What Is Klaytn and How Does It Work?

What Is Klaytn?

Klaytn, an enterprise-grade, service-centric platform that brings user-friendly blockchain experience to millions of users, is a service-centric blockchain platform, developed by Ground X, which is the blockchain subsidiary of South Korea’s No. 1 mobile platform, Kakao. 

Not only for the end to end users, Klaytn provides Private Chain for independent operation of the blockchain. Also, it provides its own Layer 2 solution (Sidechain) called Service Chain for an enterprise that avoids the use of public blockchain due to data privacy.

Klaytn has realized the block generation time with the finality of one1 second for the fast response time as in mobile applications. It has reached the high performance of 4,000 TPS (Transaction Per Second). This performance is planned to increase continuously.

Currently, Dapp.com has 8 distinct Klaytn dapps listed on the platform with Cosmochain (FitsMe) leading in both 24h users and 24h transactions. For those who want to start building their own dapps on top of the Klaytn blockchain, it is imperative to truly take the time to understand how Klaytn works differently from other blockchains and why you should choose Klaytn. This article will walk you through the 5 mechanisms that support the Klaytn network.

What Is Klaytn BApp (Blockchain App)?

In Klaytn’s ecosystem, it uses the term BApp instead of dapp (decentralized app). As Klaytn's Position Paper mention, dapp is the application focused on decentralization. However, there is no need for every application to be dapp. And it is not right to insist that it should unconditionally be dapp just because it is carried out at public blockchain. In fact, Blockchain has many advantages other than decentralization. 

BApp is the term that includes that will of Klaytn- It can make use of blockchain’s intrinsic characteristics like transparency, traceability, immutability, and anonymity.

How Does Klayton Work?

The Klaytn has four mechanisms: 

1. Proof of Contribution (PoC)

In tradition, blockchain Proof of Contribution (PoC) can be used in the process of mining. However, Proof of Contribution (PoC) is designed to compensate all participants in the Klaytn token economy.

Currently, Klaytn focuses on two types of economic entities: Service providers (providing blockchain application services to the end-users) and end-users (consumers of service provider’s offerings).

2. Byzantine fault-tolerance (BFT) 

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) enables two nodes to communicate safely across a network by displaying the same data. A consensus is achieved if the loyal, or non-faulty nodes, achieve a unanimous agreement on their decision.

In a P2P network, using BFT is advantageous over PoW-based consensus in cases where the number of nodes is fixed and small. It has better throughput and does not waste energy to solve cryptographic puzzles. 

Although it is not the most efficient algorithm allowing multiple nodes to agree on one value, it is clear that BFT is one of the practical approaches to ensure the order of transactions among many nodes connected via an asynchronous network without sacrificing much performance.

3. EP (Enterprise Proxy)

Klaytn Enterprise Proxy (EP) is an off-chain proxy. It provides BApp service providers with two main usages: Reduce the technical hurdles inevitable for using blockchain technology and supports Klaytn blockchain integration with traditional database and security systems.

4. Verifiable Random Function (VRF)

Since Klaytn uses a BFT-based consensus algorithm, having many nodes in consensus is disadvantageous. Klaytn address this problem by randomly but verifiably selecting a subset of CNs for each consensus round. Verifiable random function (VRF) enables us to choose a random subset of nodes while proving that the selection is indeed correct.

By limiting the number of CNs per consensus round (e.g., between 7 to 16), the platform can perform consensus swiftly while giving fair chances to all participating CNs. As a result, Klaytn keeps the network decentralized while retaining performance improvement promised by the BFT algorithm.

Source: Klaytn Docs, Klaytn PositionPaper