Kik, the first mainstream company to complete an initial coin offering (ICO) on ethereum, is reportedly considering whether it might migrate its token network to a new blockchain.
The social messaging platform, which raised $98 million in its token sale earlier this year, first broached the subject late last month on the Kin Foundation’s Telegram tech channel. There, Kik’s head of blockchain engineering and security, Leonid Beder, said the firm was interested in “kin” token buyers’ views on possible alternative blockchains that could replace ethereum.
“Since we first and foremost want the Kin ecosystem to scale to many participants and huge transaction volumes sooner rather than later, we realize that ethereum might not be the right solution,” Beder said at the time.
In statements to CoinDesk, Kik representatives cautioned that “nothing [is] confirmed” in regards to the potential move, but that the company is indeed exploring the idea of how such a transition might be executed.
A spokesperson said:
“We’re exploring our options as part of due diligence. If we did make this move, we’d ensure there’s a process in place to ensure all Kin holders have the new token for the correct amount.”
The move, while notable given Kik’s role in popularizing the ICO concept, is not unique for blockchain startups. For example, in the past, startups architecting token networks on top of the bitcoin network have migrated to other alternatives, most often ethereum.
If carried out, though, the decision could do much to impact the perception of ethereum – widely seen as the go-to blockchain on which to launch new tokens. At time of publication, nearly 13,000 tokens have been issued via smart contracts on the ethereum blockchain.
Cost concerns
According to those involved, one of the chief reasons for the exploration are the costs inherent in using the ethereum platform, as well as Kik’s specific goals for its token.
Early applications for the kin token are likely to monetize what people already do on Kik for free. For example, artists currently create stickers that users can send with messages on the Kik platform. With kin, artists might then be able to exchange stickers for value.
At press time, the median cost of transaction fees on ethereum is $0.14, according to BitInfoCharts.
And while ethereum developers have discussed technical solutions that execute transactions off-chain to scale the protocol and lower transactions fees, those have yet to go live.
In his Telegram message, Beder wrote that neither networks like Raiden nor alternative blockchains like EOS are ready for kin, but he added, “Stellar is indeed one of the directions we’re investigating.”
The kin ICO attracted 10,026 people who invested 168,732 ether in the sale.
from: https://www.coindesk.com/kik-might-move-its-ico-tokens-to-a-new-blockchain/
Stellar’s website: https://www.stellar.org/
Stellar description on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_(payment_network)
“Stellar is an open-source protocol for exchanging money. Servers run a software implementation of the protocol, and use the Internet to connect to and communicate with other Stellar servers, forming a global value exchange network. Each server stores a record of all “accounts” on the network. These records are stored in a database called the “ledger”. Servers propose changes to the ledger by proposing “transactions”, which move accounts from one state to another by spending the account’s balance or changing a property of the account. All of the servers come to agreement on which set of transactions to apply to the current ledger through a process called “consensus”. The consensus process happens at a regular interval, typically every 2 to 4 seconds. This keeps each server’s copy of the ledger in sync and identical.” (Wikipedia)
[Yet another “Blockchain” clone / copy — TJACK]
“At launch, Stellar was based on the Ripple protocol. After making several changes to critical consensus code, the Stellar network forked. In the aftermath, Stellar co-founder Joyce Kim claimed this was a flaw in the Ripple protocol but this statement was challenged in a blog post by Ripple Labs CTO, Stefan Thomas.” (Wikipedia)
“The Stellar Development Foundation then created an updated version of the protocol with a new consensus algorithm, based on entirely new code. The code and whitepaper for this new algorithm were released in April 2015, and the upgraded network went live in November 2015.” (Wikipedia)