Introduction

The blockchain industry has faced significant regulatory challenges, with the US SEC taking a leading role in scrutinizing companies involved in cryptocurrency sales. Kin, initially launched through an ICO under a social messaging app, has been a target of this scrutiny. The legal battles have transformed Kin into a fully decentralized platform.

This article details the history and evolution of Kin, covering its specific use cases, tokenomics, and the impact of regulatory actions. It further explores Kin’s transition from Ethereum to Solana, its partnership with Code for micropayments, and its community-driven governance model following the dissolution of the Kin Foundation.

What is Kin?

Kin is a fully decentralized blockchain platform that thrives in bringing peer-to-peer payment solutions to third-party apps. It unites developers, content creators, and end-users in a business model that guarantees digital payments using $KIN.

Kin is built to collaborate with Code—a micropayment platform—in a mutually beneficial manner. Code is optimized to function on the Solana blockchain and adopts $KIN as a default token for settlement. It is designed for instant micropayment using cryptocurrency and can be integrated into third-party apps as a payment option.

Formerly launched on the Ethereum blockchain, Kin migrated to Solana with over 55 million user accounts on December 15, 2020.

Since its launch by Kik Interactive, Kin has undergone upgrades resulting in its decentralization. Kin is a cryptocurrency intended to incentivize Kik’s social messaging app, Kik Messenger. However, this plan was waived following a lawsuit from the SEC and subsequent sale of Kik Messenger.

Kik Interactive was in the news after running into troubles with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. It became more popular for selling Kik messenger to Medialab—an internet brand holding company. Kik Interactive is now a holding company whose only asset is its share of the $KIN supply. It is not actively managing the development or growth of the Kin ecosystem.

Why is Kin fully Decentralized?

Kin Foundation was a not-for-profit organization formed in 2018. It had the responsibility to manage KIN’s reserves including holding and issuance of the token. Kin Foundation managed over 60% of Kin’s total supply. However, the foundation was faced with a dispute, leaving its leadership divided, and most of its board members resigned.

Consequently, $KIN’s operational funds allocation would be divided into two tokens. To be fair, Ted Livingston proposed to fork some of the $KIN tokens and name it Bits. But down the line, this proposal was not approved. And Ted, being solely responsible for Kin Foundation, openly tendered an apology via his Substack page.

In a bid to fully decentralize Kin, Ted made some proposals that are subject to approval by the Kin community. They include:

• Kin foundation should be dissolved
• The kin reward engine should be paused
• $KIN foundation’s reserve, holding 4.96 Trillion KIN, should be burned
• Kik Interactive burns 2.10 Trillion of its KIN tokens

The vote to burn 70% of KIN’s total supply was affirmative, coupled with the need to shrink inflation. By November 2023, Ted Livingston, via his Reddit account, announced the formal dissolution of the Kin Foundation, bringing Kin to a fully decentralized ecosystem managed by its community.

Brief History

Kin was launched on September 26, 2017, by Kik Interactive Inc. through an Initial Coin Offering. With over $100 million raised from the ICO, Kin would be the cryptocurrency to power the economy of the KiK messaging app. However, a dispute ensued from the United States Security and Exchange Commission on Kin’s ICO on June 4th, 2019. In a lawsuit, the SEC claimed that Kin’s ICO was an unregistered security sale. They also alleged that the ICO was a money-raising scheme for Kik Interactive. But Kik’s former CEO Ted Livingston refused to cave in and rose to defend these claims.

To clear the air and focus more on the lawsuit, Ted Livingston announced plans to shut down the Kik messaging app and lay off its staff. By October 18, 2019, KiK was formally acquired by MediaLab—a holding firm for various internet brands.

Moreover, Kik Interactive initiated a fundraising campaign to support blockchain companies that would likely face legal actions from the US SEC. After a 16-month court proceeding, the SEC & Kik’s dispute was finally settled on October 20, 2020. The final judgment ordered Kik to pay a civil penalty of $5 million to the SEC and issue a 45-day notice to the SEC before the issuance of the transfer of KIN tokens.

