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Jeff John Roberts
Jeff John Roberts 2018年5月8日
Kik, the Canadian-based chat app, on Tuesday announced it’s launched its own blockchain as part of an effort to promote the use of its digital currency—known as Kin—in various online communities.
The move is notable because Kik, which raised $98 million dollars in a so-called “Initial Coin Offering,” already put its Kin currency into circulation on another blockchain, Ethereum, which it used to create and distribute 10 trillion Kin tokens last fall.
So why is Kik starting afresh with its own blockchain? According to CEO Ted Livingston, Ethereum is simply too slow to serve as a viable tool for the world of rapid token transactions he envisions. In that vision, Kins will be the coin of the realm in all sorts of Internet economies, from video games to ad blocking, and help to dethrone the online duopoly of Facebook and Google.
In a bid to make this happen, Livingston decided last year that Kik should turn to Stellar, an open-source blockchain whose technology is also being used for remittances, and by IBM and banks to move money in the South Pacific.
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In practice, this means Kik will create its own custom version of Stellar that will speed up Kin payments, and also let users move tokens back and forth between the new Stellar blockchain, and the existing Ethereum one. Livingston tells Fortune that this will entail converting a bulk of Kin’s 10 trillion treasury from Ethereum to Stellar in a way that pegs the values of the currencies to each other.
Needless to say, all of this is a very tall order, not least because it will involve new technology, known as atomic bridging, to move the tokens between the blockchains.
Livingston, though, is confident he can pull it off, in part because he did this before (albeit on a smaller scale) in 2014 when Kik ran a digital money program called Kik Points that saw the app’s users buy and sell emojis and other types of digital art. At the time, Kik was flying high but then incurred major setbacks as a result of patent threats from BlackBerry and the arrival of Facebook’s chat service, Messenger.
Today, Kik is something of a niche player, though the company says it has a loyal base on 15 million users. Last fall’s ICO also gives the company strategic room to maneuver thanks to the $98 million war chest it raised.
Livingston, who has been involved in cryptocurrency since the early days of bitcoin, sees the Kin tokens as a way to get back on top. He believes many Internet companies, including publishers, will be eager to embrace the tokens as a way to support an online economy that’s not dependent on Facebook. So far, Kik has signed up the gaming software giant Unity as well as e-gift company Blackhawk, to use the tokens in their operations.
“Most crypto projects to date have been technology-driven first and product-driven second. Kin has always been the opposite,” said Livingston in a statement. “Our goal is for Kin to be the most used cryptocurrency in the world, and [the Stellar blockchain] will help get us there sooner.”
Kik,加拿大的聊天应用程序,星期二宣布ITWPA60300 7QTES推出了自己的BooStand,作为促进其数字货币被称为Kin在各种在线社区的使用的一部分。此举之所以引人注目,是因为KIK在一个所谓的WPA60604QTEST硬币发行中筹集了9800万美元,WPAP60300 6QTE已经把它的金币流通到另一个连锁链EthUM上,它在去年秋天用来创建和分发10兆个Kin令牌。那么为什么KIK用它自己的链链重新开始呢?据首席执行官Ted Livingston说,Ethereum实在太慢了,不可能成为他所设想的快速令牌交易的可行工具。在这一愿景中,金斯将成为各种互联网经济领域中的佼佼者,从视频游戏到广告封锁,帮助脸谱网和谷歌的在线双寡头垄断。WPA6022602IMGKik TeD Lavigson诺姆Galai-GATTY公司的TechCrunch公司的创始人和首席执行官为了实现这一目标,Livingston去年决定了Kik我们应该求助于一个开源的B股链,它的技术也被用于汇款,IBM和银行将资金转移到南太平洋。关心密码新闻吗?注册LeigGeWPAP60300 7QTES每周通讯。在实践中,这意味着KIK将创建自己的定制版本的恒星,将加快金支付,也让用户移动令牌来回之间的新恒星块链,以及现有的Ethune。Livingston告诉财富,这将需要将大量的KimWPA60607QTE 10兆财政部从Ethereum到恒星的方式,钉住货币的价值彼此。不用说,所有这些都是一个非常高的顺序,尤其是因为它将涉及新的技术,称为原子桥接,移动块链之间的令牌。不过,Livingston相信他能做到这一点,部分原因是因为他在2014之前(虽然规模较小)在Kik开设了一个名为Kik PoT的数字货币项目时,他看到AppWPA60300 7QTE用户购买和销售EMOJIS和其他类型的数字艺术。当时,KIK飞得很高,但随后由于黑莓的专利威胁和FACEBBooWPAP60300 7QTES聊天服务Messenger的到来而招致重大挫折。今天,KIK是一个利基播放器,虽然该公司说它有一个忠实的基础上1500万个用户。最后的FalWAP60607QTES ICO还给予了公司战略空间的机动,因为它提出了9800万美元的战争胸部。自比特币早期起,Livingston就一直参与到隐匿性交易中去,将亲属令牌视为重返榜首的一种方式。他相信许多互联网公司,包括出版商,都会渴望接受这些代币,以此来支持一个不依赖脸谱网的网络经济。到目前为止,KIK已经签署了游戏软件巨头联合以及电子礼品公司黑鹰,使用令牌在他们的行动。“迄今为止的大多数加密项目都是技术驱动的,其次是产品驱动的。“金正日一直是相反的,”Livingston在一份声明中说。“我们的目标是让KIN成为世界上使用频率最高的密码,而[星际链”将有助于我们更快地到达那里。”
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