The Kin Show with Tony Jacob

In this episode I’m joined by Ted Livingston, Will Gikandi and Andrew Mocol. Ted is the CEO of Code, a crypto wallet app that makes crypto simple to use. He was previously the CEO of the chat app Kik. Will is the Head of Research & Development at Sacred Finance, a privacy protocol. He was previously the CTO of the Kin Foundation. Andrew Mocol who is my Co-founder and the CTO of Kinny Technologies.

In this conversation, we talk about decentralizing Kin, we reconsider the need for the Kin Rewards Engine, and discuss ideas on how to build a smart contract to measure buy demand for Kin and distribute the KRE rewards. We also talk about the idea of an investment DAO, how to govern Kin in a decentralized and transparent manner, and finally wrap up with next steps.

Relevant Links:

• Moving Froward - Ted Livingston
• Spark DAO Whitepaper - Will Gikandi
• Kin Protocol - Andrew Mocol
• Andrew's Discord - mocolicious#9242
• Ted on Twitter
• Will on Twitter
• Tony on Twitter

Blair is the founder of Eviota, the online language tutoring platform that uses Kin. He is also a Senior Software Engineer for a medical devices startup. Blair is an early bitcoiner who discovered Kin through trading.

In this conversation, Blair talks about his background as a software developer, his inspiration behind creating Eviota and the need he saw for a face to face language learning platform. We talk about how Eviota works for both students and teachers, and how he sources and verifies teacher qualification. He shares his history with cryptocurrencies, his decision to integrate crypto into Eviota and how he plans to monetize Eviota. He then shares his plans for the future of Eviota.

Relevant Links:

• https://eviota.io
• https://discord.gg/vjTU6H9nzW
• https://twitter.com/eviota_io

Sponsors:

• The Kin Show Store - https://store.thekinshow.com/ 

Daniel Charpentier is the founder of Kreechures, creator and lead developer of Venatrix. Prior to entering the world of web3 full-time, Daniel was a Technical Program Manager, with a focus on software development & IT infrastructure for over a decade. Further back Daniel served in the US Army. He is based out of Cary, North Carolina, with his wife and children.

In this conversation, Daniel and I talk about the evolution of NFTs on Solana over the past 2 years, the culture of NFT flipping and his new NFT Marketplace called Venatrix that’s set to solve a unique set of problems for customers. We talk about his decision to pivot away from the Kreechures game, the controversial topic of NFT royalties and also get his thoughts on using AI to create art.

Relevant Links:

• https://www.venatrix.xyz/
• https://www.kreechures.com/
• https://twitter.com/kreechures

Sponsors:

• The Kin Show Store - https://store.thekinshow.com/ 

Tanner Philp is the Head of Operations and Corporate Development at Code. Code is a not-for-profit organization building a new crypto wallet with Kin. Tanner has been involved with Kin since its inception. Prior to Code, Tanner was at Kik Inc., who helped launch Kin, and helped drive the evolution of the technology stack that Kin runs on today, going from Ethereum, to Stellar, to the Kin Blockchain, to Solana.

In this conversation, we talk about Tanner’s start as an early employee at Kik, growing Kik to 500 million users, the spark behind Kik points and the genesis of Kin. We talk about his early conversations with the Solana team, the process of identifying Solana as a viable blockchain for Kin and his early perspective on the introduction of fees for Solana. We then spend some time talking about Code, their joining of the Blockchain Association and his work with in-app buy module partners. Finally, we talk about his perspective on Kin becoming money.

Relevant Links:

• https://www.getcode.com/
• https://twitter.com/getcode
• https://tannerphilp.com/crypto/
• https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2020/05/22/fed-up-with-its-fork-of-stellar-kin-is-looking-to-move-onto-solana/
• https://forums.solana.com/t/solana-outage-perspective-from-a-developer/2871

Lewis Knell is the co-founder and CPO & COO of Swelly, the social voting platform where you can earn Kin for your opinions. He has a degree in computer science and has worked in a variety of design and product roles for both startups and large multinational companies.

In this conversation, we talk about Lewis’ background, his start in the app polling business and  his introduction to crypto. We then spend the majority of the conversation focusing on the return of Swelly, their motivations to acquire it, their plans to re-activate their 10 million registered users, why they chose to retain the Kin experience within the app and their plans for the future of Swelly.

