Sam Seo, chairman at Kaia DLT Foundation Chairman, speaks at the Kaia Square Lounge event held in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul, on Monday. (Im Eun-byel / The Korea Herald)

Blockchain network Kaia, formed through the merger of platforms launched by Korean tech giants Line and Kakao, announced Monday it hopes to serve as a gateway between Web2 and Web3 in Asia and beyond.

The merger between Kakao's blockchain platform Klaytn Foundation, and Finschia Foundation under Naver's affiliate Line Tech Plus was completed under the name “Kaia” on Thursday.

The two platforms' respective tokens will be integrated under the name "Kaia," which will hold a market capitalization of over 1 trillion won ($750 million), the largest blockchain platform in terms of assets in Asia, according to the operators.

“Kaia is more than just a blockchain network,” Kaia DLT Foundation Chairman Sam Seo said at the Kaia Square Lounge event held in Seoul on Monday.

“Going beyond just an integration of existing platforms, we have put in efforts to suggest a direction for the growth of the blockchain industry in the Web3 environment,” Seo said.

Kim Woo-suk, director and chief strategy officer at Line Next, also highlighted the importance of expansion. Line is a popular messaging app used across Asia, including in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, which logs around 196 million monthly active users globally. Line Next is its Web3 unit.

"If the integration fails to go beyond the technological merger of Klaytn and Finschia, it would be meaningless," Kim said. "Going past the growth of the blockchain ecosystem, we would have to change the trends of Web3 through new initiatives."

Hoping to appeal to a wider public, the operators introduced a program entitled “Kaia Wave,” which aims to invite Web2 users to a Web3 environment under a simplified process.

The program, operated by Kaia and Line Next, will fund $10 million for Web3 developers, enabling the developers to add new functions to Line to encourage users to manage their digital assets on the messenger app. The initiative will wrap up in the fourth quarter of this year.

For the merger, the operators have set up the Kaia DLT Foundation in Abu Dhabi on Aug. 16. The launch, initially slated for June, was pushed back by two months due to the delay in earning regulatory approval from the Abu Dhabi authorities.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)