Crypto for the Masses
By on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Everyone knows that to succeed, crypto must appeal to the masses. Crypto needs to have user rates that are in the billions, not in the tens of millions.
Right now, there’s a lot of activity towards this aim in different spheres. Analysts are writing that massive worldwide cryptocurrency adoption is about to take place. The basic argument of folks like Richard Black is that:
Mobile Messaging + Cryptocurrency = Worldwide Adoption
Examples of this include the launch of Kin on the KIK social platform (300m registered users, no clear MAU data), the launch of a cryptocurrency on Telegram, continuing speculation about TwitterCoin, FaceTokens, and so on.
Kin You See The Crypto?
Of these, Kin is already live, and in terms of UI/UX, it’s delightful.
It’s the first large scale crypto earning platform. It allows users to complete basic market surveys and so on to earn a little Kin. In-app redemption allows you to get a $25 AirBnB coupon for 2,500 Kin and so on.
In the next few days, Kik/Kin will release a further integration, along with the debut of 40 additional apps for earning Kin.
All-in-all, it’s a major step forward for all of crypto.
Steem and others have similar schemes, but Kik/Kin’s reach and ease-of-use set this platform head and shoulders above everything else we’ve tried.
But, there’s a big difference between pure quantitative adoption and the right kind of global adoption to spur breakout growth in entirely new economic segments.
Critiquing Kik/Kin
Kik/Kin is blazing a bright new path. Here are some milestones, in the words of
, founder & CEO of Kik/Kin:We launched Kinit, a way for brands to pay you for your attention, becoming the first iPhone app in the world to get approved by Apple for earning and spending crypto. This, combined with Kik users, gave Kin more active users than all Ethereum dapps combined.
That’s pretty impressive.
But even as it stretches crypto horizons, Kik/Kin’s own approach to its own crypto earning platform is severely limiting.
Elsewhere, Kik/Kin describe earning Kin for “digital services,” in-app market surveys, social media interactions, and so on.
But in describing Kin as confined to in-app transactions, Kin is detaching itself from the crypto (material) economy. Totally. Unnecessarily.
How to Earn Kin?
The paradox of Kik/Kin’s marketing is that it doesn’t capture the reality of the budding Kik/Kin marketplace, which has apps that will give Kin rewards for completing off-Kik activities!
Here’s Kik/Kin’s own brief intro to the 40 apps awaiting release in the coming days.
By Kik’s own terms, folks will be earning Kin not only “inside Kik” — quite the opposite, the apps show that Kin-earning opportunities can be far more complex than just simple binary on-chain crypto-swaps.
Here are two examples from Kik/Kin’s own release:
- GoChallengeMe.club is a social platform that will incentivize people to achieve their goals through competition and accountability. Users will be able to enter competitions with community members who are working toward the same goal, and will earn Kin for being the first member to reach said goal.
- KinQuest is a social platform by Spaced that will help travelers meet and socialize with other travelers in their local area. Users will be able to earn Kin by performing quests, and thus meeting up, as well as completing their in-app profile, reviewing users, and for referring other users or businesses.
Does that sound like “in-app” activity?
Yes, there are in-app reporting, input, transactional components, but the genius of Kin and the app-development program is that “competitions,” “meet ups,” “quests” do not necessarily have to be done “inside Kik” in order to receive Kin rewards.
Think Ingress, PokemonGo, etc.
Imagine a waste/hazard reporting app where you’re paid in Kin for reporting waste or dangerous conditions around corporate campuses, playgrounds, or, say, supermarkets. The same app permits responders to buy access to these streaming data inputs, which sustains the reporting activity on global scales of billions of users and billions of daily transactions.
Speaking casually or technically, that’s not “inside Kik” activity, and yet it’s precisely the type of activity that crypto needs to wrap its mighty mind around.
Realizing Full Crypto Earning Potential
In order to realize its full potential, crypto needs to let go of the fetish of purely digital assets, purely digital markets, purely digital user experiences, and so on.
Everyone understands why social media platforms want to keep users in compartmented in-app ecosystems. But there’s far greater potential in opening and integrating crypto earning opportunities with the material world.
Kik/Kin can learn a thing or two from
/Littercoin (& #TrashHash & CleanApp) in this respect.The easier it is to earn Kin, the more people will want to do so.
By contrast, describing your platform as creating a marketplace for “earning & spending” an app-specific crypto solely “inside” that app is a huge turn off.
Better MarketKin, Please!
The worst part of this self-imposed “inside Kik” limitation is that it doesn’t seem to reflect what Kik/Kin is actually doing, nor the full potential of the Kin marketplace.
Yes, social media integration is a big achievement; yes, in “crypto/tech insider” circles it’s a big deal; but as a marketing pitch to end-users, it’s horrible.
This is especially true for users who have never been exposed to Kik, and who may feel justifiable anxiety about downloading yet another social media app for an unclear remote chance of doing some crypto earning.
“Earning Kin inside Kik” is absolutely terrible marketing. It’s Exhibit A of a crypto project that’s shooting itself in the foot.
Instead, Kik/Kin should consider the following marketing approaches:
- This is the first step to greater and greater integration with material, not just digital, markets.
- Kik/Kin are democratizing crypto earning opportunities.
- Kik/Kin are committed to making it progressively easier to earn easily-convertible crypto, for everyone, globally.
- Kik/Kin is the world’s first blockchain hyperutility app.
- Kik/Kin are crypto for the masses.
- […]
As Kin’s Demo Day approaches, it’s strange to see a social media company limit the range of possibilities on its own platform. There’s no known regulatory or apparent strategic/tactical reason for doing so.
So, what going on?
Why are “crypto for the masses” developers deliberately restricting their project to “crypto for the masses who are on Kik?”
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The purpose of ALTCOIN MAGAZINE is to post and repost stories, announcements, and tech explanations from projects within the topics of cryptocurrency and blockchain. This article was written and composed by
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