Kin Newsletter: October 2020 Edition
October 2020
This past month marked the three year anniversary of the Kin Ecosystem going live. On September 26, 2017, Kin was distributed to more than 10,000 people from 117 countries, which represents 60% of the geographic coverage of the world. Since then, more than 41 million people have acquired Kin in the ecosystem and almost 3 million people are spending Kin every single month.
No doubt there have been challenges along the way, but the Kin Ecosystem has shown both resilience and inventiveness that have made Kin the most used cryptocurrency by mainstream consumers. Dozens of developers from all over the world are contributing to the open source project and pushing Kin forward.
This past month the Kin Foundation published a three-year review to commemorate the milestone with an overview of the progress to-date and a look ahead. A summary of that post and a link to the original is embedded below.
One key upcoming milestone for Kin is the migration to the Solana Blockchain. Kin is being used by millions of people every month, and while the user experience has consistently improved, it is not yet the user experience we expect to reach hundreds of millions of people. The move to Solana will bring a 10x improvement in transaction times and a 500x improvement in scale, unlocking the requisite tools to power a seamless economy of hundreds of millions of people. Last week the migration plan was published with a target migration date of December 8. A summary of that process and what to expect for developers and token holders can be found below.
Other updates found in this month’s newsletter:
- The Kin Economy Report: An overview of the key economic indicators for the Kin Economy over the last month
- The Kin Foundation Minute: A summary of the latest Kin Foundation board meeting
- Additional Content from the Kin Ecosystem
Kin Celebrates Three Year Anniversary
On September 26, the Kin Ecosystem celebrated its three year anniversary. As part of that, the Kin Foundation published a post outlining the progress made across five areas: Developer Monetization, Consumer Adoption, Technological Progress, Community Development, Governance.
Each section features a look at the current state, a look ahead, and a quote from a key contributor in that area. Below is one choice quote from William Mougayar, Kin Foundation board member:
“It has been gratifying to witness the birth and growth of the Kin ecosystem and its community across a spectrum of developers, applications, and services. Despite the challenges encountered along the way, the groundwork is solid for continued progress and a great future ahead.”
You can find the full post here: Kin: Three Years, Dozens of Developers, Millions of Consumers. And It’s Just Getting Started.
Kin Set for December Migration to Solana
On October 8, the migration plan for the move to Solana was published. This post featured an overview of the migration process and the timing. Because the Kin Blockchain and the Solana Blockchain run on the same cryptographic elliptic curve, the migration will be relatively seamless. Developers need to update their SDKs and token holders will need to ensure their Kin is stored in a wallet or on an exchange that supports the migration, but beyond that no action will be required.
You can find the full migration plan here: Kin Pushing Ahead: Next Steps on the Migration to Solana
Each month, the Kin Foundation provides an update on key metrics that are used to evaluate the health of the Kin Economy.
This past month the Kin Economy continued to show a push towards increased sustainability. One notable insight is that the Kin Bought / Kin Issued Ratio (B/I Ratio), which measures the amount of Kin Bought for goods and services in the ecosystem vs. the Kin Issued through the Kin Rewards Engine increased another 108% month over month. This is a strong indication that the Kin Rewards Engine is driving higher engagement in the areas that matter for sustainability of the economy.
You can find the full report here: Kin Economy Report — October 2020
A Kin Foundation board meeting was held September 21, 2020 and was attended by the Kin Representatives, William Gikandi and Matt Hannam, and representatives of Kik Interactive Inc. The top three items discussed were:
- The hiring of an Executive Director and expanding capacity at the Foundation
- Organizing a series of summits regarding the Kin Rewards Engine and its role in driving real demand
- The Kin.org website refresh
There were no formal approvals in this meeting. Will Gikandi is taking the lead on coordinating a KRE Summit to gather feedback from all of the active developers in the ecosystem.
The next Foundation Board meeting is scheduled for October 19, 2020.