Kin Foundation initially managed the KIN token reserve. However, the Foundation was later dissolved in November 2023 after an internal dispute among the leadership led to the formal resignation of the Board members, leaving Ted as the only Board member. Consequently, Ted proposed a vote which was agreed upon, to fully decentralize Kin and reduce its token supply. The 21-day voting period, championed by the community, has made Kin a fully decentralized platform. Kin is now managed by its community after the sale of KiK Messenger and the dissolution of Kin Foundation.

About the Team

The team behind Kin is a group of graduates of the University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada who launched the Kik messaging app under a parent company, Kik Interactive Inc. The Team was led by its Founder and former CEO, Ted Livingston, who is currently the Founder of Code, a micropayment app. However, the team was later dissolved following the Kik messaging app’s sale and the Kin Foundation’s subsequent dissolution.

Advantages of Kin

• Non-custodial: Kin is fully decentralized, hence, no one person can implement proposals on its platform until the community decides.
• Zero-crypto knowledge: Payment platforms using $KIN can be integrated into third-party apps and require zero knowledge about cryptocurrencies.
• Mainstream crypto payments: Kin simplifies mainstream financial settlements in cryptocurrencies with instant micropayments.

Disadvantages of Kin

• Payment Limits: Third-party apps can only accept payments with $KIN for a maximum of $5. This is because $KIN can only be used to settle online micropayments.
• Third-party dependency: The utility of KIN tokens is overly dependent on third-party apps. Hence, subjecting Kin to the limitations of mainstream platforms.

Main Features of Kin

Kin encourages its protocol use cases with the following features:

Instant Payment

To beat the norm, Kin offers instant transactions with its token (KIN) using a Code sequencer. As such, this tool schedules signed transactions and manages pending confirmation periods, ensuring transactions with KIN are instant on the Solana blockchain to users.

Digital Payment

Kin encourages the settlement of digital payments using $KIN when integrated into existing mobile and web apps. It also makes it easy for Code to execute micropayments in third-party apps. Hence, users can pay for physical and digital items in $KIN using a QR code, Debit card, and wallet transfer.

How Does Kin Work?

Kin is noncustodial but its functionality is tied to a payment platform called Code. Code is a mobile app used to settle micropayments of not more than $5 in KIN. It guarantees global micro bill settlement for end-users and content creators/developers with Code Wallet and Code SDK. With Code Wallet, end-users can transfer KIN tokens by scanning a QR code. Users can also buy KIN using a debit card and settle micro online payments from their Code wallet using KIN tokens.

On the flip side, Code SDK (software developer kit) is a Code-specific app, optimized for developers and content creators. It is a set of Javascript on node package manager (NPM) that allows easy integration of Code into third-party apps while managing their dependencies. With Code SDK, creators can charge very low prices in $USD for services rendered online and receive payments in KIN.

Essentially, Code’s success as a micropayment platform depends on KIN’s adoption as a payment currency in third-party apps.

Kin Ecosystem

The scope of Kin’s ecosystem encapsulates several third-party apps that have adopted KIN for micropayments, and a few projects managed by the Kin Community. They are as follows:

Code wallet App

Source: getcode

It is a wallet app available on mobile devices that adopts KIN as the sole payment option on its platform. Available for end-users, the code wallet app enables peer-to-peer transactions by simply scanning a QR code, debit card, and designated digital bank apps.

Code Micropayment SDK

It is a Code-specific software developer kit (SDK) that allows developers and content creators to accept payment on their app using KIN. Code micropayment SDK is adaptive to payments not more than $5 in KIN, it also charges as low as $0.01 on each transaction to settle charges on the Solana chain.

