Messaging service Kik has revealed plans to launch its personal cryptocurrency and finally create a brand new ecosystem for digital companies.
The new digital token, known as Kin, will likely be launched on the ethereum blockchain, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Today, the corporate launched a white paper outlining its technique for Kin, how it is going to be built-in into the app and the way it hopes to create a wider ecosystem for getting and promoting digital companies.
The Canada-based firm, which has raised over $120m in VC funding, mentioned the cryptocurrency will “combat the monopolization” of digital companies the place a big corporations exert increasingly more management over digital companies.
“These companies are the only ones with enough scale to effectively monetize through advertising,” mentioned Ted Livingston, CEO of Kik, arguing this makes it troublesome for unbiased builders to monetize their companies.
He informed CoinDesk:
“We think this is leading to a future for consumers and for society that has less choice, less innovation and ultimately less freedom.”
Some of the inspiration for the brand new token stems from Kik Points, a rewards system for customers to entry sure options contained in the messaging app, however, Livingston mentioned, the agency has been trying on the thought of a cryptocurrency since 2011.
Growing an ecosystem
Kik has now outlined a number of steps it’ll take for the creation of Kin and its ecosystem.
It will launch a token sale for the primary Kin later in the summertime and start integrating the cryptocurrency into the Kik app the place customers purchase and promote options and companies like stickers, the usage of bots and group chat internet hosting.
“It will also give Kin value on the public exchanges,” the CEO mentioned. His firm finally needs to unfold Kin past its personal app and create a decentralized ecosystem, utilizing Kin, for all digital companies.
To assist these goals, the corporate will set up an unbiased non-profit known as the Kin Foundation later this yr or early subsequent yr. The group will oversee the truthful and open development of the ecosystem, and additional handle the Kin Rewards Engine, a monetary incentive program to encourage uptake of the cryptocurrency and foster the ecosystem’s development.
Livingston defined:
“Every day, a certain amount of Kin will be given out to all the owners of the digital services proportional to the number of transactions that they drive in their particular digital service relative to the overall ecosystem.”
A recreation developer, for instance, may transact with its gamers utilizing Kin, and get a fee from the rewards engine. This will create extra cause to proceed accepting and transacting with the token.
“Let’s say you are creating 10% of all of the transactions within the Kin ecosystem, you’d get 10% of this every day reward,” Livingston mentioned.
The basis may even function an ID service, he added, likening it to a “decentralized Facebook Connect” that permits Kin customers to transfer across the ecosystem:
“As a user when I show up to a new digital service, I start using Kin right away in a frictionless yet secure way.”
Kik has 15 million month-to-month lively customers and with this userbase, the corporate claims that Kin can grow to be the “most adopted cryptocurrency in the world”.
Kik Messenger picture by way of Shutterstock
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