Klaytn is an open-source BFT-based public blockchain focused on the metaverse, gamefi, and the creator economy. Officially launched in June 2019, it is the dominant blockchain platform in South Korea and is now undergoing global business expansion from its international base in Singapore.
Kakao’s global public blockchain project Klaytn is an enterprise-grade, service-centric platform that brings a user-friendly blockchain experience to millions. It combines the best features of both public blockchains (decentralized data & control, distributed governance) and private blockchains (low latency, high scalability) via an efficient 'hybrid' design.
Klaytn is secured by participation from numerous highly-reputable brands around the globe, working together to create a reliable business platform atop a robust system of decentralized trust. Klaytn enables businesses and entrepreneurs today to capture value using blockchain technology.
KLAY is the main internal transferable cryptocurrency of Klaytn and is used to pay transaction fees when creating or executing smart contracts or when transferring KLAY. KLAY is a necessary element--a fuel--for operating the Klaytn distributed application platform. It is a form of payment made by the clients of the platform to the consensus nodes (CNs) executing the requested operations. To put it another way, KLAY is an incentive; it ensures that developers write high-quality applications (wasteful code costs more) and that the network remains healthy (CNs and RNs are compensated for the resources they contribute).
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’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).
