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Messenger App Kik Debuts Its Own Digital Currency (bloomberg.com)

The messaging app Kik Interactive has decided to create its own digital currency. Kik's plans are for an "initial coin offering," a process by which it sells tokens that can be used to buy services on its platform. "The idea is that as more and more people use Kik, the value of those tokens, called 'Kin,' will rise in value," reports TechCrunch. From the report: Kik, which has raised about $120 million (in real money) from investors including Tencent Holdings Ltd., could serve to add a new layer of legitimacy to the process. "Kik will be the largest install base of cryptocurrency users in the world," Chief Executive Officer Ted Livingston said. "Kin, on day one will be the most-used cryptocurrency in the world." The move comes as Kik finally reveals how many people actually use its app regularly each month: 15 million. That's a far-cry from the 300 million total registered users number it was sharing around this time last year. Kik plans to gift a certain amount of Kin to each user. They'll be able use the new currency to buy games, live video streams and other digital products. The company's goal is to attract new merchants to sell on the platform, creating a snowball effect where Kin becomes more valuable and more sellers pile onto Kik, increasing its popularity.

51 comments

  1. Scrip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Seems more like scrip than cryptocurrency to me.

  2. Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    Kik was the company that had the NPM package name, kik, taken away from the developer for trademark reasons and the developer broke the Iternet by deleting his packages (including the ever popular song

    1. Re:Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Sorry, express bus hit a pot hole and my finger accidentally hit the submit button. Before I was interrupted...

      The developer removed all his packages, including the ever popular pad left function. Who knew that every JavaScript project was dependent on it being available?

      https://qz.com/646467/how-one-programmer-broke-the-internet-by-deleting-a-tiny-piece-of-code/

    2. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      How many seats do you take up on the express bus? Is it three, four, or five?

      One seat. Or less than one seat if I'm sitting between two bigger people. No, I've never been required to buy an extra seat on an airplane.

    3. Re:Remember Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've otherwise never heard of this umpteenth "instant messenger".

      How do you get $120mn in funding for that? Should all poor simply start a startup for some stupid app or other, by preference one that already exists? "Coding" skill, or any other skill not required, just say you're "an ideas man".

    4. Re:Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      How do you get $120mn in funding for that?

      Before the dot com bust, you needed a napkin and a pen to get funded.

      Should all poor simply start a startup for some stupid app or other, by preference one that already exists?

      https://www.gofundme.com/

    5. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      I suspect the flight attendants would have simply asked you to leave the plane so they could get under the maximum takeoff weight.

      On my last plane flight, every seat was filled. No one was asked to leave the plane because it couldn't take off. If the plane was overloaded, they simply send your luggage on a different flight.

    6. Re: Remember Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " if I'm sitting between two bigger people"

      There's bigger people than you?

      "No, I've never been required to buy an extra seat on an airplane."

      But I bet you were required to wipe it down after the flight. You're used to that from all that time you spend in the gym, right?

    7. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      There's bigger people than you?

      Two, three or four times bigger than me. I'm skinny in comparison to these people.

      But I bet you were required to wipe it down after the flight.

      Uh, no.

      You're used to that from all that time you spend in the gym, right?

      I'm not some skinny ass marathon runner who drips like a fire hydrant all over the treadmill.

    8. Re: Remember Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not some skinny ass marathon runner who drips like a fire hydrant all over the treadmill.

      Let's review the facts. Given the following:
      1) Insulation retains heat.
      2) Fat acts as an excellent insulator.
      3) You have a lot of fat on your body.
      4) The body dissipates excess heat through evaporative cooling of sweat.
      5) Vigorous exercise generates a lot of excess heat in the body.

      Your claim that you don't drip sweat on the gym equipment leads us to conclude one of the following:
      1) You have some bizarre disorder that prevents you from sweating. If so, then you shouldn't be exercising at all, and should be relying on strict and severe calorie regulation to lose weight, while making use of mechanical cooling mechanisms to keep yourself cool.
      2) Your body produces SO much heat when exercising that the sweat literally boils away as steam as it reaches the surface of your skin. If so, then you'd have cooked yourself alive.
      3) Your workouts are so low-intensity that you don't even break a sweat.

      Only one of these is physically possible. Guess which one it is? (Pro tip: it's the one that directly contradicts your claims of working out vigorously on a regular basis. Coincidentally, it's also the one which supports the generally accepted theory that you remain a fatbody because you don't know how to, or don't care to, make an honest effort at losing weight.)

