Kakao's Delayed Crypto Wallet Will Support Native Dapps, Collectibles

Kakao's coming wallet for its "klay" cryptocurrency will also support blockchain apps and tokens based on the firm's Klaytn blockchain.

That's the good news for fans. Less so is that the release of the wallet – called Klip and to be included in the firm's messaging app, KakaoTalk – has been pushed back to sometime in the first half of 2020, CoinDesk Korea reports Monday. GroundX, Kakao's blockchain subsidiary, announced Klip in August, with the plan then being to launch the product by the close of 2019.

With the launch of Klip, Kakao's blockchain subsidiary GroundX will also launch a standalone version of the wallet, Kakao's co-CEO Yeo Min-soo said at a meeting of the governance council for the Klaytn blockchain on Friday.

Coming up first, however, will be a limited-feature browser extension for the wallet which will offer basic crypto storing and trading features, the executive said. Called Kaikas, the extension will work with browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera, and will be aimed at more experienced crypto users.

Klip, on the other hand, will be aimed to introduce new users to blockchain-based services, Yeo Min-soo said. It will support not only Kakao's klay token but related KRC-20 tokens and blockchain apps, or dapps. Among those will be a method of logging into social media sites, the report indicates.

Initially restricted to the South Korean market, the Klip-native applications will be opened up to overseas users in the second half of 2020.

Kakao aims to make the wallet app "widely used in everyday life, with klay tokens available directly in KakaoTalk via the Klip wallet," said Yeo Min-soo.

Trading and storage of in-game items and non fungible tokens (or crypto collectibles) will also be added to Klip in stages.

Editor's note: Statements in this article have been translated from Korean.