How to Buy Klaytn (KLAY)
Beginner’s Guide
What is Klaytn?
Klaytn is a blockchain platform designed for businesses and developers to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps). It was created by Ground X, a subsidiary of the South Korean technology company Kakao, and launched in June 2019.
Klaytn is based on a modified version of the Ethereum blockchain and uses a hybrid design that combines features of both public and private blockchains. This allows for higher transaction throughput and faster confirmation times, while maintaining the benefits of decentralization and security.
The Klaytn platform offers a range of tools and services for developers, including a smart contract language called Solidity, a development toolkit, and a variety of APIs and SDKs. It also features a unique governance model that enables decision-making by a network of nodes that represent stakeholders in the ecosystem.
Klaytn has gained significant adoption in South Korea, with partnerships with major companies such as Samsung, LG, and SK Telecom. The platform has also launched its own cryptocurrency, called KLAY, which is used for transactions and to pay for fees on the network.
How to Buy Klaytn Summary
- Get a Klaytn wallet (e.g. Ledger, Trezor , Exodus, Guarda, AtomicWallet)
- Find an exchange that sells Klaytn (e.g. , Binance ,OKX, Gate , Bitfinex , Kucoin)
- Deposit money and make the trade
- Withdraw the Klaytn to your wallet
Buying Klaytn in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 – Get a KLAY wallet
Klaytn Hardware Wallets
Klaytn is a blockchain platform that allows developers to build decentralized applications, and its native cryptocurrency is KLAY. If you’re an investor or a user of KLAY, you may be interested in storing your tokens securely in a hardware wallet. Here are some of the popular hardware wallets that support KLAY:
Ledger Nano S: The Ledger Nano S is a popular hardware wallet that supports KLAY. It features a secure chip and allows you to store your private keys offline, reducing the risk of hacking and theft.
Ledger Nano X: The Ledger Nano X is the newer version of the Nano S and supports KLAY. It has a larger screen, Bluetooth connectivity, and more storage space, making it a great option for those who want more advanced features.
Trezor Model T: The Trezor Model T is a hardware wallet that supports KLAY. It features a touch screen and allows you to store multiple cryptocurrencies, including KLAY, in one device.
KeepKey: KeepKey is a hardware wallet that supports KLAY. It has a large screen and allows you to store multiple cryptocurrencies, including KLAY, in one device.
When using a hardware wallet, make sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for setting up and using the device, and keep your recovery seed phrase in a safe place. Additionally, make sure to only purchase hardware wallets from reputable sources to avoid scams or counterfeits.
The best option for storing any cryptocurrency would be to use a hardware wallet. These are pieces of hardware that store the private key to your coins offline.
Today, there are two leading hardware manufacturers to choose from – Ledger and TREZOR. Both companies have different models of hardware wallets that will get the job done.
If you want deeper insights on specific models, you can read my Ledger Nano X review or my TREZOR Model T review.
Klaytn Software Wallets
If you’re a user or investor of Klaytn, you may be interested in storing your KLAY tokens in a software wallet. Here are some popular software wallets that support Klaytn:
MyKee: MyKee is a software wallet developed by Klaytn. It allows you to store, send, and receive KLAY tokens, as well as interact with decentralized applications built on the Klaytn platform.
Trust Wallet: Trust Wallet is a multi-cryptocurrency wallet that supports KLAY. It is available for both iOS and Android devices and allows you to store and manage your KLAY tokens.
Atomic Wallet: Atomic Wallet is a multi-cryptocurrency wallet that supports KLAY. It has a user-friendly interface and allows you to manage your KLAY tokens, as well as other cryptocurrencies, in one place.
Exodus: Exodus is a desktop and mobile wallet that supports KLAY. It has a simple interface and allows you to store and manage your KLAY tokens, as well as other cryptocurrencies.
Coinone Wallet: Coinone Wallet is a mobile wallet developed by Coinone, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. It supports KLAY and allows you to store, send, and receive KLAY tokens.
When using a software wallet, make sure to download it from a trusted source, such as the official website or app store, and keep your private keys and recovery seed phrase in a safe place. It’s also a good idea to enable two-factor authentication for added security.
Hardware wallets cost money, so if you’re not sure how serious you are about cryptocurrencies and just want to get a taste of what they feel like, perhaps you would be better off starting with a software wallet.
