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logoKlaytn (KLAY)

An Open-Source Blockchain Built by Kakao for Performance and Scalability.

  • Klaytn is a public blockchain developed by Ground X, the blockchain arm of Korea’s internet giant Kakao with 50 million users worldwide. Kakao built a proprietary blockchain platform to avoid any bottlenecks that the online and mobile-first services could face due to performance limitations of existing blockchain technology.

  • The Klaytn protocol is governed by the Governance Council, which consists of ecosystem builders and service providers that will contribute towards the long-term development of the protocol. The governance council is one of the largest blockchain consortia consisting of global enterprises such as Kakao, Binance, MakerDao, Hashkey, Worldpay, LG Electronics, among others.

  • Klaytn aims to be the de-facto platform of NFTs, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and beyond in Asia. Klaytn is also working with global leading institutions to develop a base software platform for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

  • KLAY is the native utility token of the Klaytn Network, and has the following use cases:

    • Network utilization: Users will require KLAY tokens for transactions on the Klaytn Network, similar to ETH.
    • Yield Farming: Users can provide liquidity on various DeFi protocols (KLAYswap, KLAYstation) to farm tokens of other projects, or stake KLAY tokens to earn KLAY staking rewards. The staked KLAY tokens (sKLAY) may also be used for liquidity mining.
    • Minting NFTs: Users may mint NFTs on the Klaytn Network, which has a partnership with OpenSea to list NFTs minted via the Klaytn Network.

  • Klaytn Mainnet Cypress can provide a high throughput of up to 4,000 transactions per second with one-second block generation interval and immediate transaction finality. Klaytn uses an optimized version of Istanbul BFT, which implements PBFT with modifications to deal with blockchain network's characteristics.

  • At the time of mainnet launch, 9.6 KLAY will be minted per block. This implies a 3% annual inflation (approximately 300 million KLAY) against the 10 billion KLAY issued at genesis (the annual inflation rate is subject to change through the Klaytn Governance Process).

  • As at 24th June 2021, the total supply of KLAY is 10,602,731,555 (10bn KLAY at Genesis+ inflation) and the current circulating supply is 2,476,554,233 KLAY (~23.36% of the total token supply).

Key metrics (as of June 24th 2021)

TickerKLAY
Total Token Supply10,602,731,555 KLAY
Initial Circ. Supply When Listed on Binance2,476,554,233 KLAY (~23.36% of total token supply)
Binance Launchpool Allocation1,327,433 KLAY
Binance Launchpool Start DateJune 25th 2021

1. What is Klaytn?

The Klaytn Platform

Klaytn was built with the aim of offering enterprise-grade scalability and performance with EVM and solidity compatibility. By utilizing a hybrid governance structure and an optimized PBFT consensus mechanism, the Klaytn network supports up to 4,000 transactions per second (TPS) in conjunction with 1 second block generation times and immediate finality.

Klaytn Overview

Klaytn Overview

Source: Klaytn

The Klaytn Governance Council

The network is secured by a group of trusted entities - The Klaytn Governance Council, comprising of 32 global conglomerates encompassing key industries such as consumer products (LG Electronics, Amore Pacific), finance (Worldpay, Shinhan Bank), media (Korean Economic Daily) and blockchain (Binance, Hashed).

Klaytn's vision for global expansion

Klaytn’s ecosystem is actively developing with over 70 third-party services on the platform and an estimated combined user base of 11 million. Moving forward, the Klaytn and Ground X teams aim to expand to global markets beyond Korea. The project aims to secure partnerships across the blockchain stack, ranging from custody and liquidity infrastructure providers to retail-facing DeFi and NFT services.

DeFi + NFT

KLAYswap is the largest DeFi protocol on Klaytn, which exceeded 2 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) on 30th April 2021 with ~100 million USD in average daily trading volume. Klaytn also has partnerships with global DeFi protocols (Injective, Definix and more) to expand their footprint. Klaytn’s proprietary digital assets platform Klip has more than 1,000,000 active users and is integrated with KakaoTalk.

Beginning with the OpenSea partnership, Klaytn aims to develop a stronger presence in the NFT market, by integrating with existing marketplaces, and working with content creators and asset providers to produce NFTs that reflect consumers’ real-world needs; from digital collectibles to asset-backed tokens. In May 2021, Klaytn announced the official launch of Klaytn NFT Marketplace on OpenSea. The integration with OpenSea will allow Klaytn-powered NFTs, ranging from game items and characters to digital arts to be supported with peer-to-peer trading to take place. Users can also sync their OpenSea accounts with Kaikas wallet, the web browser extension wallet that connects to the Klaytn network, and trade Klaytn-based NFTs.

