It’s been quite a few weeks since we announced Kaia, the name of our new chain. Integration work has been progressing steadily, but a chain merge of this scale has never been attempted before, so there’s still a ton that needs to be done. Here’s an update on the progress that we’ve made as we prepare to launch into new frontiers!
Over the past few weeks, key partners that will form the core of Kaia’s DeFi infrastructure and ecosystem have been onboarded onto Klaytn, and will be live on Kaia once the mainnet launches. These partners include Capybara DEX, DragonSwap, Flipside, KaiaSwap, Pyth, LayerZero, Stargate, and Wormhole, with more to come. A long-standing ecosystem partner has also begun work on a Kaia block explorer, which will be ready on day one as well.
The merging of our community and social platforms have also begun, starting with Discord. Preparations have also been made for the Kaia blog and social media accounts, which will be launched closer to the date when the mainnet will go live.
As for core development, we have completed work on the Kairos testnet, which has just gone live. Development work for the Kaia mainnet is well underway, with the first of multiple security audits having been completed. However, the launch of the Kaia mainnet will need to be pushed back slightly to Q3 2024 as the registration process for the Kaia DLT Foundation is taking longer than initially expected.
The reason the foundation needs to be established before the mainnet can be launched is because we firmly believe that regulatory compliance is necessary for the creation of a blockchain ecosystem that can be widely adopted across Asia with minimal roadblocks.
To this end, we have been working closely with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to ensure that the Kaia DLT Foundation is established in accordance with their carefully-constructed regulatory framework, which is designed to encourage the healthy growth of the blockchain industry. Our aim is for Kaia DLT Foundation to be a leading example of how the blockchain industry can work hand-in-hand with regulatory authorities to bring the benefits of Web3 to the broader population.
On this front, we have also been working on two initiatives that will be released together with the Kaia mainnet — the Kaia Portal and public delegation capabilities.
Kaia Portal — a gateway of rewards for Kaia users
Kaia Portal is an official web service provided by Kaia DLT Foundation.It will serve as a gateway to the Kaia ecosystem, giving users quick and easy access to frequently-used functions while also rewarding on-chain activities through a point system. Kaia Portal will provide three primary features:
- FNSA to KAIA swap and airdrop services
- DeFi-centric missions for users to earn points that can be redeemed for rewards
- On-ramp, swap, bridge and farming services
*Note: The screen captures below are taken from a development build of Kaia Portal, the actual release may have some UI/UX changes.
Kaia Portal will first be launched with basic DeFi functionality as well as the FNSA to KAIA token swap and airdrop feature to enable the seamless onboarding of Finschia users. To learn more about how to swap your FNSA to KAIA, please read the guide here. Post-launch, we will continue to develop Kaia Portal to add more functionality and on-chain activities for users to participate in and earn rewards.
As a one-stop portal, Kaia Portal will also offer builders an easy channel to access Kaia’s core user base, encouraging the growth and success of DApps on Kaia, which in turn will create a more vibrant ecosystem for users.
Public Delegation — the democratization of Kaia governance
The launch of the Kaia mainnet will also see the introduction of Public Delegation, which will allow users to delegate their KAIA to their preferred validator. Accessible through Kaia Square, Public Delegation will enable KAIA holders to participate in Kaia governance through the delegation of their voting power, while also earning their share of the block rewards earned by the validator.
Previously, Klaytn’s Public Staking service required each GC member to independently develop public staking functionality, which was not only time and resource intensive but also led to fragmentation in implementation. With Public Delegation, Kaia validators will be able to tap on a library of open source smart contracts to implement the delegation feature, ensuring greater consistency and standardization while also simplifying the implementation of the feature. This is expected to result in a wider selection of validators for users to delegate to, while also encouraging healthy competition between validators which will undoubtedly be beneficial for end users.
After the initial launch of Public Delegation, the foundation will jointly explore further improvements such as a unified standard for LST, support for re-delegation, and more with the Kaia Governance Council members.
