We had the pleasure of hosting EZ Yi, our Head of Strategy, for an informative AMA session where we answered the community’s questions about the recently-released Klaytn 2.0 Lightpaper and what it means for the Klaytn ecosystem. Listen to the AMA session below or read on for our recap!
Note: Some of the text have been edited for grammar and clarity.
Date & Time: Feb 11th at 1pm SGT / 2pm KST
Platform: Twitter Spaces
Speaker: EZ Yi, Head of Strategy at Klaytn Foundation
Host: Sofy, Community Manager at Klaytn Foundation
Introduction
Sofy: A very good afternoon to everyone, and happy TGIF! Welcome once again to another AMA session with us. I am Sofy, Community Manager for Klaytn and I will be the host for today’s session. Thank you for taking time to be here and I am sure that most of you are looking forward to today’s session as our amazing guest speaker, EZ, will be sharing more details about Klaytn’s lightpaper. Unfortunately, Stefan, Klaytn’s Blockchain Gaming Lead is unable to join us today as he is not feeling too well. Get well soon, Stefan!
Today’s session will be divided into two parts. We will begin with an introduction from EZ, followed by questions from the community that we have compiled.
Without further ado, let’s welcome EZ!
EZ: Good afternoon everyone! I am EZ, and I’m in charge of strategy at Klaytn Foundation. Prior to joining the team, I founded an art business startup, and then I spent many years in the strategy consulting industry where I served various financial and technology clients globally.
As the Head of Strategy at Klaytn Foundation, my objective is to help Klaytn move to the next level, namely Klaytn 2.0, as well as identify market opportunities and innovate crypto economics so that Klaytn can be one of the top chains in the world. As one of the core members involved with the production of our recent Klaytn 2.0 lightpaper, I am greatly honored to have a chance to share with our community our amazing blueprint, which is a chain-rebuilding endeavor encompassing technology, governance, treasury, and so on.
Sofy:Thank you EZ! Wow, I learn something new about my colleagues everyday. Interesting to know that you have an entrepreneur streak in you, EZ. And we are honoured to have you working in the Klaytn team with us.
So, are you ready for some community questions, EZ? The community is super excited to sit in for today’s session!
Questions
Q1
Sofy: What was the inspiration to build Klaytn? What are some of the real-world issues/pain points that Klaytn seeks to address?
EZ: When Klaytn was launched around June 2019, I would call it the Klaytn 1.0 era, we aimed for mass adoption of blockchain, a goal that was naturally inherited from the DNA of Klaytn’s founder, Kakao, a successful Web2 giant backed by massive mass adoption of key services. Ever since, we’ve built a business-friendly development platform to help entrepreneurs and enterprises in various sectors build highly usable blockchain applications for a wide range of end-users regardless of their level of crypto-literacy.
Today, with Klaytn 2.0, we are embarking on a chain-rebuilding initiative with the aim of becoming the metaverse blockchain for all—as in the title of our lightpaper. We believe that the metaverse should be based on a scalable and interoperable public blockchain platform, that is governed by platform participants who are the creators and builders. As an EVM-equivalent layer 1 blockchain, Klaytn wants to be the trust layer of the metaverse that respects the participation and contributions of all communities, bringing them together in the new world and empowering them.
Q2
Sofy: Deflation will be much more helpful for ecosystem growth at this point. What are your thoughts on this?
EZ: Great question. From our perspective, KLAY’s main purpose is to be used in the right place and at the right time to make our ecosystem thrive. In terms of the right place, the Klaytn ecosystem has many areas that require cooperative development with partners and builders around the world. We have been identifying and funding such opportunities, and many exciting projects are on their way. In terms of the right time, as we gear up to implement our Klaytn 2.0 plan, the timing couldn’t be more perfect to invest in our ecosystem.
However, make no mistake that we are also very serious about enhancing KLAY value for our KLAY holders and ecosystem participants. We have been closely watching the circulation of KLAY so we can understand what measures would be effective for our community. Please be a bit more patient with us!
