Chinese social networking platform Tianya Club on Wednesday announced plans to launch its own cryptocurrency.
“After half a year of research and design, after many rounds of communication with users, the Tianya sub-system based on blockchain technology has taken shape, and will be launched on August 8th for the public,” Tianya said in a statement.
Dubbed Tianyan Token (TYT), the virtual coin will serve as a way to reward original content contributions and participation in community activities. The token will also be used as a means of exchange and payments within the community. The hard-cap will be 90 billion tokens of which 20% will be held for Tianya’s operation teams. The remaining 80% will be distributed to members of the platform.
Tianya did not reveal the blockchain technology behind TYT and how its value will be assessed. The company is also yet to disclose whether the coin will be listed on third-party exchanges. However, considering the current Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) ban in China, TYT is unlikely to function as a tradeable altcoin.
Along with the imminent launch of TYT, Tianya's announcement seems to be garnering interest in its existing non-blockchain token— Tianya Diamond. The platform noted that only users who hold a certain amount of Tianya Diamonds can receive TYT tokens.
Tianya Diamond was created in December 2017 as a centrally issued utility token for collectibles and gifting. The company hinted at the time that is planning "more use cases in the future." With a hard-cap of 900 million, Tianya Diamond can be purchased using Chinese yuan on WeChat.
Established in 1999, Tianya Club is famously known as the Reddit of China. The company has 250 million monthly users and provides BBS, blog, microblog and photo album services.
The decision to create its own cryptocurrency may come as an effort to boost the platform’s declining user activity. According to data traffic site Alexa, Tianya’s site ranking has dropped from China’s 11th most visited website in 2015 to the 24th currently. The drop in popularity is likely due to competition from other social networks including search giant Baidu's rival service, Baidu Tieba.
This article appeared first on Cryptovest
