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| A promotional image for LG Art Lab / Courtesy of Barry X Ball Studio |
By Lee Min-hyung
BUSAN ― Hedera Hashgraph, a distributed ledger technology network, will expand its partnerships with Korean tech players and financial firms by leveraging its fixed low costs and decentralized tracking and verification system, Leemon Baird, its inventor and co-CEO of Swirlds Labs, said in an interview.
Hedera is a public cryptocurrency network platform for enterprises to create decentralized applications. Two major Korean firms ― LG Electronics and Shinhan Bank ― have teamed up with the Texas-headquartered company in their bid to catch up with the rapidly growing blockchain industrial paradigm. Hashgraphs are often considered an alternative to blockchains, and Hedera Hashgraph is the only authorized ledger.
Despite the promising outlook of the Hedera network, it was less-well-known in the Korean market before its latest partnership with LG Electronics. Earlier this month, LG unveiled a non-fungible token (NFT) art-trading platform in the United States, allowing LG television owners who buy NFTs on its digital marketplace to display NFT art in their homes. LG has built LG Art Lab on top of the Hedera network and minted art NFTs using the Hedera Token Service.
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| Leemon Baird, inventor of Hedera and co-CEO of Swirlds Labs |
"Hedera first entered into partnership with LG Electronics in 2020, when LG joined the Hedera Governing Council," the Hedera inventor said during the interview with The Korea Times on the sidelines of this year's Upbit Developer Conference, which ended its two-day run last Friday. The Hedera council consists of a group of worldwide enterprises and organizations that make decisions and run the decentralized network, according to him.
"When tapping into the NFT market and its business opportunities, Hedera proved to be the ideal network for LG to build upon a number of reasons," he said. "Hedera has a fixed, low transaction fee model, offers real-time transaction and uses less energy per transaction than any other major blockchain network."
The Hedera pioneer also shared his vision to expand the company's footing in the Korean financial market after its successful partnership with Shinhan Bank, one of Korea's top-tier commercial banks.
In December 2021, the lender completed development of a proof-of-concept built on the Hedera network.
"Utilizing the Hedera Token Service and Hedera Consensus Service, the bank minted a stablecoin pegged to the Korean won, and conducted an international remittance in partnership with Standard Bank, a leading bank in South Africa," he said. "The Hedera network's fixed low costs, real-time settlement and decentralized tracking and verification system allowed the banks to solve issues currently plaguing international remittances, including high fees, longer waits and the absence of tracing features."
He also shared expectations to expand its presence here through tie-ups.
"Hedera is open to and exploring partnerships with a vast array of industries in Korea," he said. "Consumer brands in industries ranging from gaming and sports, to music and consumer products, are all looking to tokenization, NFTs and immersive experiences like metaverse, as part of their overall strategy to better engage their customer bases and facilitate community growth."
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