Messaging giant LINE has launched a wallet for users to manage digital assets and a blockchain platform where developers can issue their own tokens, tokenize digital assets, and run decentralized applications (dapps).
- LINE’s development platform aims to allow companies to easily introduce blockchain technology, CoinDesk Japan reported.
- LVC Corporation, operator of the company’s crypto and blockchain businesses, and LINE TECH PLUS PTE unveiled the platform, LINE Blockchain Developers and BITMAX Wallet on Wednesday. The wallet services are now only available in Japan, where LINE is particularly well-known.
- The company is developing the proprietary LINE Blockchain and issued its own token LINK (LN) for trading against several major crypto assets such as bitcoin and ether in 2018.
- LINE also started offering trading services via its crypto exchange Bitbox. It was approved for a crypto business license in September 2019.
- The company established the LINE Blockchain Lab in April 2018, which has been tasked to build the LINE Token Economy.
- LINE, with more than 84 million users in its messaging app, aims to leverage its existing network to jumpstart the development of its token economies and accelerate adoptions of many dapps built on its proprietary blockchain platform.
- The company is one of a handful of messaging apps that have tried to develop blockchain technology and issue their own tokens, but it stands out for the progress it has made.
- Canadian messaging company Kik and Russia-originated Telegram have met with lawsuits from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for their controversial fundraising processes called Initial Coin Offering (ICO), while American messaging giant Facebook’s stablecoin project Calibra is stalled and facing major challenges from the U.S legislators and financial authorities.