Vision

Since the appearance of the Web in 1991, various Internet services create an online world and, mobile revolution triggered by iPhone gobbled up the world. Internet services like Google, Amazon, or Facebook shifted our lifestyle to online and, mobile services like Uber, WeChat, or Kakao talk gave us the mobile world that does not have a limitation of time and space. However, now we live in an era of excessive service. Using two or three mobile messengers and online shopping at five to six commerce to compare prices, we are crossing a few social services like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Now service is not valuable anymore. This is not only the problem of service. The goods of modern society are already oversupplied.

On the other hand, what is in shortage for us? It is the time. To say more directly, it is the attention. Services put on every effort to get the limited resource of users any better. And the weapon is data. Netflix tries to get hold of users by recommending movies that are likely to be favored by users based on the viewing history information. Google exposes advertisements that are likely to interest users based on searching history information. Facebook shows advertisements that are likely to be clicked by users based on like click history data. Then where do all these data come from? These are traces that we leave on each service just like the footprints we leave on the snowfield. It’s about making algorithms to get more of the user’s attention using these traces of data. Instead of providing service, we utilize freely the traces of data free of charge. The problem of data privacy by user’s data leakage has now become a usual case.

But now the situation is changing. The value of attention has become more important than the value of service and, as the importance of data privacy stands out, data sovereignty is being transferred to the users. EU GDPR is the policy that is like the signal flare of it. Users get the ownership and control of data. This is the stream of time that no one can resist. If the power of data is transferred to users, then the industry relating to data will be renewed and here the new meaning of business will be made. However, in the user’s view, what is the meaning of the data sovereignty? It means that data that have had no value until now is having value and it is important to have value as a direct property at that. Users can now receive data fees and provide data to service. Hereby the users share the profit that was entirely the share of service. This has an important meaning. Users paying the fee unilaterally until now participate in sharing as the stakeholder of the service.

It’s not just the traces of data that we leave in the online world. We leave digital products (goods) by active action like login ID, game items, pictures, videos, blog posting, and comments. These also can have value as property by transferring data sovereignty to users. These digital products and data all are embraced to be called digital assets. In contrast to real like physical world assets like real estate, house, jewelry, and money, it means the asset in the digital world. But for the digital assets to act like the assets of reality, it must overcome the limitation of digital. That is, it must be impossible to replicate so that the exclusiveness can be guaranteed and, trading must be possible. And the proof of ownership must be possible, and ownership must be transferred when trading. To secure data sovereignty, data storage and control should not be subordinate to service and users should be able to control.

Blockchain is the best technology to make digital goods and data into the function of assets. It has been already proved in CryptoKitties that it is possible to make and trade digitally one and only item by using NFT (Non-Fungible Token). And decentralized data marketplace realizing various DApps are doing an experiment of getting profit share by transferring the ownership and control of data. A cryptocurrency that is based on Blockchain also is a kind of digital property as a digital asset. Because most of the cryptocurrency has been designed as a concept of compensation for participation, users can watch the switch of time investment to digital assets. Though it must be distinguished from the case of digitalizing reality property or goods like Security Token. The goods, property, and data that has been originally existing as digital getting the characteristic of assets are defined as digital property.

Klaytn is the blockchain platform that switches of user’s contribution and data to digital assets and, this enables the approach and trade with other people or at application. As a foundational layer to transform user contribution and data into user's digital property and make it accessible and tradable to trust-less peers and applications, Klaytn can be a public blockchain platform for the blockchain services to issue Fungible Token and Non-Fungible Token, support of digital assets, and enable trade of digital goods as invariable distributed ledger. It supports smart contract and it is possible to access application or trade conditionally and automatically. Klaytn is a universal blockchain so it supports most of the applications that utilize the characteristic of blockchain even if it is not related to digital assets.

Klaytn makes every effort for the transparent and fair world made by blockchain. The concept of digital property suggested by Klaytn will contribute to making a world where distribution is fairly based on the contribution which is a solution to solve the modern society’s big issue of the distribution problem. Because Klaytn is a platform, the main character is the blockchain services that are put into action on it. They experiment with digital property, suggest a new compensation system and try decentralized service. Consequently, it will contribute to the world where users can live respected and as oneself.