Kin Ecosystem SDK vs. Kin Core SDK: What’s the Difference?

As we all know, Kin’s main goal is to have widespread usage from the masses for engagement in day-to-day activities within digital services. We aim to reach millions of users on a global scale by providing them with amazing, unique experiences. In this post, we are going to focus on the users who will eventually have full usage over our SDKs.

But first, we need to define why we have two separate SDKs and who they are essentially for.

To do so, we (the Blockchain Team) joined forces with the Ecosystem Team to lay out and highlight the key differences of our SDKs.

To recap, the main goal of the Blockchain Team is to develop the best infrastructure on which we can transact with Kin. This will happen on the Kin Core SDK. We want this platform to be accessible to indie developers and other creative, independent thinkers who are eager to experiment primarily with the cryptocurrency environment.

The main goal of the Ecosystem team is two-fold: To create the best Kin user experience for our Ecosystem partners through the creation of a new monetization model. This will all be made possible by implementation of the Kin Ecosystem SDK. This SDK will focus on wallet capabilities and the Marketplace, which includes out-of-the-box earn-and-spend opportunities along with native in-app experiences.

So, how do these two SDKs interact? Since blockchain technology is complex, we have simplified our solution for developers who will eventually implement and integrate the Core SDK.

The Core SDK is providing the blockchain building blocks to be used by the Ecosystem SDK to interact with a blockchain. These building blocks include: creating an account, getting a balance, monitoring KIN-enabled payments, and so on. The Ecosystem SDK provides UI and blockchain functionalities as a service: registering and creating accounts for users, managing offers’ lifecycle, and providing analytics.

The Ecosystem SDK also exposes higher-level blockchain APIs that wrap the Blockchain Core SDK API in a simplified way. This enables the functionality to do things like create an account, monitor the blockchain, or get transaction confirmation and balance updates.

Ecosystem SDK’s components and functionalities

• User authentication and registration (to Ecosystem services)
• Create account and trustline for registered users
• Fund wallets
• Welcome screen + ToS/PP of ecosystem service
• Marketplace homepage
• Earn/spend offers —each offer includes Kin value, capping, offer details & an image
• Balance and ongoing pending transactions widget
• Order history
• Coloring transactions and adding orderID metadata to each transaction
• FAQ
• ‘Contact Us’ section
• Will support native earn/spend based on marketplace infrastructure and technical flow to simplify and reduce efforts for digital services
• Show native earn/spend orders history
• Show ongoing pending native earn/spend transactions
• Provide native spend confirmation dialog
• Simplify native earn/spend technical flow for digital service
• Native earn/spend error handling
• Native earn/spend offer accounting and tracking via blockchain
• Coloring transactions (per Digital Service partner)

In order to support all of the above and to simultaneously create a user experience with complete flow and ease, we will integrate the Core SDK as an internal dependency. The Core SDK provides the blockchain building blocks needed to ensure functionality and interconnection with the Ecosystem SDK. The Core SDK is currently built on top of Stellar Blockchain.

Core SDK’s components and functionalities

• Create new account: Activate account, authenticate KIN
• Get public address
• Get balance
• Monitor balance changes
• KIN-supported payments
• Monitoring KIN payments
• Securely manage the developers wallet
• Securely store private key
• Channels support for scale

Indie developer types who wish to build a blockchain experience from the ground up will be able to use the Core SDK to create their own custom implementation and solutions. This way, they will have full control over with what goes on in their creations.

As our Core SDK starts to reach real users with the testing of the ‘Kinit’ beta app, we will continue to learn, optimize, and share interesting insights with you. Stay tuned!