THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO KAP
(KOINOS ACCOUNT PROTOCOL)
Preface
I am the co-founder of Koinos Account Protocol, also known as KAP. None of this is investing advice and although I am writing about KAP, this document is not intended to sell you anything. It is my belief that KAP offers tremendous value at its premium tier AND free tier.
Nothing within this document is intended as financial advice of any sort and purely for entertainment only.
As with my Ultimate Guide to Koinos, this document is for someone who is ready, willing, and able to spend the necessary time to understand the technology available to us within the blockchain space. I find that most users simply do not have access to deep knowledge which is why I am sharing what I know and understand. These are ultimately, my personal views. Please find the time to read this document in its entirety and feel free to ask any questions.
Our mission vision and value statements are currently a work in progress. You may find that we revise them from time to time as we receive feedback from our users.
KAP is ultimately pioneering a product category that simply does not exist.
CHAPTER 1: MISSION
To eliminate the complexity of accessing and using blockchain.
Everything KAP currently offers and will offer in the future references our mission. When developing KAP, we kept asking our selves “Why?” until we developed the three pillars.
- Human Readable Names
- Tokenless Access
- Smart Wallets
The exact nomenclature of these three pillars may change, but we strongly believe that these three pillars are the foundation of our mission. Eliminating complexity in blockchain means going back to basics and leveraging what users already know how to do.
HUMAN READABLE NAMES
Human readable names are an obvious benefit and it’s usefulness has already been proven by ENS and Unstoppable domains. KAP incorporates ENS through our premium name accounts and Unstoppable through our free accounts. We take it a step further by allowing the creation of custom Top Level Accounts which are effectively top level domains but used as accounts.
TOKENLESS ACCESS
Web 2.0 has proven that barriers to entry must be broken down to allow exponential growth. If there was a pay wall for myspace, facebook or any social blogging platform, none of them would have gained any traction.
STEEM, a first of its kind web 3.0 blogging platform, proved that web 2.0 users could easily adopt web 3.0 without acquiring tokens first. Users were able to sign up for a STEEM account with zero blockchain experience and begin using the blockchain immediately.
KAP leverages Mana and Mana sharing (primitive concepts of the Koinos Blockchain) to again combine two known successes and use them to bring blockchain access to the masses. Especially in the case where a user obtains a free KAP account, the user will have access to Mana Stations which will provide access to the Koinos blockchain, all without holding any tokens in their wallet.
SMART WALLETS
During the great depression, many citizens around the world opted to hold their cash beneath their mattress rather than put it in a bank. If you dared to deposit your money in a bank, then you would have entrusted your money to the complexity of the banking system at that time which was largely unknown to the average citizen. FDIC did not exist and banks were routinely going bust. However, banking was a necessity because no one should be keeping their money in their own home for fear of theft, fire and inflation.
Thankfully blockchain and smart wallets solve this problem. Not only do users gain powerful features that can only be witnessed through self custody, they also gain the security and features of banking, except the user has full control through smart wallets.
By enhancing the interface of the public/private key system that has proven to be robust, KAP can enhance the experience of self custody and eliminate much of the complexity that existing crypto wallets exhibit by leveraging smart contracts and an easy to understand user interface.
WHY IS THIS MISSION IMPORTANT?
It should be readily evident that blockchain in and of itself is DIFFICULT to grasp and use. Despite spending a significant amount of time conceptually understanding HOW, most people will simply avoid blockchain altogether. Few in society will choose to participate in blockchain and the majority of the few will choose centralized exchanges as their primary method of interacting with blockchain.
With KAP, all this can change. It should be clear now that our belief is that users should not START with centralized exchange, rather they should START their blockchain experience with KAP.
Presented below are several situational case studies that show how difficult access to blockchain may be.
CASE 1: ACQUIRING TOKENS
In the present time, users who wish to begin using blockchain begin with a centralized exchange to buy and hold their tokens because exchanges have gone to great lengths to simplify this process. The trade off for this simplicity is that the funds are held by the exchange and should anything occur to the exchange, the user loses everything, much like the banking crisis of 1930s. Even to this day, failures occur such as the notorious (and recent) FTX debacle.
