LINE’s cryptocurrency exchange Bitbox announced this week that its digital token would be available exclusively for trading against some of the top assets in the industry, according to the news site CoinDesk.
Japanese messaging app LINE owns Bitbox, and it has announced the listing of its native token, LINK, on the platform, against Bitcoin (BTC,) Ethereum (ETH,) and the notable stablecoin Tether.
LINE has made the news for its attempts to venture in the blockchain and cryptocurrencies world, with the specific intention of applying both to mainstream uses and real-life applications.
Meet the LINK Chain Platform
The LINK Chain platform is relatively new, having been announced in August as Bitbox’s proprietary blockchain network. To perform its operations, LINK Chain implements a combination of delegated proof-of-stake and Byzantine fault tolerance to act as a consensus method.
LINE refused to handle the token distribution via an ICO (Initial Coin Offering.) Instead, it will use a reward system to incentive users to try innovative services and decentralized apps within the network; giving LINK users a prize for using certain features within the LINE ecosystem.
LINE’s intentions involve handing out 800 million of the total 1 billion LINK tokens for free for people that use the decentralized applications currently being made available on the LINK Chain environment.
According to recent reports, the remaining 200 million tokens will be managed by LINE Tech Plus, a subsidiary of the LINE Corporation, to be held in reserve.
The Asian instant messaging company also stated that it would be launching three new “dApps” with a focus on several product reviews. Users that participate in such activities will be eligible to receive LINK tokens as a reward for their contributions to the system. The mode will be up and running in the next few months, according to LINE’s officials.
LINK officials and developers stated that among the activities that can provide users with rewards within the app would be content creation, commerce, social, gaming, and digital asset exchange. The announcement read that LINK “holds a minimum value of USD 5 when used for payment within the LINE ecosystem, but can rise in value according to market conditions.”
Bitbox itself is also a very young project, being launched into the market in July this year. It can be used on virtually all nations, with the notable exceptions of the United States and Japan because of regulatory requirements for licensing in the two countries.
Despite only being in the market for less than a day, the new digital coin experienced a notable drop in value, with losses of nearly 35 percent just five hours after its launch on Bitbox. At press time, it was trading at $3.12.
A Little Bit about LINE
LINE is a freeware app that allows its users to instantly communicate on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, and PCs. The app has a simple user interface that lets people write texts, send and receive images, video, and audio, as well as performing free VoIP conversations and conferences.
By Andrés Chávez
