'Legend of Mir' Game Maker Inks Agreement for Blockchain Payments

Wemade Tree, a subsidiary of the game company behind the Legend of Mir series, has signed an agreement with Linka, a local blockchain payments provider.

Under the memorandum of understanding, which was reported by the Korean Economic Daily and later confirmed by Linka, the companies will cooperate so that Wemade Tree's blockchain gaming platform will be able to process wallet payments via Linka's gateway. The goal is to make it easier for users to pay for blockchain-based entertainment.

"We expect to provide our platform users with a frictionless user experience,” Suk Hwan Kim, CEO of Wemade Tree, said.

Former employees of IBM, VISA, American Express, Samsung Card, and Shinhan Card founded Linka and The company says it was the first to offer a blockchain payment system in Korea. It claims 117 patents.

Linka has two coins: Linka points, which are used for payments; and Linka tokens, which are used to compensate participants and for the payment of commissions.

According to the Korean Economic Daily story, Linka's payments gateway is blockchain-based but will seamlessly accept cash, points and credit cards. The Linka Wallet allows for withdrawals, exchanges, deposits, and email transfers.

Wemade, which was founded in 2000 and trades on the Korea Exchange's Kosdaq secondary board, is a diversified game publisher with a number of massively-multiplayer online role-playing game titles, some of which have achieved cult following. While it has been struggling with intellectual property theft, its fortunes started to turn this year. The company has lodged a number of lawsuits against IP pirates, particularly those in China, and has achieved some important victories.

Its Wemade Tree subsidiary was early to test the potential of blockchain. In October 2018, it was one of the first nine companies to utilize Klaytn, Kakao's public blockchain. Wemade Tree has received funding from Blocore, a Korean fund which counts Klaytn among its investments.

Image via Wemade.