Kin: The Cryptocurrency Revolution That Wasn’t
The messaging service Kik had its own cryptocurrency known as Kin. Kik Interactive, the company behind the service, was responsible for creating and managing it. To fund their project, Kik initiated an initial coin offering.
Kik Interactive faced allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission due to an unregistered security offering. The company, in an effort to save the service, accepted MediaLab’s 2019 offer, which came after facing regulatory battles that depleted their resources. The journey to preserve their cryptocurrency by Kik Interactive continued.
Within the Kik messenger platform, Kin offered unique functionalities. Users could earn Kin by contributing to the Kik community and spend it on various goods and services on the platform. By July 2023, the cryptocurrency had become fully decentralized, managed by its users. As of January 2024, its market cap stood at $40.28 million.
Introduced through an ICO in 2017, Kin served as the cryptocurrency for Kik’s messaging service. The initial coin offering for Kin raised nearly $100 million. Having a pre-established massive user base, Kik held a distinct edge over other cryptocurrencies. To complete the blockchain decentralization, the Kin Foundation discontinued its operations in 2023.
Within a two-week span, Kin’s ICO attracted around $100 million from investors, marking a significant achievement. According to its founders, the Kin Ecosystem aimed to foster a community within a fresh shared economy, with Kin serving as a cornerstone for a digital services decentralized ecosystem.
The Kin Foundation
Aiming to establish an ecosystem of services, The Kin Foundation concentrated on Kin’s governance. Unlike advertising-reliant social media platforms, this ecosystem valued user contributions, rewarding them accordingly.
Describing itself as “more than just a digital currency,” Kin’s website highlighted its cryptocurrency nature. Though similar in structure to Bitcoin, Kin functioned as a public monetary asset.
An attempt to prioritize Kin led Kik to announce the closure of its messaging service in 2019. However, following MediaLab’s acquisition, the service persisted. This came soon after Kik’s lawsuit by the SEC for conducting the unregistered Kin ICO.
The SEC determined in 2020 that Kik violated federal securities laws in 2017 by selling Kin, imposing a $5 million fine. However, they didn’t mandate Kik to discontinue Kin’s network or register with them, allowing token sales to persist on exchanges.
Even with discontinued development, Kin retains its thousands-of-cents market value measure and active trading on limited decentralized exchanges.
Globally, digital currencies are on the rise, with over 8,000 cryptocurrencies available as of October 2023. The increasing number of blockchain projects showcases the vast potential and growing interest in decentralized financial systems.
Kin Rewards Engine
A standout feature of Kin’s launch was its Kin Rewards Engine, distributing daily rewards amongst participants. The algorithm-based rewards were determined by contributions to the ecosystem.
Ted Livingston, the brain behind Kik and its CEO, envisioned the Kin token as a means to allocate value to developers. His goal was to distribute value, encouraging developers to create an open, decentralized app ecosystem on Kik’s platform.
Inquiring if Kin is an advantageous cryptocurrency choice, it remains available on some decentralized exchanges, though it was discontinued in 2023.
Examining Kin’s market valuation, January 24, 2024, recorded it at $0.00001372 with a market cap of $40.28 million.
In the realm of cryptocurrencies, Kin functioned as a reward mechanism for engaging with the Kik social media app. Despite aspirations, the project concluded by 2023.
Highlighting opinions, analyses, and commentary, the information shared is purely for educational purposes. The author, at the time of writing, does not possess any cryptocurrency assets.
You may also like