A software wallet is a free program that lets you store your coins on your computer or mobile phone.
The easiest Klaytn software wallets to get started with are undoubtedly Exodus, Atomic Wallet and Guarda . All wallets are very intuitive. Exodus, Atomic Wallet and Guarda is available on desktop for Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as on mobile for both iOS and Android. If you want more information you can read my Exodus, AtomicWallet and Guarda review.
Step 2 – Find an Klaytn (KLAY) Exchange
Buy Klaytn through Binance
- Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software.
Buy Klaytn through Okex
- OKX (Chinese: 欧易), formerly known as OKEx, is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives exchange. It was founded by Star Xu (徐明星) in 2017. OKX is owned by Ok Group, which also owns crypto exchange Okcoin. It is not available to US based investors. The company’s CEO is Jay Hao and CMO is Haider Rafique. Initially headquartered in Beijing, China, OKX is now under a blanket ban by Chinese regulators. On October 13, 2021, it issued a “Notice on Regulatory Policy in Mainland China”, announcing that it would continue its policy of “withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market” and would not establish an office or team in the region. However, according to Caixin, although the exchange officially announced that it would no longer set up an office in Mainland China, it still has a large number of R&D staff working in the region, including engineers, who continue to work for OKX in the form of third-party outsourcing companies.
Buy Klaytn through Gate.io
- Gate.io is a crypto exchange founded in the fall of 2017. The platform is a part of Gate Technology Inc corporation, and has a registration address in Virginia, USA. The platform does not have an official license. Its interface is available for working in three versions: English, Chinese and Japanese.
Buy Klaytn through Bitfinex
- Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange owned and operated by iFinex Inc registered in the British Virgin Islands.Their customers’ money has been stolen or lost in several incidents, and they have been unable to secure normal banking relationships.Bitfinex was founded in December 2012 as a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange, offering digital asset trading services to users around the world. Bitfinex initially started as a P2P margin lending platform for Bitcoin and later added support for more cryptocurrencies.
Buy Klaytn through Kucoin
- Kucoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange for numerous digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Launched in September 2017, KuCoin has grown into one of the most popular crypto exchanges and already has over 8 million registered users from 700+ countries and regions. According to Alexa traffic ranking, KuCoin’s monthly unique ranking is in the top 5 globally. Known as the “People’s Exchange”, KuCoin operates in Seychelles, providing users with multi-language and 24/7 customer service. Meanwhile, KuCoin has established local communities all over the world in South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Turkey, Russia, India, and other regions, providing users with the most local services. Currently, 1 out of every 4 crypto holders in the world is with KuCoin.
Step 3 – Withdraw Your Klaytn
Once you decide on an exchange, open an account and buy your Klaytn . Make sure to withdraw the Klaytn from the exchange to your personal wallet. Never leave coins on an exchange, as you risk losing them all if that exchange gets hacked or shuts down (which has happened in the past) and always double check address before send coins because you can send the coins to wrong address .
Overview
What makes Klaytn unique?
Klaytn is a blockchain platform that stands out from other blockchain platforms in a few ways:
Hybrid Design: Klaytn’s hybrid design combines the benefits of public and private blockchains. It uses a permissioned network of nodes to verify transactions and reach consensus, which allows for faster transaction speeds and higher throughput. At the same time, it retains the security and trustless nature of a public blockchain.
Business Focus: Klaytn is specifically designed for businesses and developers to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps). Its platform provides a range of tools and services that make it easy for developers to build and launch dApps. Klaytn has also formed partnerships with major companies in various industries, including Samsung, LG, and Union Bank of the Philippines, to accelerate adoption and use of the platform.
Governance Model: Klaytn’s governance model is unique in that it allows decision-making by a network of nodes that represent stakeholders in the ecosystem. This ensures that decision-making is decentralized and that the network is not controlled by a single entity.
Korean Roots: Klaytn was developed by Ground X, a subsidiary of the South Korean technology company Kakao. South Korea is a major player in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space, and Klaytn has gained significant adoption in the country, with partnerships with major companies and government agencies.
Overall, Klaytn’s hybrid design, business focus, governance model, and Korean roots make it a unique player in the blockchain space. It is designed to address the needs of businesses and developers, while maintaining the benefits of decentralization and security.
