Shauli Zacks
Published on: May 9, 2024
In a recent interview with SafetyDetectives, Dr. Sam Seo, the Representative Director of Klaytn Foundation, dives deep into the innovative strides and strategic visions propelling Klaytn, a standout player in the blockchain arena. With a rich background that spans roles like Chief Klaytn Officer at Krust Universe and CTO at GroundX, Dr. Seo offers invaluable insights into the evolution and future trajectory of Klaytn. As the blockchain prepares for a monumental merge with Finschia to become kaia, Dr. Seo discusses how this transformative step will merge technological prowess with user accessibility, creating a seamless bridge between Web2 and Web3 experiences. Stay tuned as we explore the layers of this burgeoning blockchain platform through Dr. Seo’s expert lens.
Could you introduce yourself and your role at Klaytn?
I am Dr. Sam Seo, the Representative Director of Klaytn Foundation, a non-profit organization that was established to accelerate global adoption and ecosystem maturity of the Klaytn blockchain. Prior to this, I was Chief Klaytn Officer (CKO) at Krust Universe where I led the development and operation of the Klaytn blockchain. I also worked as CTO at GroundX, a blockchain subsidiary of the leading South Korean mobile platform, Kakao, and as an assistant computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory.
What are the flagship services of Klaytn?
The primary service that we facilitate is the Klaytn blockchain, which is an open source Ethereum-equivalent Layer 1 (L1) public blockchain.
Unlike many other L1s that are designed around one specific strength, such as TPS, decentralization, privacy, and so on, Klaytn was designed around practical usability as a tech platform. That means not being a one-trick pony, but an all-rounder that is attractive to both builders and users, because at the end of the day adoption is the ultimate measure of long-term success for a blockchain.
This is the reason behind many of our design decisions – Klaytn’s 1-second block time and immediate finality, along with account abstraction and fee delegation, provides an unparalleled Web3 user experience that feels as speedy and seamless as Web2; we maintain Ethereum equivalence to simplify DApp development; low gas fees provide accessibility to more around the world; and our tokenomics is designed to encourage stable and sustainable growth. Beyond tech and tokenomics, we also provide extensive support that goes beyond financial grants to help ensure that projects launching on Klaytn can reach their full potential.
That said, Klaytn is in the midst of a chain merge with Finschia – a Layer 1 blockchain initiated by LINE NEXT. By the middle of 2024 we will relaunch as kaia, a whole new blockchain that brings together the best of both the Klaytn and Finschia blockchains. kaia will retain all of the characteristics mentioned above, with additional upgrades from the integration of Finschia’s tech.
What are some significant trends in the blockchain industry, and how is Klaytn positioned to capitalize on these trends?
At the present, there is a lot of buzz around the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), blockchain gaming, AI protocols, and decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN).
At Klaytn Foundation, we have been focusing on onboarding RWA and gaming projects. On the RWA front, we have already seen the launch of many successful projects including tokenized gold, gold mining bonds, e-commerce accounts receivables, US treasury bonds, with more in the pipeline. Gaming wise, we count large established Web2 gaming partners in our ecosystem, and will be working with more IP and partners such as LINE Friends and SEGA to launch more on-chain games.
As a fast, interoperable and scalable L1, Klaytn is well-positioned to serve as the blockchain infrastructure for any use case, so it doesn’t really matter what the trends are or will be – services will always benefit from high performance, users will always desire instant transaction confirmations, and developers will always appreciate faster time-to-market.
How does Klaytn approach interoperability with other blockchain networks and legacy systems, and what benefits does this provide for developers and businesses?
Klaytn supports Ethereum equivalence, which maximizes compatibility as the EVM is the most broadly adopted standard in the blockchain industry. We are also integrated with various leading cross-chain bridging solutions such as Wormhole, and Stargate which enables secure cross-chain native asset transfers. These will ensure that developers and businesses will have minimal friction integrating with external partners regardless of which blockchain network the partner is on.
For legacy systems, we have the Klaytn API service, which is a Blockchain-as-a-Service for enterprises to easily integrate Klaytn with their existing tech infrastructure.
Can you explain Klaytn’s approach to security and privacy, particularly for enterprise applications, and how it instills trust in users and businesses?
Firstly, Klaytn’s unique account structure decouples key pairs from addresses. This makes it easy for enterprises and businesses to implement multisig, whereby you create multiple private keys for a single account, with each key having different weights. Each key can be assigned with different roles as well. Additionally, the decoupling allows account owners to change their keys in the event of a security compromise.
Secondly, while blockchains are most well-known for immutability, the reality is that many blockchains, including Ethereum itself, utilize consensus mechanisms that can only provide probabilistic finality. That means there will always be a miniscule, but non-zero possibility that a confirmed transaction will get reversed – and this has already happened a couple of times on Ethereum. For enterprises that need to process millions of transactions, this miniscule probability will add up, creating a risk that they simply cannot afford to take. Klaytn’s consensus mechanism – an optimized version of Byzantine Fault Tolerance – provides absolute finality, with zero chance of reversal. This data guarantee is what makes Klaytn well-suited for enterprise-grade applications.
On the privacy side, Klaytn is a public blockchain, and as such transparency is prioritized over privacy. However, being an open and public chain also means anyone can deploy a privacy-focused Layer 2 on Klaytn should they have a use case where privacy is a requirement.
What are Klaytn’s strategic priorities for the future, and how do you anticipate the platform evolving to meet the needs of users, developers, and enterprises?
As I briefly mentioned above, Klaytn will be merging with Finschia to form kaia. This merge will bring together two blockchains initiated by the enterprises behind two of Asia’s most popular messaging apps – Kakaotalk and LINE messenger – bringing Web3 access straight to over 250 million users across Asia through their favorite messaging apps. Additionally, kaia will inherit the technological strengths of both Klaytn and Finschia, to create a cutting-edge blockchain platform that is simple to develop on yet high performance, feature-rich, and with enterprise-grade reliability.
