Kik Announces The Launch of Their Own Cryptocurrency

Original Post

Kin will be the name of the new currency launched by the popular social media chat app Kik. If that sounds like it might be a big deal to you, it should for a number of reasons. The creation of the Kin Rewards Engine will not only expose and familiarize a new generation of users to the wonderful world of cryptocurrency; this project could help overcome bitcoin’s long-time problem of finding practical, popular applications for users.

Kik will work toward creating the first open and sustainable alternative ecosystem of digital services for our daily lives.
— Kin Whitepaper

Kik’s promising to create a platform for an entire digital economy incorporating user/content curators, content creators, and businesses. Kin will be hosted on the Ethereum blockchain and given the amount of corporate attention they’ve received recently I’d say that’s a good thing all-around. The network effect will draw in more attention, increasing adoption and ultimately the integration of all these exciting projects. I would be really excited to see Kik team up with the guys at Brave to integrate their browser as a digital service.

The whitepaper gives a basic overview of how it will work:

In the future, users will be able to earn Kin by providing value to other members of the Kik digital community through curation, content creation, and commerce. Kik users will be able to spend Kin on products, services, and other valuable assets offered by merchants, developers, influencers, and other participants.
-Kin Whitepaper

So we’re talking about:

1. A token launch
2. Integration of that token with Kik, which will be shifted to open source
3. Creation of the Kin Foundation
4. Integration of Kik within a larger platform?

I’m not entirely clear on how Kik plans to facilitate the creation of this open, decentralized economy beyond whatever partners they can reach out to once the Kin Foundation comes into existence, but given their resources it’s not difficult to imagine Kik reaching out and integrating their chat functions with something like the Brave browser and the Steemit message boards along with some kind of decentralized exchange for currencies, goods, and services. Either way, I’m sure the project will get a lot of attention as things progress.

I do feel the need to address the crypto community’s skepticism when it comes to large, centralized corporate behemoths like Kik. We the community have to weigh what services and technology we can reasonably expect to enjoy from Kin, that we didn’t have before, against Kik’s legally-binding motivation for profits. It was only a matter of time before big businesses realized they could harness the efforts of the open source/cryptocurrency movements to essentially start printing their own money, and how much easier can it be to make money than to literally, digitally, just make it?

I don’t mean to cast doubt on Kik’s intentions or come off like a conspiracy theorist, but I imagine a lot of people will hear that “Kik’s creating their own bitcoin” and immediately assume it will blow up and be everything people imagine bitcoin wants to be without considering what Kik is uniquely bringing to the table. That being said, Kik does point out that the number of transactions of a previous program called “Kik Points” was nearly triple that of bitcoin on a monthly basis, so who knows, maybe Kin will be the next bitcoin?

The fact that Kik wants to jump on the blockchain train should be exciting to those who want to see the technology succeed, especially so considering that they’re working with Ethereum. No ICO has been announced but I’m sure you’re just as eager and expectant as I am.

Please feel free to leave questions in the comments or contact me at [email protected] and Share and Subscribe if you found this article helpful. To the moon!

Disclaimer: I’m not a financial expert; this is not and should not be construed as financial advice. Do your own research before investing and never risk more than you can lose!