Sector 97

Sector 97 is a game publisher working closely with Hulk Labs to launch engaging games for players. The platform has an integrated Code app to enable micropayment and in-game rewards using KIN. Players in Sector 97 are charged $0.25 in KIN tokens to play games. In addition, in-game tournaments are rewarded in KIN, thus incentivizing the economy of the gaming platform.

Sphere

It is a merchant payment platform with diverse financial settlement options and suites. Sphere especially guarantees peer-to-peer yet instant payments with KIN tokens on its platform.

Kin Economy Media

Kin Media is a news aggregator managed by the Kin Community. The platform assembles news reports about Kin from reputable websites, making them accessible to their community from one spot.

Kin Economy Shop

Source: Kin shop

Kin economy shop is a merch shop selling Kin-themed items like shirts and hats of different shades. Payments in Kin Shop are priced in USD but settled with $KIN and debit cards alternatively.

What is KIN Token?

KIN token is the native token of Kin, facilitating transactions, and third-party use cases of KIN within the ecosystem. The KIN tokens were migrated from Ethereum to the Solana blockchain on December 15, 2020, with over 55 million users at the time of migration. Thus changing Kin’s ERC-20 token standard to its Solana variant.

KIN Token Use Cases

KIN’s token use cases include the following:

• Serves as the sole payment option on the Code Wallet app
• Used to settle micro bills in third-party apps that have integrated Code SDK
• Used to make purchases on Kin economy shop
• Used to settle Solana blockchain fees on Code SDK

Tokenomics

Source: Medium

Kin settled for deflationary tokenomics after its community voted to burn over 70% of its initial total supply of 10 trillion KIN tokens. This will bring KIN’s current supply to approximately 2.75 trillion. On July 6, 2023, Kin’s founder, Ted Livingston proposed a vote to burn 4.96 Trillion KIN Reserves under the (former) Kin Foundation along with 2.10 trillion KIN from Kik Inc. The proposal was agreed upon and the voting period lasted for 21 days.

The third-week voting period and subsequent burn of 70% of KIN’s total supply left a supply of 2.94 trillion tokens by July 28, 2023. The community is committed to assembling and burning more KIN tokens to foster Kin’s deflationary goals. In the words of Kin’s Community Administrator, who goes by the pseudonym, KinShip, “We currently are buying back and burning an additional $800k KIN over the next 195 days” This will result in a significant decline in KIN’s total supply moving forward. However, at the time of writing, (July 2024) KIN has a total supply of 2.75 trillion, and 100% of this supply is in circulation.

Is Kin (KIN) a Good Investment?

Choosing Kin as an investment requires a few considerations. First of all, $KIN’s use for micropayment depends on adopting Code as a payment platform in third-party apps. Secondly, Code is still at the adoption stage, as is the utility of $KIN tokens for micropayments. It would be best to consider Kin for long-term investment.

Additionally, please note that the information provided here is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. It is essential to consult with financial experts before making any investment decisions.

Highlights

Kin is now Available on Helio

Through its X handle, Kin’s community has expressed excitement over a recent deal with Helio. According to the report, Helio has now included $KIN as a payment option on its platform, making it available to settle digital and physical purchases.

Helio is a payment app integrated into popular e-commerce websites like Shopify and WooCommerce. Available on Helio, $KIN can be used to pay for items on e-commerce websites.

Announcing Kin as the Future of Micropayment

$KIN has been tagged as the future of micropayment as Code begins micropayment services using the token on its platform. Following the announcement on Kineconomy, Code is designed to simplify access to crypto payments on mainstream platforms, and it is using $KIN to accomplish this goal. With Code, mainstream consumers can conduct peer-to-peer transactions with $KIN tokens on third-party apps.

How to Own KIN

You can buy KIN from centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, Gate.io offers traders the KIN/USDT trading pair. To own the token, create a Gate.io account, and complete the registration process. Also, you need to fund your spot trading account and go through the steps to buy KIN.

Take Action on KIN

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• KIN/USDT