South Korean Messaging App KakaoTalk To Integrate Crypto Wallet

By Prashant Jha

As per recent news reports published by finance news outlets from South Korea, the country’s premier messaging and calling app KakaoTalk, owned by social media and communications giant Kakao, will soon have an integrated crypto wallet in place, just like how the brand new Samsung Galaxy S10 has done.

All users of Kakao will have the choice to opt in to this service. If they decide to do so, they will be provided with access to the newly integrated cryptocurrency wallet on the app. It is likely that the functionalities of the new wallet system will work in cohesion with other services that are offered by Kakao alongside KakaoTalk. These include various apps dealing with finance to transport, such as KakaoPay, KakaoStock, KakaoStory and KakaoTaxi.

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With this interesting decision, the company is jumping on to a bandwagon that has been on the move for a while with top messaging companies like WhatsApp and Telegram having already initiated integrations of services related to crypto assets. Given that messaging apps such as these are so widely used, linking them with cryptocurrencies can signify a rather substantial step in the latter’s widespread adoption.

Kakao had earlier launched its own blockchain platform, calling it Klaytn, and had also invested in a blockchain-based startup called Orbs. This decision seems to be a way to continue its expanding association with the crypto-blockchain space. In relation to this, an industry insider commented to a crypto news media outlet that:

“Kakao needs a cryptocurrency wallet for users of Klaytn and the best way to roll out the service is to integrate a crypto wallet into KakaoTalk, which over 80 percent of the population of South Korea use to communicate.”

Another top executive from the South Korean crypto-blockchain space, South Korea-based CEO of BlockchainROK, Heslin Kim had the following statement to make about Kakao’s plans:

“Kakao is representative of South Korea, a country with over 55 million people. It embodies the fast paced, technology driven lifestyle that Koreans adopt so readily. It’s an app so deeply attached to what it means to be Korean.”