Assuming the user is willing to trade security for simplicity, the acquisition of tokens often entail sending their government issue ID to the exchange in order to comply with the global “Anti-Money Laundering” (AML) laws. Identification is part of the process known as “Know Your Customer” (KYC) regulation and you are now entrusting an exchange with your personal identification. Only after completing this process can you transferring fiat funds to the exchange and begin buying a crypto currency.
Exchanges have their purpose and while there are decentralized maximalist that believe that KYC is against the nature of blockchain, I believe the solution is to improve the user experience of self custody instead of combating AML laws.
CASE 2: SELF CUSTODY OF TOKENS
Assuming users are able to get through Case 1 and purchase tokens, they must now self custody their tokens to participate in blockchain ecosystems. Self custody refers to the management of tokens without a 3rd party and it is a fundamental primitive that underpins blockchain.
Self custody is equivalent to storing your cash in your own home except the consequences are far greater. If you store cash in your home without a safe to protect it from fire and theft then you are at the mercy of the powers that be. If do store your cash in a safe, then you can lose the key to the safe. You’ll still be able to access it by destroying your safe but in the digital world, its impossible to recover. That is the danger of self custody if you do not understand how to deal with its complexity.
One would assume that if self custody is such a difficult problem, someone would find a way to make money solving it, but this is not the case because the problem must be solved through a holistic approach.
Koinos + KAP is what we believe to be that holistic approach.
CASE 3: USER INTERFACE AND USER EXPERIENCE
If acquiring tokens didn’t kill the user experience and they managed to figure out how to self custody their tokens safely, the next problem becomes the UI/UX problem. Presently, the UI/UX of blockchain is generally smooth for those that understand how to operate it but still too complex for those that are new to blockchain.
This is similar to saying a helicopter is simple to fly, if you know how to operate it. The UI/UX of blockchain needs to match that of Web 2.0. Such that the user must not need the mental burden of “will i lose everything?” when interacting with the blockchain. In fact, the mere thought of that being a question is unacceptable.
We have all heard of the stories that start with “I lost everything because I connected my wallet to a scam address”. This cannot be the default state of blockchain!
CHAPTER 2: VISION
The expectation of digital ownership exists when blockchain becomes so deeply ingrained into technology that it no longer becomes the focal point.
Web 2.0 users (effectively EVERYONE) simply expect things to work without complication. At any point during a Web 2.0 experience, if things don’t work, we close the box and move on. This is the bar that web 3.0 must surpass.
KAP+ is a great example of how we merge these things together for our MVP (minimum viable product). When a user acquires a KAP name, they access their dash board on https://test.kap.domains (the test prefix will be removed once we deploy on Koinos Main net). Once their menu is configured, their KAP account will be accessible to any Web 2.0 user via KAP+. This is how it will appear to the laymen.
Notice that there is no “connect wallet”, nor are there any signs that this is a web 3.0 product. All data shown is pulled via APIs operated by a Koinos Node including the name (moto.koin for this particular profile), the image (The Koin Press badge #30 NFT), the biography and all links. All of this data is saved on chain and presented by the owner of the KAP username.
This simple linktree style page is a basic example where Web 3.0 and Web 2.0 must unite.
CHAPTER 3: VALUES
Addressing our user’s concerns, so we may empower them through open source code and, transparency.
Outsiders will ridicule emergent technology because it’s always cumbersome to use in the beginning. Ironically, the ridicule is the feedback that is necessary to improve the product. Even more ironically, both characters are cut from the same thread.
Those who ridicule find joy in pointing out flaws, which allow the developer(s) to address them. This ironic cycle results in the development of applications that are practical, use-able and ultimately empowers NEW USERS to adopt them.
KAP takes feedback and criticism with high regard, regardless of how it is presented. We do so with transparency and by open sourcing everything we do so we can collective improve. In this manner we hope KAP users are aware that they should always ask of more from us.