SK Telecom to Launch Blockchain Wallet for Crypto and NFTs
Coinspeaker
SK Telecom to Launch Blockchain Wallet for Crypto and NFTs
SK Telecom, a South Korean telecommunication company has announced its plan to launch a blockchain wallet for crypto assets. According to the report, the telecommunication giant has signed an agreement with AhnLab Blockchain Company and Atomix Lab for the operation of the Web3 wallets.
“SKT is collaborating with AhnLab Blockchain Company and Atomix Lab, a specialized blockchain company, to develop ‘Web3 Wallet’. Web3 Wallet is a digital asset wallet that allows users to store, send, and receive various types of tokens issued on the blockchain network,” said SKT.
This means the users of the wallet offered by SK Telecom would be able to store, send and receive blockchain-based tokens including crypto and NFTs. Also, the wallet would be able to support “soulbound tokens” (SBTs), thus permanent, non-transferable NFTs for verifiable identification and certificates. This initiative is expected to expand its userbase to Web3 enthusiasts. As of 2021, the telecommunication company had about 47% of the total telecommunication users in South Korea. It is important to note that its arm of conglomerate SK Group runs its metaverse, Ifland. According to data, its monthly user base is around 1.1 million.
The role of Atomic Lab is to use secure multiparty computation encryption for the wallet. Right after this, SK Telecom and AhnLab Blockchain Company will take over the operation while Atomic Labs stays on for technical support.
The status of SKT and the introduction of this initiative is said to play a crucial role in the adoption of crypto in South Korea. It is worth noting that over 30 million people in South Korea have mobile subscriptions via SK Telecom. This is about 58% of the total population. Atomix Lab CEO Woo-Hyun Jung has stated that the expansion of the blockchain ecosystem has a major challenge which is a personal wallet. The project, therefore, seeks to address this by combining security and convenience.
In 2020, SK Telecom introduced blockchain-powered digital certificate storage. This was to address the certification problem that arose during the pandemic.
This development comes at a point where South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) ramps up its investigation into payment gateway services that work with digital assets. The country has also announced the upcoming launch of the Digital Assets Committee following the Terra crash to bring structure to the virtual asset ecosystem.