South Korea: Messaging Giant Kakao, Stablecoin Terra Partner for Blockchain Payment System

Kakao Corp, a major Internet conglomerate and service provider for popular South Korean messaging app KakaoTalk, and a new stablecoin project, dubbed Terra, have signed a partnership agreement to develop the latter's blockchain-based payment system, English-language news outlet The Korea Times reported Nov. 14.

The new partnership agreement will apply the former's blockchain platform technology Klaytn, the brainchild of Kakao subsidiary Ground X, to a blockchain-based payment system.

Through the two firms’ cooperation, the article notes plans “to enhance core requirements for payment services, such as speed, stability and reliability,” adding:

“The [...] partnership agreement is expected to contribute to promptly creating a blockchain ecosystem suitable for services offered to a large group of people.”

Back in the spring, Kakao Corp announced plans to establish a blockchain subsidiary tentatively named “Kakao Blockchain,” as well as to launch an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), Cointelegraph reported Mar. 5. Later, the company introduced a new business plan, Kakao 3.0, that included opening a blockchain platform aimed at the wider Asian markets.

The testnet version of Kakao’s new blockchain platform had been launched earlier this fall, ahead of a formal schedule to launch in Q1 2019, Cointelegraph wrote Oct. 8.

Terra, a stablecoin project co-founded by Daniel Shin — the creator of South Korean e-commerce marketplace Ticket Monster (TMON) —revealed this fall the close of a $32 million funding round led by a string of major crypto exchanges, Cointelegraph reported Aug. 29.