Finance:Kin (cryptocurrency)

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Kin
KIN Logo.png
Development
Original author(s)Kin Foundation
White paperKin: a decentralized ecosystem of digital services for daily life
May, 2017
Initial release10 September 2017; 7 years ago (2017-09-10)
Code repositorygithub.com/kinecosystem
Development statusActive
Developer(s)Kin Foundation
LicenseOpen-source license
Websitekin.org
Ledger
Supply limit10,000,000,000,000

Kin is a cryptocurrency used as money that can be earned, spent, or transferred within a digital ecosystem of consumer applications. Kin seeks to offer app developers a way to earn revenue that does not involve monetizing personal user data or displaying ads. Developers can earn Kin by integrating Kin into their app experiences. The project is supervised by the Kin Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established to manage the governance and growth of the cryptocurrency.[1][2]

History

Kin was created by Kik Interactive, Inc., the creators of the KIK Messenger mobile app. The project conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) from September 12 - 26, 2017,[3] raising roughing $47.5M. Combined with an earlier $50M from institutional investors, the total amount raised by Kik was around $97.5M.[4]

On September 23, 2019, Kik Interactive CEO Ted Livingston announced that the company was shutting down Kik Messenger to focus on Kin.[5] However, shortly after the shutdown announcement, multimedia holding company MediaLab AI, Inc. announced that it was acquiring Kik Messenger and would continue to operate the app and its Kin integration.[6]

Blockchain Migrations

At launch, Kin started as an Ethereum ERC-20 token. In December 2017, during a YouTube Q&A session, Ted Livingston announced that Kin would be migrating to the Stellar blockchain because Ethereum was not performant enough to support Kin.[7]

In March 2018, the Kin Foundation announced an updated plan to have Kin operate on dual blockchains - Ethereum for liquidity purposes and Stellar for its transactional needs. The plan also proposed that users would be able to atomically swap Kin tokens between the blockchains.[8]

In May 2018, the Kin Foundation pivoted from the previously announced plan, sharing that it would fork Stellar and operate its own blockchain. This move allowed Kin to remove the need for fees applied to every transaction on the Stellar blockchain.[9]

In May 2020, Kik Interactive created a proposal to migrate Kin once again, this time to the Solana blockchain. The proposal stated that while Kin's migration to a Stellar-forked blockchain was an improvement over operating on Ethereum, it was still not an ideal consumer experience. A migration to Solana would provide a significant upgrade in performance and additional storage space for transactional metadata.[10] In June 2020, the Kin Foundation board and community approved the proposal.[11] The migration to Solana kicked off on December 15, 2020, with Kin becoming a Solana Program Library, or SPL, token.[12]

Kin Rewards Engine

The Kin Rewards Engine (KRE) is an algorithmic mechanism that allows apps to earn rewards for integrating and driving adoption of the Kin cryptocurrency.[13]

Controversy

In June 2019, the SEC sued Kik Interactive over its 2017 ICO claiming that it was an illegal securities offering.[14][15] The SEC charged Kik with selling its tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer and sale as required by the U.S. securities laws.[16]

On October 21, 2020 the lawsuit came to a close when a federal district court agreed with the SEC's assessment that Kik's ICO was a securities sale.[17] In addition to a being assessed a $5M penalty, Kik was required for the next three years to provide notice to the SEC before engaging in enumerated future issuances, offers, sales, and transfers of digital assets.[18]

References

  1. ↑ "What Is Kin?" (in en). https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/kin-cryptocurrency.asp. 
  2. ↑ "About Kin" (in en-US). https://kin.org/about/. 
  3. ↑ "Kik’s KIN ICO Review | Hacker Noon" (in en). https://hackernoon.com/kiks-kin-ico-review-ab2b82395b86. 
  4. ↑ "Kik raises nearly $100M in highest profile ICO to date" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2017/09/26/kik-ico-100-million/. 
  5. ↑ "Messaging app Kik shutting down as company focuses on Kin, its cryptocurrency" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2019/09/23/messaging-app-kik-shuts-down-as-company-focuses-on-kin-its-cryptocurrency/. 
  6. ↑ "MediaLab acquires messaging app Kik, expanding its app portfolio" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2019/10/19/medialab-kik-messenger-app-portfolio/. 
  7. ↑ "Goodbye Ethereum: Kik Plans to Move Its ICO Tokens to Stellar - CoinDesk" (in en). 2017-12-14. https://www.coindesk.com/. 
  8. ↑ "Ethereum and Stellar? Kik's Kin Token to Use Two Chains - CoinDesk" (in en). 2018-03-21. https://www.coindesk.com/. 
  9. ↑ "A Chain of Its Own: Mobile App Kik to Fork Stellar for Fee-Free Blockchain - CoinDesk" (in en). 2018-05-08. https://www.coindesk.com/. 
  10. ↑ "Fed Up With Its Fork of Stellar, Kin Is Looking to Move Onto Solana - CoinDesk" (in en). 2020-05-22. https://www.coindesk.com/. 
  11. ↑ "Kin Community Approves Move From Stellar Fork to Solana's Blockchain" (in en). 2020-06-19. https://www.coindesk.com/. 
  12. ↑ Frost, Decrypt / Liam (2020-12-14). "After SEC Lawsuit, Kin Begins Migration to Solana" (in en-US). https://decrypt.co/51352/after-sec-lawsuit-kin-begins-migration-to-solana. 
  13. ↑ "Kin Rewards Engine Performance Report (Q1 2021)" (in en-US). 2021-03-24. https://kin.org/kre-performance-report-q1-2021/. 
  14. ↑ "SEC expands its war on cryptocurrency companies with a lawsuit against Kik" (in en-US). https://social.techcrunch.com/2019/06/04/sec-expands-its-war-on-cryptocurrency-companies-with-a-lawsuit-against-kik/. 
  15. ↑ Castillo, Michael del. "SEC Sues Social Network Kik For $100 Million ICO" (in en). https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2019/06/04/sec-sues-social-network-kin-for-100-million-unregistered-ico/. 
  16. ↑ "SEC.gov | SEC Charges Issuer With Conducting $100 Million Unregistered ICO". https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2019-87. 
  17. ↑ "US court agrees with SEC that Kik's $100 million coin offering violated the law" (in en-US). https://www.engadget.com/court-sides-with-sec-kik-initial-coin-offering-lawsuit-085529306.html. 
  18. ↑ "SEC.gov | SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Kik Interactive For Unregistered Offering". https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2020-262. 

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