Kik's Kin Foundation announced it will fork Stellar to create its own blockchain for the Kin token, eliminating transaction fees entirely to enable micropayments. The move trades some decentralization for zero-cost transactions, using federated nodes run by ecosystem partners rather than Stellar's validator model.
Kik's Kin Foundation has decided to fork the Stellar blockchain to create a proprietary blockchain for its Kin token, moving away from its previous plan to support Kin on both Ethereum and Stellar. The decision stems from Kik's goal to enable frictionless micropayments as small as a penny, which requires zero transaction costs. While Stellar's minimal fees were lower than Ethereum's, even those small costs create spam incentives. Kin's fork uses permissioned federated nodes run by the Kin Foundation and ecosystem partners, eliminating fees but raising concerns about censorship resistance and centralization. The model prioritizes trustlessness and throughput over decentralization, with the Kin Rewards Engine paying developers for economic activity on the network.