Q3
Sofy: Do you have any plans to stop inflation and apply deflation?
EZ: We are well aware of our community’s voices over the proper token economy plan. We have been working on every aspect of token economy, from a KLAY burning mechanism, adjustment of the minting plan, listing in more global exchanges, and so on. Once we have come up with the right plan, we will share it with the community.
Q4
Sofy: What is the most significant competitive advantage that you believe will propel Klaytn to the top of the market?
EZ: The next meta in the blockchain industry is, withouta doubt, the metaverse. Our goal is to become the metaverse blockchain of choice for builders, and our value proposition for metaverse builders gives us a very strong position in the race to become the top of the market.
Our value proposition is materialized in our one-stop offering, which includes an open source developer infrastructure package, our high performing mainnet, community co-building programs, and management and financial support, all of which address the needs of metaverse builders around the world.
Q5
Sofy: What makes Klaytn unique enough to be the go-to blockchain for metaverse building?
EZ: Firstly, the 1-second finality and fee delegation function make Klaytn unique and attractive for metaverse and gaming projects. Gaming projects need a platform where massive transactions can be processed quickly, and Klaytn delivers on this with our immediate and irreversible transaction finality. Gaming projects also need a continuous stream of new users onboarding their platform, which the fee delegation function will help greatly. New users who want to participate in gaming events do not have to go through the hassle obtaining tokens because the gaming project builder can pay on behalf of the users, which is a great advantage in providing a positive gaming user experience.
Secondly, we already have a set of good use cases. MIR4 is one of the major P2E games internationally, with over 1.3 million concurrent players in less than three months since its official release in 170 countries. Not to mention other cases such as Pocketful of Quarters, and so on.
Thirdly, many global gaming and entertainment companies and projects are already in talks with us for onboarding or integration with Klaytn. What this means is that Klaytn will soon have the most vibrant metaverse ecosystem. In addition to that, our one-stop offering for metaverse builders will get much more attractive as we continually calibrate it through real cases with our various partners.
Q6
Sofy: The Klaytn 2.0 light paper mentions Ethereum equivalence. What’s the implication of it?
EZ: From a practical viewpoint, it means that EVM-based DApps can be onboarded onto Klaytn without any modifications. There are currently more than 4,000 open-source developers working on Ethereum every month, out of a total number of 18,400 developers across all chains. Not many L1 chains, however, are compatible with Ethereum like Klaytn is.
This is an important competitive edge for Klaytn because Klaytn can leverage the vast pool of Ethereum developers for its ecosystem growth, by providing the right incentive for them such as our metaverse package, our massive $1 billion eco fund, and the like.
Then you may ask what the difference is between compatibility and equivalence. Simply put, equivalence is the highest degree of compatibility. From the Ethereum developers’ viewpoint, equivalence means you need minimal effort to onboard Klaytn with your DApp, whereas you may have to amend many lines of code to onboard other compatible chains.
Q7
Sofy: I can’t find Klaymore Stakehouse in the Klaytn 2.0 Litepaper. Is there any particular reason it’s missing?
EZ: Due to space limitations in the lightpaper, it was impossible for us to include every ecosystem participant. However, we are already preparing an update of the lightpaper with some minor adjustments, and we will also be building an interactive ecosystem list on our new Klaytn Foundation website that will showcase many more ecosystem participants.
Q8
Sofy: Solana and LINE are advancing to the retail payment market through Solana Pay and LINE Link respectively. Are you aware of that?
EZ: Yes, we are aware. Increasing the utility of our tokens is also one of the most important items on our agenda. Making the Klaytn ecosystem vibrant is the key to achieving this goal, and we are actively co-working with many project teams and companies on various topics, including retail payment. Even at this moment, numerous new projects are taking off in the ecosystem and we will work hard to keep the momentum and help interesting projects grow further.
Q9
Sofy: Do you have any plans to list KLAY in the global major exchanges?
