Tippic — A Tipping Experience and More

The standalone team at Kin is mostly associated with the Kinit app. However, we have been busy creating a new app called Tippic. This may raise questions about the purpose of a second app coming from Kin and whether or not this is the right way to invest our time and resources.

If you look at the core mission of the standalone team, as shared recently, the answer is actually very simple. As a team, we are always thinking a few steps ahead, exploring all of our options, and testing different use cases as quickly as possible to find the most meaningful experiences and solutions for the Kin Ecosystem.

The purpose of Tippic is not to replace Kinit, but to work together with Kinit to highlight and bring focus to core functionalities needed in the ecosystem.

Kinit provides simple ways to earn Kin and explore where you can use it within the ecosystem, as well as the current option to redeem it for gift cards. The main experience is simply around Kin; if you were to remove Kin from the equation, Kinit would have no reason to exist.

On the other hand, most of the other ecosystem apps use Kin as an enabler — a way to create better experiences and increase engagement. There is a core product functionality that is not necessarily around Kin. Therefore, with Tippic, we are aiming to demonstrate meaningful experiences and solutions that will resonate and connect with the other apps in the ecosystem. If we can successfully do this, we will be able to relate to the pain points other apps in the ecosystem, and hopefully work together to be the lighthouse for potential solutions.

It’s true that we could have found an existing app to work with in order to demonstrate cross-app experiences and create a standard for core functionalities. However, that creates a dependency that makes it hard to move fast. This is why we created Tippic.

So, what exactly is Tippic?

Tippic is a new way to discover amazing photos and reward the people who create them!

With Tippic, you get to enjoy carefully curated, beautiful photos from amateur photographers around the world. But instead of just giving them another heart or thumbs up, you get the chance to reward them for their work and the value they create online.

It’s a simple experience: everyday you’ll see a different photo from people just like you, and get the chance to directly reward them for their incredible work!

You can read all about the tipping user experience in a separate post coming soon from the standalone team!

One of the things that became obvious in the past few months is the fact that Kin can provide unique value for peer-to-peer experiences. Tipping is the key experience we’re focusing on, as it is a means to show recognition and appreciation. Some apps have already implemented a similar experience, which makes us even more convinced that having our own app with a tipping experience is vital. Here are a few reasons why:

• Creating a real use case for Kin that is all about content creation, recognition, and appreciation is a top priority. If this use case is powered by Kin, we can show examples and set the standard for tipping experiences in the hopes of inspiring others to implement something similar.
• Deepening our relationship with Apple is crucial, and we want to better understand the boundaries and possibilities within the iOS market.
• Having our own product with tipping experiences will help us better understand the bigger picture, identify pain points more efficiently and quickly, and eventually find the best solution to each problem within the ecosystem.

More than just tipping

The tipping experience is only one thing we want to demonstrate with Tippic. Moving forward, we are going to work with several cross-app experiences. We started with the ability to move Kin from Kinit to other apps. This will be demonstrated with Tippic as well, and the next step will be demonstrating the other way around — how we move Kin from Tippic to other apps in the ecosystem.

Our team is also exploring solutions for creating a single wallet to use anywhere in the ecosystem, using an identity layer to simplify the Kin experience, and merging multiple wallets.

Having two apps helps us explore several options faster with no dependencies.

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Curious to see how it works? The Tippic app will soon be available on App Store!