Kik, a Canadian mobile chat application used by 15 million users monthly, is launching its own Ethereum-based cryptocurrency Kin. The move is expected to be followed by an ICO. 

 Token sale by KiK is the first time ever an established business is to launch an ICO through the ethereum blockchain in what may be the start of mainstream consideration for the token sale option 

WHAT IS KIK 

  KiK, a popular chat app, especially with teenagers, used by 300 million people, including 40% of USA’s teenagers, known for its anonymity as it does not retain users data and doesn’t ask for a phone number to sign up unlike other apps,but downside is  there are loads of minors making and distributing pornographic materials of themselves on kik.

THE KIN CRYPTOCURRENCY

 Purpose and characterization

 Kik is introducing an open source cryptographic token, named Kin, which is envisioned as a general purpose cryptocurrency for use in everyday digital services such as chat, social media, and payments. Kin will be the unit of account for all economic transactions within the Kin Ecosystem, and it will serve as the basis of interoperability with other digital services.

 Kin is a pure cryptocurrency of fixed supply. It is fractionally divisible and long-term noninflationary. However, as described below, only a small portion of the Kin supply will become liquid in the near future, as most of the Kin supply is reserved for the Kin Rewards Engine. Like other cryptocurrencies, units of Kin are fungible and transferable, and they will be expected to trade on cryptocurrency exchanges. 

 Implementation: 

Ethereum and ERC20 Kin will be implemented on the public Ethereum blockchain as an ERC20 token.

 Building a digital economy inside Kik 

 Kik is one of the world's most popular messaging platforms, ranked #7 in social networking with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, and trending more popular than LinkedIn.

 Kik is uniquely positioned in the marketplace as a chat app that is highly targeted to the teen and young adult demographic. At over 15 million monthly active users, 57 percent of Kik's active user base is comprised of the 13 to 24 years old age bracket. About 64 percent of Kik’s users live in the United States. 

 The Kik Points experiment 

 Kik Points was introduced to experiment with a transactional unit of account within the Kik application.During a 2.5 year period from 2014 through 2016, Kik users completed 253 million offers and spent the points earned on 74 million purchases.  The Kik Points experiment was successful, with an average transaction volume of 300,000 transactions per day for its lifetime from 2014 through 2016, reaching 2.6 million transactions per day at the peak. On average, the monthly number of transactions was nearly three times that of the Bitcoin network 

Kin integration in Kik 

 The Kik Points experiment has demonstrated that there is demand for an economy built around chat.  

 One of the most compelling features of Kik Points was that users were not required to purchase them. Instead, millions of mainstreamers were able to earn Kik Points simply by performing valuable actions. As Kik expands its economy to include cryptocurrency that holds real value both inside and outside of the chat application, the economic possibilities for users are vastly enhanced. This makes it possible to transform attention, curation, and creation into real-world value simply by having a smartphone. 

 Kik economy and prospective use cases  

 Kik will introduce a number of marketplace use cases that will prompt consumers and brands to transact with Kin. Through experimentation, Kik plans to iterate on the product with applications that create unique two-sided marketplaces for users. On the supply side both bots or content creators will create unique experiences. On the demand side, users will consume these products or services. In the near future, Kik’s bots will have the ability to structure their own business models.  

 Example use case: Premium user-generated content 

 The Kin economy can be used to incentivize content creation by rewarding its creators. By allowing anyone to create content and earn Kin, Kik expects to encourage more users to participate and create content. This open market of content will incentivize competition for higher-quality content and ultimately create a better community. The “hidden” content feature shown here allows a creator to earn Kin by sharing audio, video, and pictures that are hidden until other users pay to unlock them.  

In order to finance the Kin roadmap, Kik will conduct a token distribution event that will offer for sale one trillion units out of a 10 trillion unit total supply of Kin. The proceeds of the token distribution event will be used to fund Kik operations and to deploy the Kin Foundation\. Another three trillion Kin will be preallocated to Kik as the founding member of the Kin Foundation and subject to a long-term vesting schedule. In exchange, Kik will provide startup resources, technology, and a covenant to integrate with the Kin cryptocurrency and brand. The remaining six trillion Kin will be under the purview of the Kin Foundation, locked under the Kin Rewards Engine schema and used strategically to grow the Kin Ecosystem and fund the operations of the foundation. The Kin Foundation’s allocation will be used for three purposes: to administer the Kin token supply and Kin Rewards Engine, for marketing, and for operational costs. Twenty percent of the remaining reserve will be unlocked and distributed every year to the Kin Foundation in perpetuity. 

 Kin token allocations 

  Kik will conduct a token distribution event that will offer for sale one trillion units out of a 10 trillion unit total supply of Kin   Another three trillion Kin will be preallocated to Kik as the founding member of the Kin Foundation and subject to a long-term vesting schedule. The remaining six trillion Kin will be under the purview of the Kin Foundation, locked under the Kin Rewards Engine schema and used strategically to grow the Kin Ecosystem and fund the operations of the foundation.  

CONCLUSION

Kin ICO may not be most hyped or claiming to be breakthrough technology but it is most genuine.