One of the more interesting social “experiments” over the past few years has been how people enjoy telling their friends and even the whole world where they are at any given time. “Checking in” at your current location throughout the day seems to be the new hype, and with applications such as FourSquare allowing users to become a Mayor of places they visit frequently, it can be quite rewarding too. But what if we could tie this together with digital currency?

What is Checkcoin?

Several brilliant minds in The Netherlands were thinking along the same lines , and created a new digital currency called Checkcoin. Even though this altcoin has been around since the end of July, I had never heard of it before until I was pointed to it by a member of BitSend, the company behind Checkcoin.

As visiting new places and meeting new people is one of the things I love most about being involved in cryptocurrency, I immediately saw the potential of such a coin and decided to do some investigating. It turns out Checkcoin is not just about sharing your location, but also exploring the world around us and even rewarding others for doing the exact same thing.

The following promotional video might give you a better idea of what I mean exactly :

Checkcoin Introduction

Checkcoin started out with an ICO held on the C-Cex exchange, which saw all of the coins (14 million out of 100 million total) being sold and a total of 140 Bitcoin in funds being raised. If you take a look at the current exchange price for CKC, you will notice it is slightly above the initial ICO price a few months ago. We don’t often see coins holding steady for so long after their ICO ended.

In order to gain some more credibility and recognition in the overflowing sea of altcoins, Checkcoin has gone through CryptoAsian’s Proof-of-Development process. CKC came out with a 5+ POD rating, which is not that unusual, but not as frequent as you might expect. You can find out more details by clicking here.

As I mentioned before, Checkcoin is all about discovering places and rewarding others who discovered new places themselves. In order to do so, several important platforms and applications are under development, which we will take a look at next.

Checkcoin Platform

By enabling users to set up their very own account on which they can share their discoveries and locations they visited through social media, an instant buzz for Checkcoin could be generated. The platform will also give users the opportunity to check for worldwide locations they might want to discover at some point in time.

These locations and discovered are created as “CheckPoints” , which a gps-based geolocation created through the Checkpoint Platform. Once someone else “checks in” at this spot with their mobile phone (see below) , they are rewarded with CKC.

CheckPoints have many advantages for companies and business as well. Incentivizing people to visit certain locations, or rewarding them with CKC when they spend a certain amount of money in your local store are great ways to increase brand awareness.

But that’s not all of the services offered by Checkcoin Platform, as users will also be able to create and find GeoFaucets. A GeoFaucet will reward people checking out your local business, or can be used for other initiatives such as crowdfunding, donations, et cetera.

Checkcoin Mobile

As people aren’t carrying their laptops with them all the time when exploring previous or new locations, the Checkcoin team is currently developing a mobile application. Checkcoin Mobile will serve as a regular CKC wallet for your phone.

On top of that, Checkcoin Mobile will allow users to find and create CheckPoints and GeoFaucets. Your latest discoveries can also be shared through social media, all from your Checkcoin Mobile client. This application will be availalble for Android, iOS and Google Glass.

Checkcoin Platform & Checkcoin Mobile are expected to be released in Q1 2015.

Checkcoin Zones

If all the above wasn’t enough to convince you just yet, Checkcoin Zones are in the works as well. A Checkcoin Zone is an area holding multiple interesting CheckPoints, places where business accept CKC payments and even locations where users can use their CKC as a discount, or cash them out through Checkcoin ATMs.

Technical Specifications

The big question : Why a new coin and not use Bitcoin?

A very good question, yet the answer is pretty simple. At this point in time, many merchants and companies are still wary of adopting Bitcoin technology. Bitcoin still has a major marketing problem, and many business people have a “wait and see” approach toward Bitcoin.

BitSend, the company behind Checkcoin, created this new coin as as fun alternative to Bitcoin. As BitSend also helps merchants and business embrace digital currency payment solutions (both hard- and software) , Checkcoin was created as a marketing tool.

I did mention Checkcoin ATMs before. BitSend actually installed a few Lamassu Bitcoin ATMs throughout the Netherlands, and these will have their software modified to allow for purchasing and selling of CKC. BitSend will also assist their current customer base with accepting Checkcoin as a payment method, and setting up CheckPoints.

Note from the author : We will do a more in-depth article about BitSend at some point this week, so keep an eye out!

Exchanges

Even though Checkcoin’s ICO was held at C-Cex, several other exchanges now list CKC trading pairs, as Bter, Cryptsy, Bittrex and Bleutrade also opened up CKC/BTC trading markets.

More information

Website : http://www.checkcoin.cc/

Bitcointalk : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=715563.0

Twitter : http://www.twitter.com/checkcoincc

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/checkcoin