    9. Re: Remember Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Two, three or four times bigger than me. I'm skinny in comparison to these people."

      700 pound, 1050 pound, and 1400 pound people take the bus, and there's enough of them so that you have one on each side?

      Or did you mean 11 foot 8, 17 foot 6, or 23 foot 4 tall people?

      "I'm not some skinny ass marathon runner who drips like a fire hydrant all over the treadmill."

      Sweating is normal in a gym, not when typing at the keyboard,

    10. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Your claim that you don't drip sweat on the gym equipment leads us to conclude one of the following:

      WRONG! I claimed I didn't drip like a fire hydrant that skinny ass marathon runners do at the gym. My sweat is contained by the workout clothes that I wear and a gym towel that I wipe my shaved head with.

      Guess which one it is?

      You're full of shit. Try again.

    11. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Sweating is normal in a gym, not when typing at the keyboard,

      It's not even summer yet.

    12. Re: Remember Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WRONG! I claimed I didn't drip like a fire hydrant that skinny ass marathon runners do at the gym.

      You made that claim while explaining how you don't have to wipe down gym equipment after you're done using it. If you use equipment, it's common courtesy to wipe it down so your sweat and skin oils are not all over the machines. If you don't have to wipe it down, then you're either:

      1) An ignorant shitheel who doesn't mind ruining shared equipment, and making everybody's time at the gym objectively less pleasant;
      2) Not sweating enough to feel that you've left any residue on the machine;

      So - either way, your claim that you don't wipe down is rooted in douchebag behavior and/or idiocy of the first order. Congratulations, creimer, you've lived down to our expectations one more time.

    13. Re: Remember Kik... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Not sweating enough to feel that you've left any residue on the machine;

      That's the whole point of wearing gym clothes. I'm not going to wear a Speedo, jump on the treadmill and splatter everyone in a ten-feet radius.. Skinny ass guys do that all the time — and then not wipe down the treadmill. It's a disgusting habit. Just as bad as skinny ass guys who scream like pregnant women while lifting weights.

      https://twitter.com/cdreimer/status/866006296541016064

  3. Digital currencies should be banned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're basically only used for ransomware and buying illegal goods on the dark web. We need fewer digital currencies, not more of them. Boko Haram may love digital currencies, but the civilized world should ban them.

  4. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tokens are not people, just so you know. They exist purely to make us functioning members of society look good to other non-persons until we reclaim their illegally-held wealth.

  5. Kik... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...starter???

  6. Token is a person! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tokens are not people, just so you know.

    Token Black.

    1. Re:Token is a person! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1
  7. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Liberals went crazy because a gay, and later a woman, tried to give speeches at Berkley.

    I think you are pointing at the wrong people who are the racists/homophobes/misogynists.
    Tell me again which party had a KKK leader in the Senate for decades? Let me give you a hint, it was Robert Byrd (D).
    Which party filibustered the Civil Rights act? Again D
    Which party wanted to stop women from voting? Again D
    Which party literally started a war in order to keep slavery? Again D

    Make all the claims you want, I have evidence and history showing the exact opposite.

  8. Can I use it to buy Alpaca Socks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If not, it's not a real cryptocurrency.

  9. Porn. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Kik is positioning themselves for cam girls (and boys) to get paid.

    1. Re:Porn. by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      That was exactly my first thought as well. Hell, it was happening on kik as I understand it already. Now the company can potentially make some money on the deal too.
       
      You offer users the ability to play "games" (i.e. watch interactive ads) and give them fake money, they pass it on for porn, porn returns it for real money or pays for additional services using it. Thus advertisement money goes to kik, and some small amount of that goes to people making porn, the rest goes in their pocket, and the porn using population doesn't need to pay for porn. And heck, some users will want to pay kik for fake money to use in games and for porn anyway, and that's just more in their pocket. It's brilliant!
       
      $50 says facebook is doing this in a year if it's successful. It would be a very good way to further monitize their users.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    2. Re:Porn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just what the world fucking needed, more pedopeso currencies.

    3. Re:Porn. by davidwr · · Score: 1

      Just what the world fucking needed, more pedopeso currencies.

      I for one prefer to use mature currencies.

      --
      Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  10. each of us debuts our own currency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    backed by goods & services as in the days before... not to mention the unlimited value of our highly charged spirits... cease fire stand down,, hugs not thugs,, sing along,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoHcWbb_cPM .. never ends thank mom

  11. Digital currencies of spurious substance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not being a party to the Coinage Act would distinguish as private credit or a numismatic token not tenable for public use!

