Han Jae-Sun, president of Kakao’s Blockchain technology subsidiary Ground X, said that Klay is a “utility token”, not an “investment asset”.

Han said so in a telephone interview on June 9, held at the first webinar hosted by Coindesk Korea, a cryptocurrency media. Coindesk Korea selected Klaytn cryptocurrency wallet’Klip’, which was released on the 3rd, as a webinar theme, and interviewed Han after receiving pre-questions from audience.

◆ “Klay’s domestic listing and public blockchain technology development are separate issues”

Ground X has officially listed Klay on overseas exchanges such as Upbit Singapore∙Indonesia, Liquid Global and Gate.io. Although it was a token of a domestic company, there was no official listing on Korean won market.

Recently, a rush of Klay’s domestic listing began. This rush began as GDAC listed Klay in the won market without consulting Ground X. Starting with GDAC, Daybit of Chain Partners and Coin One listed Klay one after another.

Ground X ended its partnership with GDAC, which was an ecosystem partner, and CoinOne, saying the listing went without consultation. In response, Ground X was criticized for intervening in the listing of the exchange, despite advocating’public blockchain’.

CEO Han responded to this by saying “Growing technology with public blockchains and listing them on exchanges are separate issues.”. He added, “If possible, we would like to discuss the listing with exchanges, so that we can follow steps.”

◆ Klay, ‘Utility Token’, not an investment

CEO Han Jae-Sun explained that Klay is not an investment means such as Bitcoin, but a utility token such as Stable Coin (a cryptocurrency created and managed by a smart contract on a specific Blockchain platform). A plan to utilize the utility token Klay at Kakao Group level is also being discussed. Han said, “We are thinking about how to apply Klip to the services of Kakao Group affiliates from a Blockchain perspective. As part of this, Klip does not support the trading of other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum”.

He explained to his brunch the concept of ‘Klay=Utility Token’. Klay is a platform token of Klaytn, a public blockchain platform (coin used in a specific platform blockchain). “The value of the platform token (in short) will ultimately result in how much business value is created on the platform,” he said. “The focus of Ground X is to make successful businesses appear on Klaytn.”

“Cryptocurrency is still a difficult concept for customers,” he said. “Klip will provide an opportunity to expand the scope of cryptocurrency application” He also said, “Considering how to recognize digital assets to our customers, we will create a framework that will allow the general public to move more and more into the realm of digital assets”

He also came up with a position on the Klay deal. He said, “The most vigilant thing in planning Klip was that Klay was more emphasized than Klip service due to the token market margin.” “We will focus on creating the value of the platform in the long term, not at odds with the price of Klay at the exchange,” he said.

◆ What is Klip’s next step?

The average usage time of Klip is 2 minutes and 18 seconds. Since there is nothing that can be done other than token transfer to the wallet, the usage time is short. Han said, “There is nothing to do with Klip yet, so the usage time is short. The next step in Klip service will be to acquire, hold, or transfer NFT tokens (non-replaceable tokens)” Issues related to NFT tokens will be collaborated with external partners.

Meanwhile, he posted on his Brunch a summary of the results of a week after the release of Klip. Klip exceeded 100,000 subscribers in one day at the time of launch and secured more than 150,000 customers on the 12th. 17% of Klip subscribers showed that they sent Klay to KakaoTalk friends at least once. The majority of users (75%) who received Klay as a sign-up event (payment of 100,000 on a first-come, first-served basis) kept their Klay.

Of the total subscribers, the percentage of those under the age of 35 accounted for 52.2%, which means that this rush was led by the younger generation to join. “Klip’s main target, MZ generation (assuming under 35), accounted for more than half of the total subscribers” he said.

번역: 김동우 기자