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Blockchain, smart contracts, tokens, cryptocurrencies, and other forms of magical internet money are the hot topic of conversation in most tech circles these days. If you鈥檙e not reading about cryptocurrency in the news, or overhearing entrepreneurs pitch their ICOs in corner coffee shops, you may be chatting about them with friends and strangers on a messaging app.

You wouldn鈥檛 be alone, either. Cryptocurrency speculators, putative entrepreneurs hawking digital tokens, newly-minted enthusiasts, and the merely curious have flocked to messaging apps to chat about blockchain. And where the community chats about crypto, tokens miraculously appear to follow.

It鈥檚 a convergence that has caught our attention, and with help of experts, is worthy of an investigation.

The Curious Convergence Of Crypto & Chat Apps

Many of the world鈥檚 largest messaging platforms鈥攖he Whatsapps, iMessages, and Facebook Messengers of the world鈥攈aven鈥檛 made serious moves into the cryptocurrency space. Another tier-one messaging platform, WeChat, which has nearly a billion monthly active users primarily located in China, .

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But some second-tier messaging platforms seem to embrace cryptocurrencies and the active, if somewhat hurly burly, communities around them. In this section, we briefly review cryptocurrency adoption by these platform providers.

Kik: An Early ICO

, the Canadian mobile messaging company, was among the first VC-backed tech companies to raise money in an ICO. Before its ICO, Kik in venture funding. In May 2017, Kik CEO Ted Livingston announced that the messaging platform would launch Kin, a token and medium of exchange for Kik users.

In August 2017, Kik raised 168,732 ETH in an ICO, then valued at around $48 million, plus an additional $50 million raised in for three blockchain-focused venture funds: , , and . Although Kik raised a total of $98 million in its ICO, it fell short of . Like many ICO鈥檇 tokens, Kin is an ERC20 token riding on the Ethereum blockchain.

Kin was issued at a price of $0.0001 USD apiece or 0.00000043 ETH. According to , at time of writing, Kin trades at 0.00000037, down fourteen percent from its issue price. Its USD-denominated price of $0.000309 may be more than three times higher, but that鈥檚 mostly due to ETH price appreciation.

Telegram: A Central Hub

These days, is in the news for a number of reasons, not all of which are positive.

Telegram is in the middle of raising one of the largest ICOs to date to , a decentralized blockchain protocol and . It鈥檚 a little unclear just how much Telegram intends to raise through the offering. 附近上门 News has reported that the size of the offering ranges from $1.2 billion to as much as $5 billion. Investors like Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia to be investing in the presale earmarked for investors.

In an update to previous reporting, 附近上门 News has learned Telegram aims to raise 鈥渁round $2 billion, but that number keeps on changing,鈥� according to a party involved in the transaction.

Telegram is also the primary messaging platform for organizing and hyping ICOs, some of which are legitimate (insofar as any ICO is legitimate), although many are blatant scams. recently, Telegram is also home to many 鈥減ump and dump鈥� groups. Members of these groups coordinate mass buys of thinly-traded tokens to boost the price only to sell these newly-inflated tokens as other market participants鈥攚ho aren鈥檛 in on the scheme鈥攗nwittingly buy into tokens that appear to be gaining market traction.

Through the app, we reached out to Telegram鈥檚 press contact for comment. Despite being able to see that Telegram鈥檚 press read the message, 附近上门 News hasn鈥檛 received a reply.

Line & Kakao: Large Exchanges Emerge Alongside Messaging Apps

, makers of the LINE messaging service popular in Japan, . According to the statement, LINE Financial Corporation (also known as LINE Financial) will be used 鈥渁s a base鈥� as its corporate parent makes 鈥減reparations to provide a variety of financial services, including a place to exchange and transact virtual currencies, loans, and insurance鈥攁ll from the LINE app.鈥� When the exchange service and other financial products will launch to LINE鈥檚 200 million users is to be determined.

Joseph Young, a cryptocurrency analyst and writer, that LINE鈥檚 plan to launch a cryptocurrency exchange is a sign of growing competition in the space. Young posits that LINE鈥檚 announcement was a direct response to a South Korean competitor, a chat app called , which launched in partnership with U.S.-based exchange provider .

Blockchain-Native And Blockchain-Adjacent Messaging Protocols

In addition to these more centralized platforms that are just now dipping toes into choppy cryptocurrency markets, there are a number of blockchain-native and blockchain-adjacent messaging protocols. Privacy and peer-to-peer commerce appear to be the most common themes in the space.

Here鈥檚 the list:

• is a decentralized communication protocol based on technology that鈥檚 鈥渜uite closely related鈥� to blockchain but better optimized for real-time communications, Matthew Hodgson, Matrix鈥檚 founder, told 附近上门 News.
• and (Postal Service over Swarm) are two systems built on the Ethereum blockchain.
• , a decentralized chat app , launched the , also built on the Ethereum blockchain.
• and are two peer-to-peer commerce platforms that use blockchain technology for transaction systems.
• is an 鈥淎I-powered platform for chatbots鈥� that recently announced a token to reward humans for content they contribute online.
• offers end-to-end encrypted messaging platform built on the zCash protocol.

Trends Of A Feather Come Together

So why are so many messaging platforms flocking to blockchain tech, and seemingly all at the same time?

