[Aju News DB]
SEOUL -- South Korean web service giant Naver vowed Friday to step up the development of a blockchain platform, using its own technology and experience, that will be connected to messenger app services widely used in Japan and Southeast Asia.
Naver's smartphone messenger app service LINE, based in Japan, said that it would launch a variety of "dApp" services this year by combining blockchain with its platform. The company seeks to build a virtuous cycle structure by linking it with external services.
"We will focus on blockchain and accelerate its (development) in earnest this year," LINE's chief technology officer Park Eui-vin said in a media event in Seoul. "We plan to unveil our own 'Mainnet' in the first half of this year. Without using other famous block chain platforms such as Bitcoin and Etherium, we will build an independent eco-system."
Park's company has established "Unblock", a subsidiary specialized in blockchain technology, in South Korea.
"Even though internet service users are information producers, consumers and absolute contributors to platforms, they were not properly rewarded," Park said, adding that if appropriate compensation is given, users will do more active Internet activity. "LINE can make blockchain and token economies faster with many users and service experience."
LINE's push comes on the heels of fierce global competition to develop blockchain technology. Last Month, South Korea's web service giant Kakao established "Ground X", a blockchain subsidiary, in Japan to develop and unveil an international blockchain platform this year.
"We aim to create a stable blockchain platform which is open to domestic and foreign firms," Kakao co-CEO Joh Su-yong said at the time, adding his company hopes to create Asia's representative platform where anyone can participate and lead the blockchain field by forming a network with foreign IT companies.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