Klaytn also announced the launch of KrafterSpace in May 2021. KrafterSpace allows users to easily create and manage their digital items with minimum effort. Users can instantly mint an NFT on Klaytn by uploading an image or a video file, without incurring any gas fees. Users may choose to display their NFTs on KrafterSpace.

2. Recent news

3. Token economics and supply

3.1 Token allocation (at token generation event)

Token NameKLAY
Private Sale18.00% of the total token supply
Protocol Reserves53.00% of the total token supply
Business Development16.00% of the total token supply
R&D and Technology8.00% of the total token supply
Team5.00% of the total token supply

3.2 KLAY token allocation (at token generation event)

3.3 KLAY token release schedule*

*Note that the chart above does not include the estimated 3% annual inflation of KLAY tokens.

  • Klaytn’s funding structure runs continuously with Klaytn network’s block generation. With every new block, newly issued KLAY and the sum of transaction fees used in the block (collectively called “block rewards”) are aggregated and distributed to the following three destination accounts in accordance with the following predetermined ratio:
    • Klaytn Governance Council Reward: 34%
    • Proof of Contribution (PoC): 54%
    • Klaytn Improvement Reserve (KIR): 12%
  • Since the mainnet launch, 9.6 KLAY will be minted per block. This implies a 3% annual inflation (approximately 300 million KLAY) against the 10 billion KLAY issued at genesis (the annual inflation rate is subject to change through the Klaytn Governance Process).

4. Technical infrastructure

Klaytn's Newwork Topology

Klaytn's Network Topology

Source: Klaytn

Klaytn aims to be an enterprise-ready and service-centric platform. Klaytn uses an optimized version of Istanbul BFT, which implements PBFT with modifications to deal with the blockchain network's characteristics. The aim is to allow many nodes to participate in the network. Klaytn Mainnet Cypress can provide a throughput of up to 4,000 transactions per second (TPS) with one-second block generation interval. More than 50 consensus nodes can participate in the Consensus Node Network (CNN) at the moment and the number will continuously increase as Klaytn continues to optimize the algorithm.

There are three types of nodes on Klaytn:

  • The Consensus Nodes (CN) and Proxy Nodes (PN) work together to form a Core Cell (CC). Consensus Nodes participate in the block generation process, while Proxy Nodes provide the interface to the network. PNs transmit the transaction requests to the Consensus Nodes, and propagate the blocks down to the Endpoint Nodes.
  • Endpoint Nodes (EN) serve as endpoints for handling Klaytn network's RPC API requests and processing data sent between service chains.

Learn more about Klaytn's consensus mechanism here.

5. Community overview

As an open-source blockchain, the growth of the developer and retail investor communities are of utmost importance. The Klaytn team will continue to expand its global footprint by leveraging the wider crypto ecosystem, while fostering and building Klaytn communities. With an established user base of 11 million, Klaytn will utilize a phased cascading strategy to grow the current user base further to motivate creators, builders and investors alike.

Community Growth Strategy Phase 1 - Establishing Official Global Communication Channels

  • Up until now, the Klaytn community had consisted largely of unofficial, user driven communities across all major social media platforms; from KakaoTalk, Telegram to YouTube. In order to foster the community and build engagement, Klaytn will be investing resources into establishing and operating official communication channels.
  • Klaytn has secured a team of multilingual (English, Chinese, Korean) community managers that will be working with the core Klaytn team to establish and operate official channels. As of today, Klaytn has established 7 official communication channels across major global social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube). These channels will be used to communicate the latest developments, news and projects directly to the community via relevant and engaging content.
  • Klaytn has been able to secure a global PR network of both traditional and crypto specific media outlets, providing the team with instant access to an audience of hundreds of millions to further drive awareness.
  • A major part of Klaytn’s ecosystem partnerships is mutual community growth - for the Klaytn team to collaborate in a technical capacity, and also to collaborate in co-marketing programs to bring together various communities.

Community Growth Strategy Phase 2 - Facilitating Community Engagement Globally

  • The second phase of Klaytn’s community growth strategy will focus on facilitating dialogue and engagement between the Klaytn team and the community, and also within the community itself.
  • To establish an initial baseline, Klaytn launched its first official Telegram (EN) group, which the team has been able to grow organically to 1,400 members within a span of a month. To further induce growth, Klaytn will be looking to hold official marketing events such as AMAs and airdrops.
  • Klaytn will establish a community engagement hub on Discord, where both the developer and retail investor communities will be able to interact. The Discord platform will operate in multiple languages and will eventually become the center of all official community engagement.
  • Klaytn is also in the process of streamlining access to core Klaytn development documentation and resources, aiming to organically integrate key aspects of building with the greater organic community.
  • Klaytn has also established a separate grant to fund marketing initiatives aimed at creating awareness around Klaytn. This fund could be used to establish regional, satellite communities, ambassadors and regular marketing activations.

6. Community and social channels (as of June 24th 2021)

Development activity