Kakao, South Korea's dominant internet company, entered the blockchain sector this week. The firm behind KakaoTalk, the country's most popular messaging platform, launched a major blockchain initiativ
Kakao, South Korea's dominant internet company, entered the blockchain sector this week. The firm behind KakaoTalk, the country's most popular messaging platform, launched a major blockchain initiative through Ground X, its dedicated subsidiary. Ground X unveiled Klaytn, a new blockchain platform the subsidiary spent months designing and preparing for launch.
The testnet for Klaytn became available this week to about ten partners representing entertainment, gaming, social media, video streaming, and finance sectors. Each partner brings different use cases and perspectives to testing the network. The testnet remains limited to these initial partners and selected providers at this stage. Ground X plans to share the source code with the public at a later date, while the full platform launches next year in the first quarter of 2019.
Ground X designed Klaytn to address what the company views as the core barrier to mainstream blockchain adoption. According to CEO Jason Han, "The popularization of blockchain means that it's imperative to provide a practical blockchain service for mass adoption that validates the value and utility of blockchain technology. In order to achieve this, Ground X has designed Klaytn so that it can provide an easy and friendly ecosystem for users, service providers, and developers all at the same time."
The platform's architecture differs from other blockchains. Consensus nodes operated by service providers validate transactions and write blocks, while ranger nodes download and store completed blocks without handling validation work. This separation of responsibilities allows the network to process transactions in under one second, with the system targeting 1,500 transactions per second. Bitcoin requires about an hour for the same operation, while Ethereum takes several minutes.
Ground X developed a suite of tools to strip away the technical barriers that block blockchain mainstream adoption. Klaytn Wallet provides secure token storage and transfer for users storing assets on the platform. KlaytnScope functions as a block explorer, showing network participants all activity including block creation and transaction details. BLASQ operates as a decentralized question-and-answer community where participants earn tokens for sharing blockchain knowledge and answering other users' questions.
Kakao's blockchain ambitions extend beyond Ground X. The company holds an ownership stake in Dunamu, which operates Upbit, one of South Korea's major crypto exchanges. Ground X itself launched in Tokyo in March 2018, representing an earlier move into crypto by the parent company.