    Federal Reserve Notes are nothing more than casino gaming tokens when compared to Federal Reserve Certificates, and the FRC are on par as public money similar to a United States Note from the U.S. Treasury not a Instrument from the Federal Reserve branch agency (corporation-banking) that we dread everyday.

    1. Re: Digital currencies of spurious substance. by fubarrr · · Score: 1

      Screw the USD

    2. Re:Digital currencies of spurious substance. by davidwr · · Score: 1

      What are these "Federal Reserve Notes" of which you speak.

      My US Dollars are stored in book-entry form at my bank.

      They must be worth something because the grocer store gladly accepts a that piece of plastic along with my PIN that instructs my bank to transfer some of those dollars to his bank in exchange for something that I can eat.

      --
      Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  12. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do you expect?

    Slashdot is an open source advocacy site.

  13. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 0

    Liberals went crazy because a gay, and later a woman, tried to give speeches at Berkley.

    Careful now, if anyone can be a racist their heads will implode from all the failed indoctrination and cognitive dissonance. That many liberals self-immolating at once might make global warming real.

  14. At last! by hipp5 · · Score: 1

    At last! An opportunity to make back my losses from my speculative investments in Linden Dollars.

    1. Re:At last! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that was a pretty stupid investment. If you had bought Bitcoin, the most popular "online currency", at any time since it started, you would be sitting on a huge profit right now.

  15. Token is a person! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tokens are not people, just so you know.

    Token Black

  16. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

    The real racist say "Blacks can't use cell phones" because ... they're black and don't know how. Mostly white liberals on college campuses.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    I know this doesn't fit the agenda of the left, parroting the mantra that "white people are racist" in the way they want. But the fact is, the biggest racists I know are those white liberals running around making excuses as to why black people need help, simply because of their skin color.

    The greatest example is, watching a white liberal explain how black people need to wear their pants around their knees, as if it were some racial trait that cannot be overcome.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  17. Re:Racist Star Trek fans getting called out by pushing-robot · · Score: 1

    You're talking about the 'Southern Democrats', a group of reactionaries who blamed the Republicans for the Civil War, the Reconstruction, and equal rights. They voted solidly Democrat until Johnson "betrayed" them by enacting the Civil Rights Act.

    Unfortunately, America's two-party system left those emigres nowhere to go but the Republican party, and so the party of civil rights and social liberty from Lincoln to Eisenhower turned into what we see today.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  18. This title... by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    this title really begs for an ethnic slur/stereotype based pun.

    Do you know perchance if owners of that messenger are Jewish?

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  19. Here come the kik-whores! by 914 · · Score: 1

    And what's wrong with that? An opportunity for enterprising folks to (mostly) cut out the middlemen/gatekeepers.

  20. Pants on the ground by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The greatest example is, watching a white liberal explain how black people need to wear their pants around their knees, as if it were some racial trait that cannot be overcome.

    The person who explained it best was undoubted not a racist, and was not a white liberal, but was all unbridled talent and a great example!!!

  21. Preteens and dating apps people aren't paying to m by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's all Kik is used for. So, no one with any money. Good luck.

  22. You lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    47 of the 51 dixicrats went back to the DNC, for life. I listed one, Robert Byrd KKK leader. His buddy Al Gore Sr. was another one. They were welcomed, to the point that Al Gore Sr's son was put up for president, and Hillary Clinton said Robert Byrd was her mentor. Not just accepted back, but celebrated.

    You lied.

  23. Looking into it... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1

    Never heard of the app, then I went to look further into it:

    "On November 4, 2014, Kik scored 1 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard."

    "Kik Messenger has drawn controversy due to its reported involvement in a number of incidents of child exploitation. The app has been criticized as unsafe for minors due to its anonymity features and allegedly weak parental control mechanisms."

    "Kik has been criticized for providing inadequate parental control over minors' use of the app. The ability to share messages without alerting parents has been noted as "one of the reasons why teens like Kik".Parents cannot automatically view their child's Kik communications remotely from another device, but instead must have the password to their child's user account and view the communications on the same device used by their child."

    Yeah... I mean, I'm fully expecting messaging apps to have payment options and to even implement virtual stores as a feature of sorts, but this is the worst way of it happening.

  24. It's a stupid idea by mapkinase · · Score: 1

    to limit universality of universal commodity called money

    --
    I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.