begin with a neighborhood restaurant and its regulars rather than with a white paper.

"Every membership card and every event pass is also a verified relationship," said Keun-young Shin, Chairman of the Board of CHON Inc. "As those connections accumulate, they become the trust network that everything else on CHON runs on."

About CHON
CHON Inc. is a South Korean technology company developing relationship-based digital identity and decentralized trust infrastructure. Under the principle "Beyond Identity. Verify Relationships.", CHON provides digital membership, event pass and album services for small businesses, organizations, schools and communities, all built on mutual authentication and the company's "Nothing to Steal" architecture, which keeps personal data on users' own devices rather than on company servers. More information is available at chon.ai.
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CHON Inc.
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