Homepage / Technology / Op-Ed: Why a messaging start-up is making its own digital currency instead of going public
Menyelami Dunia Slot Thailand: Keseruan dan Peluang Kemenangan Besar Menyelami Dunia Slot Thailand: Pengalaman Bermain yang Tak Terlupakan เว็บพนัน ออนไลน์ จับกลางกรุง! บุกทลายฐานเว็บพนันชาวไต้หวันรายใหญ่ เงินหมุนเวียน 500 ล้าน ปี Panduan Lengkap Bermain Slot Online: Strategi & Tips Terbaik Deneme Bonusu ile Ücretsiz Oyun Oynayın Boy Names: Top 1,000 Baby Boy Names in the U S. for 2024 List of most popular given names Wikipedia Mobile Gaming in the UK: Trends, Regulations, and Future Leads Start dating hot moms today – it’s easier than you think Define generative ai 14 Define generative ai 14 How to find the right online gay dating website for you Home Superclones watches Exploring Super Clone Watches: Quality, Accuracy, and Affordability Join the most effective bbw milf dating site today En İyi Bahis Siteleri İçin Seçim Yaparken Nelere Dikkat Edilmeli? At this point, and yet very near | Life and magnificence | Trusted Casino Hellspin Review Leading Online Casino Hellspin Evaluation Mostbet App: Download Mostbet apk for Android & iOS 2024 Ігрові Автомати з Виводом Грошей на Карту ️ Онлайн Ігри на Гривні в Українікращі азартні ігри на гроші з виводом на карту2024-01-08 Taya365 online casino login Tips for conference and dating other bisexual men How to get the right bi partner Exploring the Prospering World of Online Casinos in the UK Meet hot singles and luxuriate in flirty chatting Bahis Siteleri: En İyi Bonuslar ve Promosyonlar Situs Slot Hari Ini Terbaik dan Terpercaya Tahun Ini, Gampang Menang Güvenilir Bonus Veren Siteler ve Detaylı İncelemeler Güncel Giriş, Güvenilir Adres VOX Casino: VOXCasino Promo Code 2025 Get to learn other old gay men inside area Slot Min Depo 10K Terbaik dan Paling Direkomendasi Tahun Ini: Gampang Menang! Scatter Hitam Terbaik dan Paling Direkomendasi Tahun Ini: Gampang Menang! Top 10 Online Casinos in Deutschland Januar 2025 Get ready to unleash your wildest fantasies Ücretsiz Oyun Deneyimi: Deneme Bonuslarıyla Risk Almadan Kazan Bonuslarla Bahis Keyfini Katlamanın Yöntemleri 2025’te Bahis Oynayarak Kazanç Sağlamanın Yolları Freespin Veren Casino Siteleri ile Daha Fazla Eğlenin Casino Sitelerinde En İyi Bonuslar Nerede? The Ultimate Guide to Free Spins BC.Game Mirror – Discover All Current Mirrors Find regional women seeking intimate encounters Elitecasino’a Katýlým saðlayarak, Hýzla 800 TL Bonus Ýmkaný Kazanýn! Baccarat Tips: Exactly How to Enhance Your Game and Boost Your Chances of Winning Find your perfect gay sex dating site Exploring 7slots in Turkey: A Comprehensive Overview Şartsız Deneme Bonusu Veren Sitelerin Listesi The Power of Tarot Online Free Finest Gambling Enterprises that Approve Bitcoin: The Future of Online Betting MostBet: Kumarhane Eðlencesiyle Dolu Eðlencenin Tadýný Çýkarmak MostBet: Kumarhane Oyunlarýyla Zengin Yeni Nesil Eðlence Deneyimi Understanding Clairvoyant Readings: A Comprehensive Overview Online Online Casinos That Accept PayPal: A Convenient and Secure Payment Choice Сайт казино Pin Up Tips for conference and connecting with seniors whom are interested in dating Spin Casino Review 2025 » Free Spins & Bonus Codes Trusted Casino Games For All Players Best Gay Hookup Websites | FreeHookupsSites The Ultimate Guide to Psychic Analysis Enjoy exciting and safe online dating experiences Relax Your Mind: the way to get the Inside Voices through your Head Find love regarding most readily useful mature dating site usa The Power of Clairvoyant Analyses Uncover the Advantages of Playing at Masalbet Casino Virtual Casino Fairgo Review Wireclub: Program For Internet Dating | Assessment 2023 Discover the many benefits of dating a korean girl and luxuriate in enduring love How discover a couple for woman that fits your needs anabolizantes legales 33 SpinBetter Freispiele⁚ Ein detaillierter Überblick (Stand⁚ 26.01.2025) Стиль и Защита: Чехлы на Телефон и Планшет от Womux com NikaDate.com 2025: Trick Insights Before You Sign up with Elderly Sizzle: Come Across Great Hookups Over 40? | 1win APP: Descargar, Juegos, Casino, APK Chile cl 1win Punjab FC create history with historic 2-1 win against Everton FC SofiaDate Evaluation 2025: Is This Website Worth The Buzz And Cash? bets10’in Kazançlý Slot Oyunlarý Nv Casino: Przewodnik po Świecie Gier Hazardowych Casino Wazamba Online Summary Discover the best local hookup internet sites for meeting wives Leading Gay Dating Apps: My Personal Collection test Télécharger 1win Sénégal apk 1win Sénégal inscription anabolizantes comprar online 9 popochka Hesap Açma Promosyonu Veren Siteler Xslot Kumar ve Güven Merkezi Get the absolute most out of your ebony bbw site source ¿Newest Home loan Re-finance Prices Leading Online Casino Rocketplay Evaluation Find the right partner on nymphomaniac dating website what exactly are local sex websites and exactly how can they assist you to? casino 643 Online Casino 7slots Grandpashabet 2217 Güncel Giriş Adresi Grandpashabet2217 com 5804 grandpashabet güncel Trezor Suite Official Desktop && Web Crypto Ledger Live App: Buy, Sell, Stake and Swap Crypto Hardware Wallet & Crypto Wallet Security for Crypto Shared: The 7 Things Men Want from Females

Technology

Op-Ed: Why a messaging start-up is making its own digital currency instead of going public

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve likely read a lot about ICOs (initial coin offerings) in the last few weeks. These are offerings by companies starting their own variant of blockchain-based digital currencies.