An end-to-end metaverse developer package:
To simplify building for the metaverse, Klaytn offers an end-to-end metaverse package that includes customized L2 solutions, SDKs and smart contract libraries, IPFS solutions, wallets, chain explorers, oracles and bridges, as well as an ecosystem of supporting services such as stablecoin integration, NFT marketplaces, tradfi interfaces, and more.
1-second deterministic finality:
Klaytn utilizes an optimized version of Istanbul BFT that enables transactions to achieve absolute finality within a second, allowing for responsive user experiences and enabling use cases where near-instant and irreversible finality is necessary—such as the real-time minting of in-game item drops.
Klaytn’s data guarantee:
Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake blockchains exhibit probabilistic finality, which means there is a tiny chance that a transaction recorded on the chain can get reversed. This makes these blockchains unsuitable for mission-critical applications, especially if used at scale. Klaytn’s IBFT consensus algorithm guarantees that data recorded on the blockchain is correct and will never be reversed, in order to deliver the reliability and data consistency needed for large-scale applications.
Support for Ethereum equivalence:
Klaytn supports EVM as one of the emerging standards for the metaverse and Web3, and will be adopting the EVM specification by: * Making Klaytn’s technical stack equivalent to the Ethereum stack from an interfacing and execution perspective * Building on top of existing Ethereum clients and interfacing libraries to inherit any improvements made to their open-source codebases * Enabling Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and Klaytn Improvement Proposals (KIPs) to contribute to both ecosystems
A unique governance structure:
At the core of Klaytn’s unique take on decentralization is their Governance Council (GC). Comprising leading global enterprises and DAOs across geographies and industries, these GC members form a compact validator network that is able to deliver the benefits of a decentralized public blockchain while maintaining the performance of a permissioned blockchain. Moving forward, Klaytn aims to further increase decentralization by onboarding more DAOs to their GC to create a “DAO of DAOs”.
Built-in scalability via service chains:
Klaytn utilizes the hub-and-spoke model that is widely acknowledged as one of the leading scalability solutions. Klaytn’s spokes, or service chains, can be customized for specific DApp requirements such as high throughput, special node configurations, or custom security levels. In addition, support for nested service chains will provide the exponential scalability needed for metaverse-scale adoption.
$1 billion protocol-level ecosystem fund:
Through a combination of the initially issued reserve KLAY and on-chain tokenomics that re-invest 66% of newly-minted KLAY, Klaytn has set aside a total of $1 billion to support ecosystem growth. The funds are distributed across a range of grant and reward programs such as: * The Klaytn Improvement Reserve (KIR) for infrastructure, tools and services that improve the quality of the Klaytn network * The Klaytn Growth Fund (KGF) for early-stage projects with high potential for creating positive impact on Klaytn * The Proof of Contribution (PoC) program to reward builders of smart contracts that contribute to the growth on on-chain activities on Klaytn
The preferred enterprise-level blockchain:
Klaytn is the preferred blockchain for enterprises and enterprise-level use cases, counting industry titans such as Japan’s GMO Internet Group, Indonesia’s Salim Group, and mobile gaming giants Netmarble and WeMade amongst our partners. Klaytn is also the official blockchain partner for Bank of Korea’s CBDC project, which is running off a private, modified version of Klaytn.
Who are the founders of Klaytn?
The Klaytn blockchain was developed and launched in June 2019 by GroundX, the blockchain subsidiary of Korea’s largest mobile platform, Kakao. After two years of success in Korea, the Klaytn Foundation—a non-profit entity devoted to the Klaytn network and its ecosystem—was established to begin Klaytn’s global expansion.
Klaytn Foundation is a non-profit organization that was established to accelerate global adoption and ecosystem maturity on Klaytn. The foundation manages the Klaytn Growth Fund and operates alongside Krust, a subsidiary of internet giant Kakao Corp that invests in projects built on Klaytn.
What is KLAY?
KLAY is the native digital asset that fuels and secures the Klaytn protocol. Klaytn was launched with 10 billion KLAY issued at genesis, and there are currently 2.6 billion KLAY coins in circulation. With every new block, 9.6 KLAY will be minted and the newly issued KLAY and the sum of transaction fees used in the block (collectively called the “block reward”) will be aggregated and distributed to the following three destination accounts in accordance to the predetermined ratio: * Klaytn Governance Council Reward: 34% * Klaytn Growth Fund (KGF): 54% * Klaytn Improvement Reserve (KIR): 12%