This is the first time I can objectively say a local Canadian app isn't taking first place and now they want to quietly close it and take some of the rewards back.
KF launch the Gaming Challenge with a fast deadline and very few tools to complete the task and now that it's finished they want to say they are quietly closing it and contacting developers because big app(s) may earn too much of the Most Active and maybe small apps haven't contributed enough to earn what they... earned. Remember, this is for their help building the early ecosystem and work with early systems and take early risk to developer accounts (which were attacked and reported).
Since when did it matter if "small apps" entered to win or Subway Scooter Surf took home Most Active? That suddenly sounds more like anonymous Reddit shills than KF management promoting developer activity and growth. Everyone knows these developers are still hard at work building with KIN and some are hiring new staff.
How many of the apps spent well over a few thousand on production and marketing to suddenly find out KF forgot about structuring payouts in an open and transparent way? Considering the technical difficulty, risk and low value for KIN I would say most developers lost value and rely on KF upholding their end with cash or KIN for some of the ecosystem apps to benefit from this as intended. The Go Live wasn't even close to the 200M @ Devpost and only 50M...
The whole thing is only a few billion Kin, worth up to $10K, or so, for the top app and nothing near $80K cash for the Devpost challenge that came next. Remember the payout of $25K for Canadian based Altcoin with very few installs and what about the $15K and $10K and others that have the same, if not worse early interest as the gaming apps?
The promise of 4 billion Kin for "most active" and a few hundred million for "best use" and "community favorite" is worth a little money if held but nothing compared to what it was when the challenge started and KIN price was 10x higher.
I've given them my vote of confidence that what they meant by this is that they will not make it a public vote or spectacle over the holidays due to the low turnout and I don't expect them to rewire the rewards program to take away from top earners or limit the potential of "smaller apps".
Again, there was no issue approving these apps or historically giving apps like Uwe $5000 for using the SDK and these guys jumped in and took the top 10 bonus rewards if I recall right. It's a bit odd that now that I'm a part of the ecosystem and funding a project that things appear to dry up like a mirage. As if they're saying, you know you're not worth it, and then they turn around and say someone else is that doesn't have the perfect product either and isn't even working to grow and build it...
I hope we speak up and don't let Reddit users posing as shills determine who is worthy of their reward while they brush developers under the rug, for things that are not their fault, like amount of participants entering or timeline or size of rewards. It would be wise of any company to stick to what was said and be consistent and move forward. Maybe not turn around and give away $80k if it's such a low turnout at this stage... Just a thought.
Again, it's only $15K at the most and not even a fraction of what the employees were paid to host it, market it or create the tools and so I'm assuming they aren't going to suddenly turn it into a negative publicity event. So let's be patient and see if they truly want to grow a fair and equal opportunity brand and promote a reputation of rewarding developers to help build the early ecosystem. It's bit mind blowing and if I were them I would have asked Unity groups to vote so they could see how competitive things were and get excited about a future challenge... That's how you justify the rewards, that's just my two cents.