Gems, a Bitcoin friendly social messaging app, has hit a major milestone in its funding – raising 2000 bitcoins from its crypto-token crowdsale.
The aim of Gems is to create a social network and messaging app which rewards users for the contributions which they make to the network – whether its introducing their friends to the site or agreeing to view opt in advertising messages. Users get these rewards in the form of a Gems token distributed using the Counterparty protocol and therefore secured by the Bitcoin block chain and its many miners. Advertisers wishing to share their corporate message with the app’s users must buy these tokens first, as they are the only currency accepted for advertising, and this ensures that they will always retain a value commensurate with the success of the app itself.
In addition to the Gems token, users will also be able to use their account to send and receive Bitcoins.
A staggered release of the pre-sale funds from Koinify, the specialist crowd-funding service responsible for organizing this pre-sale, means that the Gems team must meet a series of development goals over the course to 10 months if they are to be able to access the full amount they have raised.
An initial iPhone only beta release of the app is expected before the end of the year, with the wallet and token system coming in March 2015, an Android release in June, and the full advertising system implemented by September 2015.
Gems can still be purchase in the pre-sale from the Koinify website.
