In 2013, Brian Hamachek went online with the hope of meeting some interesting new people in his area who shared his same interests. He quickly realized that the only tools online to do that were dating apps, but what Brian really wanted was platonic friendships. It turned out that there wasn’t an easy place to find those online, so he started Nearby, an app that helps you meet new friends in your area. Five years later, Nearby is one of the most popular apps for meeting new people, with over five million downloads on Google Play, and more than 50 billion messages sent on the platform, to date.

Nearby is one of 32 apps participating in the Kin Developer Program, and it was the first to reach the program’s first milestone when they took their Kin experience live in the Google Play Store a few weeks ago. We sat down with Brian Hamachek, co-founder of Nearby, to discuss how the company got involved in the Kin Developer Program, and how they’re using Kin to provide more value to their users.

What interested you in Kin, and why is Kin a fit for Nearby?

I’ve been involved with owning crypto since 2012, and I became interested in Kin during its Token Distribution Event. Right away, I could just tell that this was different than any other crypto project out there. It actually had a qualified team behind it who were working to propel the project forward, and it seemed to solve a number of issues we had been facing. It just seemed like a project we’d want to be a part of.

Nearby has over five million downloads on the Google Play Store. It’s an established app with an existing point system, so why switch to Kin?

When we first added our existing point system, Nearby Points, to our app we originally had much higher aspirations for it. For example, we had planned to allow users to buy real-world items, such as gift cards. Unfortunately, we ran into some obstacles, such as fraud prevention, which made us put those ideas on hold. Kin can solve a lot of those problems for us; it allows us to provide our users with rewards they care about, while also offloading some very complex things, like fraud prevention, to the Kin network. Ultimately though, we plan to replace Nearby Points with Kin because we know that it will add tremendous value to our users.

How did you come up with a use case for Kin?

We knew we wanted to come up with an earn use case that rewarded users for engaging with each other on Nearby. Right now, users can earn Kin by messaging a new user, but the catch is that there’s no way to conclusively determine who is a new user, so it encourages users to interact with any user they think could be new. We think that Kin will increase engagement on Nearby, as it incentivizes general communication between users. We also see Kin as a way to incentivize better behavior on Nearby, and will soon release a new opportunity for users to earn Kin for reporting bad or spammy behavior on the network. If users are willing to help us identify these types of behaviors, they’ll be rewarded in Kin.

Our spend use case lets users redeem Kin for Nearby Points. Once Kin’s atomic swap is released, we will entirely replace our existing points system with Kin. Users will have the same spend opportunities they currently have with Nearby Points, which include tipping other users, sending virtual gifts, and featuring posts to increase their visibility on Nearby.

What has the user response to the Kin integration been?

Users have responded very positively. As of today, our users have opted to create over 30,000 Kin wallets and have conducted over 10,000 Kin transactions. Those numbers are increasing every day and we’re very excited to see such an encouraging rate of adoption continue.

What was it like working with the Kin SDK?

It was very easy to work with. We were able to do most of the implementation in about a week, so it was actually pretty simple to integrate with.

What’s your experience been like in the Kin Developer Program so far?

This has been a very rewarding experience for us. It’s been really exciting for us to see how engaged the Kin community is, especially given how small the program’s participant pool was.

Why should other developers begin building with Kin?

I think that if Kin fits for your app, there’s nothing to lose. It’s really simple to integrate, and it can create so much value for your app and your users. What’s great about Kin is that its value is very much app-dependent. In one app, Kin is a way to reward other users for their content. In another, it’s a way to buy things. In yet another, it compensates users for their attention. This gives app developers the flexibility to build meaningful Kin implementations that are unique to their apps, and it can provide value to developers and consumers in many different ways.

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Nearby is available to all users on Android. Download the app, and be sure to check out other apps in the Kin Developer Program.