The Canadian chat platform Kik has announced it is creating and integrating digital currency Kin to “fuel” its internal “communications, information and commerce.”
In a press release issued Thursday, Kik, which boasts several million monthly active users based mainly in the US, said decentralized solutions “provide a sustainable way forward.”
“Kik believes that Kin can bring together a broad group of participants to create an open ecosystem of digital services that prioritizes consumer experience and choice,” Ted Livingston, Founder and CEO of Kik said.
“As a leader in the chat space, we want to bring a fair and sustainable model for digital services to the market and fuel an alternative ecosystem for communications, information and commerce.”
Like many recent crypto-based offerings for enterprise, Kin will take the form of an ERC20 token issued on the Ethereum Blockchain.
Once the asset is available, Kik intends to drive user adoption through an internal rewards scheme, as well as create the so-called Kin Foundation to offer decentralized governance of its ecosystem.
“Kik will be the first mainstream application to integrate a cryptocurrency,” board member Fred Wilson continued, adding that he considered the move to be a “watershed moment for the Blockchain sector.”
The accompanying ICO for Kin has not yet been confirmed but will “take place later this summer,” Kik says.