Ground X, the blockchain subsidiary of South Korean’s Internet firm Kakao, has announced the launch of the testnet version of Klaytn[1], a platform that intends to “improve the inconvenient UX of existing blockchain platforms by allowing end-users to experience blockchain technology in the most seamless way.”
Ground X said on Monday that the Klaytn testnet was currently open to approximately ten partners consisting of firms from various industries including entertainment, gaming, social media, video streaming, and finance. The company plans to extend the Klaytn testnet operation exclusively to partners and selected providers at the time. It will share its source code to the public at a later date, and the Klaytn mainnet will launch in Q1 of 2019.
“The popularization of blockchain means that it’s imperative to provide a practical blockchain service for mass adoption that validates the value and utility of blockchain technology,” said Jason Han, CEO of Ground X. “In order to achieve this, Ground X has designed Klaytn so that it can provide an easy and friendly ecosystem for users, service providers, and developers all at the same time.”
Aimed at supporting large scale decentralized applications (dApps), Klaytn promises higher performance, solid reliability, stability, low costs, and a security model similar in complexity to that of private blockchains, according to its position paper released[2] on Monday.
The testnet block interval has been shortened to less than one second with up to 1,500 transactions per second. The same interval that would take an hour for Bitcoin and several minutes for Ethereum.
Klaytn separates “consensus nodes” and “ranger nodes” to divide roles so that consensus and block replication are performed efficiently. Consensus nodes, which are comprised of services providers, are accountable for works requiring high responsibility and consensus, while
