What is Kin

Simply put, Kin is money for the digital world and it provides a way for developers (like you) to monetize their apps and websites in a fundamentally new way.

Kin’s vision is to create an ecosystem of apps where value is exchanged in Kin. Value is anything that is meaningful to a user. For example, a user liking a post could tip an amount of Kin as appreciation.

A strong Kin economy benefits all developers in the ecosystem.

Some of the apps in Kin's Ecosystem

Kik Messenger	MadLipz	Perfect 365	Rave
100,000,000+ Installs	10,000,000+ Installs	50,000,000+ Installs	10,000,000+ Installs

A better way to monetize - Earn more with Kin

Apps that integrate Kin are rewarded weekly by the Kin Rewards Engine. The size of the reward is proportional to the number of active users an app has, and the total balance of Kin they hold.

More apps joining the ecosystem increase the demand (and value) of Kin, causing all other apps to benefit.

Monetizing with Kin is free and complements other monetization methods, including advertising. For example, an app can reward Kin to its users for watching ads or sharing location data. Users can then use the Kin to purchase in-app items.

Example Use-cases

Kin can work in many situations, and once set up, a developer can just call the function sendKin() from anywhere in their app. Below are some potential use-cases.

Premium content	Tipping	Game currency
Users create exclusive groups with an entrance fee	Users tip each other for content they like	Users earn Kin and use it to buy loot in a game.

There is no limit to what you can do with Kin as a developer.

Can my app monetize with Kin?

Kin is free to integrate into any app that follows these guidelines. To make integration easier, Kin Foundation supports a range of SDKs — click here to see a full list.

How do the Kin SDKs work?

Currencies have been in games and apps for decades. They let your users

1. Earn (Receive currency)
2. Spend (Send currency)

At the heart of it all, this is what your users will be doing in your app. The difference between a regular in-app currency and Kin is that Kin is a currency with actual value. The SDKs connect your app to Kin’s blockchain and handle all the complicated business in the middle, so all you have to think about is:

1. Sending Kin
2. Receiving Kin

Client side SDKs let your users create accounts and send Kin to each other, or to your server.

Kotlin sample - creating an account on an Android device

private  fun  createAccount(): String {
  val kinContext = KinAccountContext.Builder(environment)
    .createNewAccount()
    .build()

  return kinContext.accountId.stellarBase32Encode()
}

Server side SDKs let you send Kin to your users as a reward for any action they take.

NodeJs sample - sending Kin from the server to a user (TypeScript)

async submitPayment(
  sender: PrivateKey,
  destination: PublicKey,
  amount: string,
  type: TransactionType,
  memo?: string,
) {
  return this.client.submitPayment({
    sender,
    destination,
    type,
    memo,
    quarks: kinToQuarks(amount),
  });
}

Using Kin is as simple as:

1. Deciding on a use case for your app
2. Integrating an SDK

How do I get started?

The following resources will help you add Kin to your app.

1. We recommend starting here to get a broad understanding of how to integrate Kin.
2. Join our Developer Discord for live tech support on any issues you are stuck in
3. Checkout one of our many starter kits

Apply for a Jumpstart Grant

Apps new to the ecosystem can apply for a grant in Kin, to help them get started and integrate into the ecosystem. The size of the grant is proportional to the size of the app joining. To learn more, send us a note detailing your application - requesting a Jumpstart Grant.