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Today Emogi announced the launch of a network for engagement-based micropayments and staking. The IOST-incubated ecosystem features two already-existing apps: Berminal, a cryptocurrency news aggregator, and Bermi, a video sharing social media similar to TikTok.

Previously powered by BERM tokens, the two apps will now use Emogi (LOL) as their native token. The Emogi Network has been developed by the same team behind the Berm Protocol, who chose to rebrand and relaunch their token in tight cooperation with IOST.

Bermi, the social media app, is already seeing encouraging success in Latin America with a community of creators who share short videos, in exchange for rewards in Emogi token for successful content. Available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the app was ranked top-ten in the Colombia Play Store, above Snapchat and TikTok.

Over 40% of Bermi’s users are based in Colombia and Mexico, with other Latin American countries such as Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia making up the majority of the audience. Since January 2019, the platform has seen more than a million new monthly videos, with 250 million accumulated views.

The other dApp, Berminal, is a real-time news terminal with a full-time staff of professional crypto reporters creating and curating content around the clock. It has more than one million active users in the space.

The Emogi Network project has been incubated by IOST-affiliated BlueHill since July 2018. Designed as an open and permissionless system with Proof-of-Stake validation and rewards, the platform seeks to integrate traditional web products into the blockchain ecosystem, with more than 7 million users so far.

The LOL token will launch on Huobi Prime’s IEO platform on August 15, and Emogi expects to be integrated with the IOST blockchain as an IRC-20 token by the end of the year.

IOST sees the project as a key step in blockchain mass adoption, according to CEO Jimmy Zhong.

“As a blockchain network, IOST is committed to powering the next generation of internet services, and Bermi and Emogi coin are prime examples of what we’re trying to accomplish,” he noted. “IOST is providing strategic and financial backing to projects like Emogi Network so that consumers may experience the true value of blockchain.”