Relevant Links:

• https://www.swelly.ai/

David and John are the co-founders of Giftery, which enables users to spend Kin on virtual gift cards from over 250+ major retailers. It’s also an ecommerce solution that enables developers to integrate Giftery into their own projects, leverage its inventory, and create their own customizable gift card experiences for their own users. Prior to Giftery, John received his JD from the University of Pacific and his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business; and has held various strategic positions in startups that range from healthcare to web3. David has been an investor and advocate of Kin since its early days. Prior to Giftery, David received a degree in engineering & business from California Polytechnic State University. He has an extensive career in sales-marketing, working in startups and Fortune 500 companies. Currently he is working in the cloud video security market.

In this conversation we talk about their vendor solution for app developers, the extensive choice of gift cards available to developers, the process of adding cash balances to a developer’s account and how they plan to manage high demand for gift cards. We also talk about how they handle fraudulent transactions and concerns around money laundering and much much more.

Relevant links:

• https://giftery.io/
• https://twitter.com/gifteryio

John and David are partners and co-founders of Uproll -  a financial tool that allows users to passively invest in Kin with spare change and recurring buys. Prior to Uproll, John received his JD from the University of Pacific and his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business; and has held various strategic positions in startups that range from healthcare to web3. David has been an investor and advocate of Kin since its early days. Prior to Uproll, David received a degree in engineering & business from California Polytechnic State University. He has an extensive career in sales-marketing, working in startups and Fortune 500 companies. Currently he is working in the cloud video security market.

In this conversation we talk about John and David’s backgrounds, their start in crypto and Kin, announcement of the no-code Kin plugin for Bubble and giftery.io, why large apps may be shying away from crypto and their views on the future of Kin.

Links discussed in the show:

• Get started with the Kin No-Code Plugin - https://thekinplugin.com
• Buy gift cards with Kin - https://giftery.io

Matthew Hannam is the executive director of the Kin Foundation, the non-profit dedicated to supporting the network of apps that integrate the Kin cryptocurrency. He has been with the Kin project since its initial launch, starting off as a community member, and now leading the day-to-day management of the Foundation with the support of its growing team. Matt has a background in law and finance.

In this conversation we talk about Matt’s background, his intro to crypto, and joining the Kin Foundation. We also talk about the concept of an in-app buy module for all Kin Ecosystem apps, compare real demand vs. speculative demand for Kin, the latest partnership with Ramp Network, and the Kin Foundation’s Solana rent adjustment proposal.

William Mougayar is an early blockchain thought leader, entrepreneur, best-selling author of The Business Blockchain (Wiley, 2016, translated in 10 languages), and investor in several blockchain projects and companies. He was a special Advisor to the Ethereum Foundation in 2014 and is currently a Board Member at Swiss-based Blockchain Valley Ventures. William is the producer of The Token Summit, and manages WMX, an Iconomi cryptocurrency index. He is presently the Executive Chairman of the Kin Foundation. He previously held senior positions at Hewlett-Packard, Cognizant and Aberdeen Group, and founded 3 startups. Some of William's early investments include Dapper Labs (creators of CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot and Flow), Blockstack, Ethereum, Filecoin, Kin, OpenBazaar and Roll.

In this conversation we talk about William’s background and intro to crypto, his experience advising Vitalik and the team during the early days of Ethereum, his introduction to Kin and how he differentiates Kin, his long term vision focused on the developer and creator economy, his views on moving towards a DAO model and the hype around meme coins and exchanges.

Geoff Whittington is the founder and CEO of Perk.Exchange, a rewards platform for consumer and commercial software based on the Solana and Kin ecosystems. He has worked on various Kin projects in the past including Kinetik, a social fitness application, and KinBuyButton - a ReactJS component for using Kin in web projects. Geoff can be reached on Twitter @PerkExchange

In this discussion we talk about Geoff’s background and intro to crypto, why he joined the Kin Ecosystem as a developer, origins of Per.Exchange, pivoting into the rewards and recognition market, how perk exchange is being used today, entry into the Solana hackathon and future exploration, how funding earn rewards works and why he’s excited for the future of Kin.