The global Web3 community has gathered in Seoul for the Korea Blockchain Week (KBW), happening from 7-14 August 2022. The event, which has been fully sold out, brought together top players in the Web3 community to discuss the current and future trends and technologies in blockchain. Dr Sangmin Seo, Director at Klaytn Foundation, is one of the speakers featured at KBW. Speaking on the mainstage on 8 August, Dr Sangmin Seo touched on the topic of “The Technology Layer for Tomorrow’s Metaverse”. Through his presentation, Dr Seo shared insights on the challenges in building the technology layer, and how Klaytn is working towards the metaverse blockchain for all.

So what exactly is the metaverse? From augmentation to simulation, from external (environment) to intimate (personal), metaverses can involve an individual’s virtual identity, digital realities, interwoven with the real world. Some imagine the metaverse to be an aggregation of our digital lives, while others see it as diverse worlds serving different purposes.

Where metaverse intersects with blockchain technology, it will allow individuals to own assets in the metaverse, including their own data and digital identity. Blockchain will enable a robust virtual economy and act as the trust layer to facilitate exchanges and connect different worlds.

This is where Klaytn, a public blockchain focused on the metaverse, gamefi, and the creator economy, comes in. The dominant blockchain platform in South Korea supported by internet giant, Kakao Corp, Klaytn is undergoing global expansion led by Klaytn Foundation, a non-profit organization established to accelerate global adoption and ecosystem maturity on Klaytn.

In order for blockchain to support mass adoption in metaverse use cases, it needs to optimize transactions, build necessary infrastructures, and make the technology more accessible to all. With those goals in mind, Klaytn Foundation had announced the Klaytn 2.0 roadmap at the beginning of 2022, to turn metaverse blockchain into reality.

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During the presentation, Dr Seo introduced key requirements for metaverse blockchain, progress of Klaytn 2.0 and the blockchain’s future roadmap.

1. Low transaction fee, high-performance and stable blockchain

“Klaytn will throw out the perception that blockchain is slow. We will positively impact the user experience on blockchain-based metaverse and games.” – Dr Sangmin Seo, Director at Klaytn Foundation.

One of the key challenges facing blockchain technology is the speed and cost of processing transactions, as each transaction is required to be validated across a large number of nodes to be secure. Greater adoption and complex processes, which are likely to be commonplace in a thriving metaverse ecosystem, will create a heavy load jamming up the traffic and driving up gas fees.

With a low latency, high throughput (TPS) and 1-second deterministic finality, Klaytn stands above other layer 1 blockchains in terms of speed and agility, to bring immutability and instant finality to transactions. Beyond speed, Klaytn is also able to keep gas fees low, to a fraction of Ethereum gas fees.

2. Supporting builders to create their own blockchain-based platform

Klaytn has turned much of its attention to the developers, to make it easy for them to develop on the Klaytn chain. Ethereum-equivalence has allowed tools developed on the Ethereum chain to be able to be used on Klaytn, and vice versa. Working with technology providers such as Tatum, which provides a unified framework to build fast on Klaytn, support developers by streamlining the entire web3 development process.

Other than developer tools, Klaytn is also working on building interoperability and accessibility to support ecosystem growth. During his presentation, Dr Seo revealed that Klaytn will soon be integrated on the Wormhole Network, which will allow cross-chain connectivity with other high-value chains integrated with Wormhole, as well as the 1inch Network, a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Decentralized Exchange (DEX) aggregator that allows users to optimize trades across hundreds of DEXes on multiple blockchains.

To make the metaverse more accessible to all, the Foundation is working towards a Metaverse-as-a-Service model which will allow anyone who wishes to participate in the metaverse to easily plug-in without a steep learning curve. Hence, they are also onboarding solution providers such as Matrixport, one of the world’s largest digital assets financial services ecosystem, to bring onboard Cactus Custody^TM, first institutional-grade custodian to provide custody and escrow services through Warm & Cold Non-Fungible Token (NFT) storage solutions for Klaytn-based NFTs.

To solidify Klaytn’s position as the metaverse blockchain, Dr Seo revealed that Klaytn Foundation will look further into improving usability and technology, such as launching the Metaverse Open-Source Package, applying a new governance and reward system, and achieving 10,000 TPS by the end of this year.

3. Gaming as a strategic focus into the metaverse

Gaming industry has often been one of the early adopters and forerunners in new technologies, and blockchain is no different. Play-to-Earn games had earned an early dominance and drew large crowds into the blockchain industry. When talking about the metaverse, one inevitably thinks about gaming.

Hence, Klaytn aims to be the platform to facilitate the flow of assets between games, and bridge them to the public world, by supporting development of the gaming ecosystem on Klaytn.

Dr Seo said, “As Klaytn already has a technological edge for popularizing blockchain, we will try to solidify our position as a global Layer-1 platform based on high performance. We are currently focusing on blockchain games to build an environment that can incorporate blockchain into the metaverse.”

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