This year has not only seen the explosion in the price of bitcoin itself but also the second and third most popular cryptocurrencies — Ethereum and Ripple.

More interesting, there’s been a rise of many additional cryptocurrencies such as Steem, Dash, AntShares and Dogecoin. In fact, if you measure bitcoin’s market capitalization as a percentage of the market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies, it’s currently at 45.5 percent, down from 94 percent a year ago.

The value of all cryptocurrencies now is $88 billion, which is actually down from $114 billion a few days ago.

New ICOs have raised $500 million so far this year. One community that is showing great interest in becoming part of the trend of launching a new cryptocurrency is start-ups.

Last week, Thai fintech start-up Omise raised $25 million in an ICO to develop a decentralized payment platform. The company had already raised $20 million in traditional VC funding.

Rahul Sood’s esports betting company Unikrn is launching its own cryptocurrency called UnikoinGold as the way to place esports bets on its platform. Unikrn has raised $10 million from Mark Cuban, Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital, Elisabeth Murdoch’s Freelands Ventures and others.

However, social messaging company Kik has bigger plans for its upcoming ICO. In a recent talk given by Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston, he explained that Kik saw its ICO of a currency called Kin as a potential alternative exit for them.

Like the Omise and Unikrn examples, Kik has also raised traditional venture capital money — more than $120 million, including $50 million from Tencent most recently valuing the company at $1 billion. Kik’s ICO will help bring it more money. Kik will sell 10 percent of its Kin currency (half to institutional investors and half to retail investors). Kik will keep 30 percent of Kin and 60 percent of Kin will be overseen by a nonprofit Kin Foundation aimed at making Kin a popular cryptocurrency. That foundation will give away 20 percent of its stock of Kin every year to developers and others who help build out the economy for Kin.

Kin will be used as the currency on the Kik social network for things like emojis, stickers, hosting and participating in group chats, building apps like bots, etc. However, the stated goal is for Kin to also be used as currency outside of the Kik app.

Even if stays confined within the Kik community, Kik has 15 million monthly active users. It’s currently ranked in the 60s in terms of popularity on the App Store. That community alone will make the currency among the more popular cryptocurrencies.

But here is what’s interesting, Livingston said that, if all goes well, this ICO could be Kik’s liquidity event. Up until now, Kik has been thinking it had to translate its popular youthful community chat service into ad dollars in order to make a successful business — similar to what Facebook has done. The problem is that Facebook and Google continue to suck up more and more of the ad dollars that are getting spent in the space.

Livingston said in the talk that the penny dropped for him when he saw Snap’s S-1 IPO filing in February. Here was a young Facebook competitor seemingly doing everything right and yet still failing in its growth of its ad-based revenue. If Snap was failing, Livingston thought, what hope did Kik have of building a better ad mouse trap?

Yet, he thought, if Kik could develop a cryptocurrency that became a self-sustaining economy — and Kik owned a big chunk of that supply limited currency — the value of that stake in Kin could end up being more valuable than the potential exit valuation for Kik as an ad-based business in an IPO or through an acquisition. Luckily, one of Kik’s earliest investors was Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, also a big investor in the cryptocurrency space. He agreed with Ted.

Can you name the fourth most popular cryptocurrency? It’s Litecoin and has a market cap of $2.5 billion. If Kin got that kind of valuation — and with an established community of 15 million monthly active users, it could be a currency worth more — Kik’s 30 percent stake in Kin would be worth $750 million, almost equal to the valuation of Kik’s last round. If Kin became as valuable as Ripple — the third most popular cryptocurrency today — Kik’s stake would be worth $2.5 billion.

Livingston pointed out that, in this kind of scenario, an exit via M&A or an IPO would be unnecessary for Kik. Its existing backers could simply convert their shares into Kin and liquidate them. Kik could stop trying to win advertiser dollars, if it wanted. It could simply focus on developing the community’s use of Kin and helping Kin proliferate outside of the Kik ecosystem.

In this scenario, according to Livingston, “we just step back and watch it continue.”

Will it work out this way? Possibly for some lucky start-ups but certainly not for all. The world likely doesn’t need 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. The current gold rush mentality with ICOs will probably only get bigger in the months and years to come but will probably also meet the inevitable bust of the dot-com era.

But some cryptocurrencies will endure — especially ones with strong use cases and/or communities supporting them. It’s intriguing to imagine if some ad-dependent companies like Kik will opt to stop competing with Facebook and Google on a battlefield they can never succeed at and go for an alternative cryptocurrency path to value creation.

Kik is truly breaking new ground with its ICO. It will be intriguing to see if it causes other unicorns to follow its lead.

Commentary by Eric Jackson, sign up for Eric’s monthly Tech & Media Email. You can follow Eric on Twitter @ericjackson .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap

Source: Tech CNBC
Op-Ed: Why a messaging start-up is making its own digital currency instead of going public

Comments are closed.