EZ: Due to the confidential nature of the listing process, we are unable to reveal our upcoming or planned listings. What I can say is that just like other chains, we are actively working on KLAY listings.
Q10
Sofy: How are you going to attract more users to the ecosystem, which is the key driver to have more developers at play?
EZ: We do understand that to attract more developers, we need to have strong user base in the ecosystem. One of the key initiatives to achieve this ambition is to integrate with major projects in the global crypto space. There are various projects which are taking a multi-chain approach, so why not Klaytn? Another potential initiative is to support new open source projects with attractive value propositions for users. Open source is very important to Klaytn, and is one of the prerequisites for expanding our user base globally.
Q11
How is Klaytn governed? Will there be any changes in Klaytn 2.0?
EZ: We will continue to have a stable governance structure, but with more inclination towards decentralization. Most of Klaytn’s Governance Council (GC) members are currently established enterprises, but as we progress towards a more metaverse-centric world, the influence of non-traditional entities such as DAOs will continue to grow and we will bring them into Klaytn’s Governance Council.
A stake-based governance model will be introduced to enable governance participants who can gather more support from Klaytn communities to shape Klaytn in line with their preferences. The Gini Coefficient will also be discontinued soon, so that successful decentralized metaverse entities will have more influence in the Klaytn GC.
We believe that DAOs and builders will lead the scene in the future. In the longer term, Klaytn governance will become fully decentralized with its community of DAOs and builders. Ultimately, Klaytn will evolve into a DAO of DAOs, and a platform for DAOs to communicate the voices of Klaytn communities through on-chain mechanisms.
Q12
Sofy: Can you tell us more about the eco fund?
EZ: Klaytn’s eco fund is differentiated in its size and content. At a combined total of $1 billion, it is one of the largest in the blockchain industry, which shows our determination to grow the ecosystem.
The fund consists of various programs ranging from grants to investments and rewards. Like the grant and investment programs common in the industry, we provide subsidies to promising projects and investing in early-stage projects that would have a positive impact on Klaytn. What’s different from before is that we lowered the bar for approval and streamlined the process for our builders. We have also recently launched a reward program for the builders of smart contracts that contribute to the growth of on-chain activities on Klaytn.
Q13
Who are Ground X, Klaytn Pte. Ltd., Klaytn Foundation and Krust, and how are they different?
EZ: This is one of the frequently asked questions. It can be a little confusing, so I will try to make it as brief as possible. Firstly, Krust’s former name is Klaytn Pte. Ltd., and Krust is the one who created the Klaytn platform by placing an order of development with Ground X. In other words, Ground X developed the Klaytn platform for Krust (formerly Klaytn Pte. Ltd.). Ground X was previously responsible for Klaytn’s operation as well, but is now a ‘service studio’ for Klip, a custodial wallet; Klip Drops, a digital art and collectibles gallery; and more.
Eventually, we saw the need for an independent organization to focus on Klaytn’s growth, so Krust established the Klaytn Foundation — a non-profit entity devoted to the Klaytn network and its ecosystem. Currently, Krust is an incubator of the Klaytn platform until it can be independently run by the foundation. Krust is also an investment company focusing on global blockchain services.
In a nutshell, Krust and Klaytn Foundation are sharing responsibility for operating the Klaytn platform and invigorating its ecosystem.
Q14
Sofy: Who are in the Klaytn team?
EZ: We are a strong team that consist of blockchain OGs and the brightest minds from top-notch global blockchain companies, technology companies, financial services companies, and so forth, with strong back-up from Kakao advisors. The team is also globally stationed with key offices in Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo. As we are growing our ecosystem further and realizing our Klaytn 2.0 ambition, we are hiring more talents all around the world. Do contact us if you are interested!
Q15
Sofy: If you were to summarize Klaytn 2.0 in one word, what would it be?
EZ: The Metaverse Blockchain for All.
Many thanks to EZ Yi, our Head of Strategy, for taking time out of his busy schedule for our AMA! To find out more about Klaytn and join our growing global community, please follow these links below:
