Kik is launching its own cryptocurrency

Kik, a popular messaging app currently valued at $1 billion, has decided to launch its own cryptocurrency called Kin. This new cryptocurrency will be used within Kik and will be made available to the public through an Initial Coin Offering. This sale of Kin at ICO will raise $125 million for Kik.

Initial Coin Offering is a new trend among cryptocurrency related startups; newly created cryptocurrencies are exchanged with already circulating one at a discounted price – a clever technique which gets the uncirculated cryptocurrency in circulation and also raises funding for the venture.

Kik will be the first social media app to create its own cryptocurrency. Its founders have been thinking about the prospects of cryptocurrency since 2011 and now they have finally decided to launch it. “We believe there is an opportunity to fundamentally change how digital services are built, used and monetized,” Kik founder and chief executive Ted Livingston said on Tuesday.

See also: Burger King introduces its own Cryptocurrency

10% of Kin that will ever go in circulation will be offered at ICO which is starting on 12 September. 60% will be held by Kin Foundation and will be given through a reward system to its promoters.Ted Livingston explained the reward system as,

“If I am a game developer, for example, and I can create an environment in which users are transacting Kin between each other, then I would be rewarded.”

Kin is expected to have a head start because of its large network of 300 million registered users. Cryptocurrency has seen a meteoric rise in recent years. One after another large organizations are adopting it. Recently, Burger King also introduced its own cryptocurrency in Russia.

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