Kin Developer Program Q&A: Kinny

A few months ago, a team of Kin community members was formed around an idea to build an app that would allow users all over social media to tip one another seamlessly with Kin.

In October, Kinny the tip-bot, one of the first peer-to-peer experiences to be created through the Kin Developer Program, went live to real users. Kinny is a community-driven project, created by five individuals who met in our own community channels, each with the same goal to join forces and build something useful — not only for the Kin community, but for everyone on social media.

We sat down with Trevor and Richie, two of five members of the Kinny team, to talk about the purpose of the app, their challenges, and their vision for Kinny’s future.

What interested you in Kin, and why is Kin a fit for kinny?

We’ve all been interested in Kin since the token distribution event. Not many cryptocurrencies have an actual use case, but Kin does. Some of us have been in crypto since the early days, so it was refreshing to see a project that had a clear vision for actual real world usage. We didn’t see Kin as trying to replace fiat within existing systems, but rather disrupting the very way in which users, developers, and platforms interact in the digital space.

Kin and Kinny are like peanut butter and jelly, peas in a pod. Kinny was created specifically for Kin. It was a way for the community to actively take a role in promoting Kin, and we anticipate the use of Kinny to evolve and grow with the expansion of the Kin Ecosystem.

How did you come up with a use case for Kin?

Kinny allows users to send and receive Kin over a growing number of social networks, including Twitter and Reddit, regardless of whether they have downloaded the app. Users who download the app will also be able to earn Kin doing surveys.

The use case for Kin as a means to reward content creators on social media was self evident. Other crypto projects were getting involved with tipping, most notably the xrptipbot. Xrptipbot’s creator, Wietse Wind, advised us in the early days, and we can’t thank him enough. We saw what we believe is the significant potential for Kinny to play a role as an extension of the Kin Ecosystem. Kinny provides a way to reach beyond the ecosystem and draw users on social media into what promises to be an exciting world of earning and spending Kin on an ever-developing breadth of experiences, products, and services.

Kinny is thought of as a community project with a purpose and meaning to it. It’s not just a “feel good” project, but one that’s targeted to evolve and grow and provide real value as time goes on. An important early use of Kinny is to connect the members of the community to one another, and allow better interactions and engagements.

What has the user response to Kinny been? Were you surprised by this reaction?

User response has been fantastic. Initially, we were afraid to release a product like this under such a tight deadline. We built an app from scratch and not only incorporated the Kin SDK, but also built our own peer-to-peer wallet facilitating Kin movements from one user to another over the Kin Blockchain. We thought it would be met with a mixture of positivity and indifference — tipping was described by some in the community as a sub-par use case, but the opposite has occurred. Some of the most skeptical critics of the usefulness of Kinny have become some of Kinny’s greatest advocates. The Kin Community has been absolutely lovely, supportive, patient, and understanding of our progress.

What are some of the challenges you’ve been facing?

While we’re building Kinny as a side project, creating an app from scratch is not a small thing — it’s an entire business. There are regulations to adhere to, company incorporation, data security considerations, bank accounts, industry grade servers to maintain, and more.

One of our goals is to allow users to use the blockchain without having to understand its technological aspects. In such an immature industry; where the technology is still not mainstream and tools for user interactions are scarce, it took time to figure out how to let users interact with this emerging technology, without them experiencing the challenges of the infrastructure.

What was it like working with the Kin SDK as part of the Kin Developer Program?

We think the Kin Developer program is fantastic. It’s a one of a kind beta testing platform for the Kin Ecosystem where unique apps with varying use cases can test and use the SDK.

The work so far has been exhilarating and exhausting. We understand that being part of the project at these nascent stages affords both opportunities and challenges. Besides the pressures of bringing Kinny to market in a short period of time, blockchain teething issues; bug discovery, and so on, we are feeling very optimistic and looking forward to taking Kinny forward.

There have certainly been challenges and bugs to work through with the developer experience team, but with these ironed out we can see how a robust and tried-and-tested SDK could be implemented on a broader scale. If you were to ask us if we would recommend other developers to join future iterations of the Kin Developer Program, our answer would be without a doubt — yes!

Why should other developers begin building with Kin?

Building with the Kin SDK offers developers a chance to get in at the ground floor of a rapidly expanding economy. The benefits of collaboration and joining a virtuous economic cycle promise to be significant. When one considers the potential network effects of the Kin Ecosystem vision you have to stop and take notice. It’s time for users to be compensated for their data. It’s time for content creators and developers to be rewarded for their efforts. It’s time for Kin.

Anything else to share?

Thinking about this Q&A reminded us of the amazing story behind how Kinny came to be. The opportunity offered by the Kin Developer Program was too good to miss, so a group of people all using pseudonyms located around the world somehow managed to put their crypto anonymity barriers aside, pool their complimentary skills together and decide to build what was originally called the KinTipBot. Kinny created seemingly impossible social connections before going live, and as a team we look forward to hearing how the use of Kinny brings others together in the future.

For more information, download the app on Android (iOS coming soon!), or visit their website.