Terra Makes Four Game-changing Announcements at Korea Blockchain Week
Terra has made some game-changing announcements at the Korea blockchain week that kick-started with much fanfare on September 27. These announcements are significant in a way that Terra has aimed at these newly announced measures to enhance the mass adoption of the blockchain and cryptocurrency. That will make possible as Terra has announced its partnership with CHAI, a mobile payment distributed application (dApp).
Overview of Announcements:
Following is the overview of the four important announcements made by the company at the blockchain week:
1) Starting with the most significant announcement, CHAI will partner with BCCard, the largest payment processor in Korea, to launch a debit card.
2) CHAI has also entered an agreement with CU to enable the processing of offline payments. So that you know, CU is Korea’s largest convenience store chain.
3) Yanolja, the leading hospitality app in Korea, has now started accepting the payments through CHAI.
4) Terra has announced a partnership with Shinsegae (SSG) Duty-Free resulting in the enabling of global payments in Hong Kong.
Terra Blockchain:
Before we delve deep into these announcements, let a first understand the Terra and CHAI. Terra represents an alternative financial system which is primarily aimed to encourage the adoption of cryptocurrency. On average, merchants are charged with 2-3% of the fee on every financial transaction, and a conventional financial system is quite complicated to handle large transactions simultaneously. Blockchain technology, in case of financial transactions, is very useful as it saves time and provides more secured transactions while costing only a fraction of the conventional cost. Terra, through its algorithmic stablecoin, powers its blockchain payment. The transactions on Terra blockchain is fast, secure, and thanks to the uncomplicated procedures, the cost per transaction is only 0.5%. The company has already established several partnerships to its mass adoption of blockchain technology, with some of the significant names include TMON, TiKi, Qoo10, and Carousell, among others. In sum, Terra has over 25+ global partnerships in its kitty, with annual transactions worth over $50 billion.
CHAI dApp:
CHAI is a payment dApp, and in fact, this distributed application is the reason behind the huge popularity Terra enjoys in the market today. CHAI mobile payment services are available on all the mainstream platforms, including TMON, which is count as one of the largest eCommerce platforms in Korea, boasting over 10 million users. CHAI is very simple to operate, and you can pay just by adding your account to the application. The mobile payment app has partnered with 15 local Korean banks, which help in smooth payments transfers, just like PayPal. CHAI is extremely popular, and one can guess the popularity of the app from the fact that it is the 4th and 13th most popular app on Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store, respectively. It has also surpassed KakaoPay, which is a local leader in digital payment.
Following are details of the partnerships the company has forged at the blockchain week:
1) CHAI and BC Card partnership: BC Card is the largest payment processor in Korea, and the company is going to launch a new debit card in collaboration with the CHAI in 2020. This new card will accept at more than 3 million+ affiliates of the BC Card, and later on, the card’s acceptance will be expanded globally.
2) CHAI and CU partnership: In the offline space, CHAI will collaborate with CU to launch an offline payment system that will help the people to use the CHAI app to make payments at around 14,000 retail outlets of the CU located throughout Korea.
3) CHAI and Yanolja partnership: With a user base of 10 million and a gross merchandise value of more than $2billion, Yanolja is the leading hospitality App in Korea. CHAI is now available as an option to make a payment on the Yanolja, which is expected to give a boost to its adoption throughout the country.
4) Terra and Shinsegae partnership: To give impetus to the global payments in Hong Kong, Terra and Shinsegae (SSG) Duty-Free has come together. This partnership will result in the launch of a new local app, “CHAI DF.” So that you know SSG Duty-Free is a leading player in Korea’s $17 billion duty-free markets. This segment has grown at a staggering 35% year-on-year in 2018 and expected to retain high growth this year also.
Implications of the partnerships: The most important implication of these partnerships will manifest in the form of enhanced adoption of Terra and CHAI. It is clear from these developments that not only online, but offline partners are also interested in sealing a deal with CHAI. Especially the partnership of CHAI with CU is it going to open new avenues of growth and adoption for both organizations. With CHAI further gaining in popularity, Terra, by extension, is also going to witness wider adoption. In fact, by leveling on all these partnerships, Terra is on its way to becoming the most vibrant and widely used blockchain network in the world. By its claim, Terra expects to achieve a $1 billion annual run rate by the end of 2019. Further, the popularity of the blockchain is going to get shot in the arm with its partnership with the likes of BCCard, among others.