We put that question to a number of people at organizations on all sides of this issue. Here鈥檚 who we heard back from:

• , cofounder of SparkNotes, OkCupid, and, most recently, . Keybase builds secure, end-to-end encrypted individual and team messaging services, an encrypted filesystem, and other cryptography software. Apart from a bitcoin generator called , Keybase doesn鈥檛 currently offer blockchain-based products or services.
• of Matrix, a decentralized communication platform. Matrix does not have a token, nor does it use blockchain-based payments in its platform.
• A Kik spokesperson.

Through them, we identified a few key trends that drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology by chat applications.

A New Business Model

Launching cryptocurrencies gives chat platform providers a way to build an economy, or at least facilitate economic transactions, inside their services. This creates a new business model, a way to fund development, and another vector for growth.

Matthew Hodgson explained that the reason why many chat platforms are launching tokens is because 鈥渋t gives a way to monetise… as well as a way to reward users on the platform with tokens.鈥� He also mentioned that attaching a financial value to tokens and requiring tokens to use the app 鈥渉as potential to limit spam by requiring users to spend some funds before they speak to other users.鈥�

Chris Coyne said that tokens offer a path to 鈥渆asy fundraising.鈥�

鈥淭he ICO/token offering craze made it clear that, with a bit of PR, projects could raise a lot of money,鈥� Coyne told 附近上门 News. 鈥淎 lot of hogwash promises have raised tens of millions of dollars. It’s no surprise messaging apps have jumped on this.鈥�

Differentiation From Incumbents

In a mobile messaging market where some of the most significant players are eschewing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, chat app makers on the lower rung of the MAU ladder see blockchain and cryptocurrency as a way to differentiate themselves.

Kik’s spokesperson said that the platform strived to innovate in the messaging space since the company鈥檚 launch, but 鈥渋t is becoming increasingly difficult for companies in our space to continue to differentiate through innovation.鈥� They explained that 鈥渋ntense competition and commoditization of product features and experiences鈥� has created a somewhat stagnant market, which she colorfully characterized as 鈥渁 sea of sameness.鈥�

鈥淭he blockchain and related technologies [presented] an opportunity to create a fair and open ecosystem that preferences diverse participation and innovation,鈥� said the spokesperson.

Kik completed its Kin ICO in the late summer of 2017 and rolled out the Kin product in December. from mid-January 2018鈥攔oughly one month into the rollout鈥攕aid that 68 percent of Kin users held their tokens, while another 32 percent chose to earn and spend them. The post reports that 18,000 transactions have occurred using Kin.

Trust In Trustless Systems

Blockchain technology can help a chat platform stay honest, so to speak, by removing the need for honesty. A user doesn鈥檛 need to trust a third party, like a bank or a chat platform provider, to be honest and transparent with them. Blockchains, by default, are typically transparent.

Matthew Hodgson told us that blockchain technologies 鈥減rovide a decentralisation building block that can be used by chat platforms to spread freely on the internet and be run by the community rather than a centralised service.鈥�

Chris Coyne also noted that blockchain tech helps with 鈥渢ransparent key lookups.鈥� He explained that 鈥渕odern messaging apps want to be secure鈥� and that 鈥渟ecure conversations require trading public keys in some way.鈥�

鈥淏lockchain tech offers a level of transparency to show that a server isn’t lying. There are blatant lies to avoid, such as an evil server giving the wrong key for someone. And more subtle lies, such as a server lying by omission, when someone revokes a key,鈥� Coyne explained. 鈥淪ince cryptocurrencies are entirely public databases, it’s easy to see that everyone is getting the same answer for a key lookup.鈥�

Coyne noted that Keybase works on a hybrid model that 鈥渄oesn’t require running a full cryptocurrency node but achieves the same effects鈥� as using a blockchain.

鈥淲e control writes to a database on our servers, but that database is entirely public and structured to prove all Keybase users are getting the same answers. […] If you look up someone’s keys on Keybase, you’ll see the same answer as anyone else using Keybase.鈥�

He added that this hybrid, non-blockchain approach carries a bonus: 鈥淚t鈥檚 fast.鈥� And as 附近上门 News has covered in the past, this isn鈥檛 exactly the case with many blockchain systems.

Social Construction Of Value

There is one last trend that may be the most important. Chat platforms seem to be a natural medium for cryptocurrency transactions to take place and for communities to form.

鈥淚 believe the wallet of the future will require messaging built inside it. And the messengers of the future will allow sending money,鈥� Coyne told 附近上门 News. 鈥淭his product converge is natural, since people want to talk to the people they’re sending money to.鈥�

The communal aspect of commerce is only part of the story, though. It鈥檚 also important to note that cryptocurrencies and other blockchain assets have financial value only because a lot of people seem to agree that they have value. So if the value of these assets is ultimately a social construct, it makes sense that, through chat platforms, people are able to construct that value socially.

The Message Is The Medium

Since shortly after the time bitcoin was released, blockchain technology has been something of a community affair. The communities that started on internet forums are now starting to move to chat applications, and many newcomers to the market don鈥檛 remember a time before they could chat about coins and tokens with friends through their phones.

A common refrain in the blockchain space is that 鈥渢hese are still the early days,鈥� and insofar as that鈥檚 true, there鈥檚 no way to know how, or how quickly, the market for decentralized technologies will evolve. But there鈥檚 one thing for sure: more people are talking about it, and through messaging apps, it鈥檚 easier to do so than ever before.

Update: Attribution to the Kik spokesperson has been changed since original publication.

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