ODIN aims to improve the world through a network of open source cooperatively built mobile applications with a focus on privacy and decentralization.

Just how big was Kik?

Let’s examine the numbers.

1 Billion — The dollar valuation placed on Kik resulting from a private market valuation.

300 Million — The number of registered users Kik hosted as of 2016, the last year Kik made its metrics on registered users available.

100 Million — The total U.S. Dollar equivalent Kik’s cryptocurrency, Kin raised during its initial coin offering.

What happened?

Kik Interactive announced late Monday that it’s shuttering the messenger app and cutting its staff from over 100 people to just 19 employees. The company will focus its remaining resources entirely on growing its cryptocurrency, Kin, the subject of a recent lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (cnn.com)

Kik climbed to prominence alongside other well-known messenger apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram with its distinguishing feature of being privacy-centric— amassing fans and critiques along the way. While the privacy-focused app was negatively received by a small percentage because of its vast use cases, the recent shut down was not a result of this.

“Many ICOs are being conducted illegally,” — Jay Clayton

Beginning with a Senate banking committee hearing in February 2018, ICOs were put on notice by SEC chairman Jay Clayton’s public announcement that those raising ICOs were “in the crosshairs of our enforcement provision,” and going on to say “Folks somehow got comfortable that this was new and it was okay and it was not a security, it was just some other way to raise money.”

What remains of Kik?

With a relatively robust staff of at least 100 salaried employees, Kik had a reasonably large team to provide development, support, and general oversite to what had become a widely used and fairly popular messenger service even by today’s standards. The ensuing lawsuit has forced Kik into a massive cut back as only 19 persons remain employed by Kik. An announcement by Kik Interactive estimates this staff reduction could result in cutting the current burn rate levied by legal costs some 85% allowing the continued development of its cryptocurrency asset Kin during their legal woes.

More on ODIN.Chat — A Secure, Blockchain-Driven, Private Messenger

ODIN wants you to own your conversation. Having realized the possibility for an impending doomsday scenario where massive leaks of personal data lead to real-world consequences, ODIN Blockchain decided to do something about it and built ODIN.Chat, a blockchain-powered, secure messenger with the end user’s privacy in mind.

When ODIN Blockchain decided to build a free messenger, we put a lot of thought into what free means not just to us, but to the userbase too. Here’s a list of things we don’t ask for when you use our product: your name, your date of birth, your address, we don’t even ask for your email address, all of which other companies see as revenue when you sign up. We don’t even ask you to create a username and risk being linked to other accounts that might share certain features of that name. It truly is private. We might not be changing the world by ourselves, but we certainly hope to be apart of the group that does.

Where do I find out more about ODIN?

Discord Reddit Telegram ODIN Blockchain M.A.S.H. ODIN.Chat

Read more about how to get Ø(ODIN) here.