In a world where the internet has become the middleman for almost anything, creating an online ecosystem that is not only good for making money but also brings people much closer is no easy task. In fact, this is the whole agenda behind the Kik messenger. Kik is basically a chat app that uses the Kin cryptocurrency to create an ecosystem that rewards developers and creators on its platform with valuable incentives leading to a quality user experience without using advertisements.

Although the Kin cryptocurrency has been built on Ethereum’s Blockchain and exists as an ERC-20 token, the company’s CEO, Ted Livingstone revealed in a Q&A session last year that the company would move its Kin cryptocurrency to Stellar Lumens Blockchain. True to his words, Kik Messenger has moved to fork stellar while also developing its own Blockchain that would combine the best of Ethereum’s Blockchain as well as Stellar’s Blockchain to come up with a scalable proprietary network for Kin.

The move to fork Stellar came to light on Tuesday 8th May and was reported on CCN as the company revealed its journey towards finding a reliable Blockchain network that would sufficiently accommodate over 300 million Kik Messenger users.

Solving Ethereum’s lack of scalability

According to a statement from Livingstone, the Kin cryptocurrency (unlike most cryptocurrency related projects) focuses more on building a product rather than focusing entirely on the technology. To further explain the move to fork Stellar, he mentions that “a hybrid solution of Ethereum and our own fork of stellar would benefit the Kin ecosystem both short and long-term”.

Basically, the development team at Kik has been grappling with Ethereum’s lack of scalability not to mention network issues including slow processing speeds and higher transactional fees. According to Livingstone, Ethereum’s Blockchain features inefficiencies that can only be compared to the early days of the internet when every technological tool was complex and unfriendly to users.

The new Blockchain will be developed to run parallel to both the Stellar’s fork and the Ethereum network thus giving users liquidity and speed which is a combination of the best qualities the two networks have to offer.

No more Two Chain system for Kin

Earlier on, the company had announced that it would make a two-chain system for its Kin coin, however, citing the need to stick to the agenda of the Kin coin, Livingstone noted that even though the move from Ethereum’s Blockchain is to improve scalability, Stellar’s Blockchain still required transactional fees( even in tiny amounts), an idea that is not in line with the goals of Kik.

Thanks to the use of permission nodes, Kik has established a zero fee Blockchain network that will eventually give control of the network to the users. This will be done by working with partners who will eventually own a large percentage of the trusted nodes. By this design, the development team at Kik hopes to develop a trustless ecosystem that truly decentralizes control of the platform. To prove his point Livingstone was quoted on CoinDesk saying that “consumers can rest assured that it isn’t possible for any one entity on the network to take their cryptocurrencies from them.”.

For the latest cryptocurrency news, join our Telegram!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

Image courtesy of Pexels