There were a number of high profile ICOs in 2017, where projects raised enormous sums of money in a blink of an eye. While the trend seems to be slowing down through the first quarter of 2018, these significant capital raises are sure to have a lasting impact on the markets as investors hold onto their astronomically high valuation expectations.

One highly touted ICO that raised nearly $100 million was Kin, the native currency of the popular messaging app Kik, which is one of the world’s most used chat services and the fifth most-searched term in the iOS App Store. Kik aims to build fundamental value for the new currency by integrating Kin into its chat app as a transactional unit, both for peer-to-peer and merchant interactions. Ultimately, Kik hopes to develop Kin into the social messaging currency through economic incentives designed to bring more digital service providers underneath the Kin Foundation umbrella.

Interested in Kin? Here’s a quick rundown of the project:

Platform & Development

Kin is first being integrated into the Kik messaging app with the intention of creating a digital economy inside the app. The project aims to make Kin mainstream through organic adoption by millions of daily Kik users, establishing the fundamental value of the currency.

Critical to the long-term growth of Kin is the Kin Rewards Engine, a method to economically align a large group of developers to work together to build an alternative ecosystem of digital services. Through the Kin Rewards Engine, Kin will be introduced into circulation as a daily reward, distributed to stakeholders based on their contribution to the entire ecosystem. This structure is designed to create a natural incentive for owners of other digital service providers to adopt kin and become partners in the Kin ecosystem.

Once the Rewards Engine is up and running, 0.061 percent of the 6 trillion Kin currently in reserves will be released daily to the ecosystem.

Kik made news when they announced their decision to move from the Ethereum to the Stellar blockchain, due to high transaction fees and slow confirmation times plaguing the Ethereum network (learn more about Stellar). Since that time, they have reneged on their decision to move solely to Stellar, and have proposed a hybrid framework. To make this two blockchain system work, Kik is employing atomic swaps, a technology that allows cryptocurrencies to be traded across blockchains.

“Creating a bi-directional blockchain with stellar will drive mass adoption of kin by providing faster confirmation times, low transaction fees and scalability,” CEO Ted Livingston said in a press release.

Team

The Kik team is extremely well-established and is leveraging years of experience from running one of the most successful apps currently on the market.

Token Financials

Kin (KIN) currently has a market cap of ~$125 million with a circulating supply of 756,097,560,976 KIN and a total supply of 10,000,000,000,000 KIN (an extremely high amount).

Final Take

Coming off their massive ICO, Kik aims to build the world’s largest social currency through the integration of multiple digital service providers underneath the Kin Foundation. Time will tell if Kin can build its elaborate ecosystem and expand upon its current valuation.

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Disclaimer: The author(s) of this article may have a position in one or more of the securities mentioned above. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.