RSK acquires Taringa!, plans to launch crypto-wallet for social media users

Contxto – Yet another acquisition has transpired in Latin America, this time involving the Argentine social media platform, Taringa!. Recently, RSK acquired the company and gained access to the platform’s 30 million users. 

With this transaction, RSK intends to promote its RIF token to Taringa! users. Moreover, it plans to experiment more with decentralized blockchain applications with this new massive audience.

Rather than just formulating smart contracts via Ethereum blockchain as most blockchain startups do, RSK wants to implement large-scale solutions leveraging the bitcoin ecosystem. According to reports, the crypto platform expects to launch its first smart contract system with Taringa! during the second quarter of 2020. 

RIF token 

RSK, the subsidiary of IOVLabs, describes itself as the “first open-source smart contract platform secured by the bitcoin network.” Under this model, Taringa! users will have the possibility of posting content in exchange for IOVLabs’ cryptocurrency, RIF token. Pretty similar to what it was previously doing with DAI in its Taringa! Pioneros program.

IOVLabs released the RIF token in November 2018 with a market cap of US$46 million. Part of the deal is to ensure that IOVLabs has a wide pool of users to test out new applications. 

Taringa! in Argentina

About 28 percent of Argentine internet users have Taringa!, which is more than Snapchat, Skype, as well as LinkedIn. Due to ongoing inflation and the decreasing value of the Argentine peso, it’s easy to comprehend why so many are resorting to cryptocurrencies as a decentralized solution to today’s economic uncertainty.

“If you go to the first world and you start talking about bitcoin and decentralized platforms, you need to explain why,” said IOVLabs CEO Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar. “In Latin America, you don’t need to explain why.”

For Taringa! CEO Matías Botbol, this partnership is going to provide users with more tangible benefits.

“If you are a social media user nowadays, you don’t get a real reward for all of your activities and the value that you create,” said Botbol. “When we implement the crypto in our communities, the user can be part of the value.”

In other words, some of Taringa!’s most active content creators will have the opportunity to turn a profit from their social media contributions. The platform has various active communities and content that’s shared over websites like Facebook. 

Regulatory challenges

While Facebook’s Libra certainly aims to bring more people into the crypto ecosystem, there are still many legal setbacks they need to be resolved before continuing with the launch.

For this reason, if RSK is able to implement its wallet in Taringa!‘s platform, it can beat Libra’s time to market. Ultimately, this could double the number of people holding crypto wallets worldwide.

As of today, Statista reports that there are 40 million blockchain wallets around the world. 

“The crypto space has had trouble at times trying to reach audiences outside of its core community of early adopters and visionaries,” said Zaldivar. “This is a big opportunity to learn how to turn these communities potentially into shared economies and bring these technologies to the masses.”

Taringa! Pioneros 

It’s no secret that Taringa! has a soft spot for cryptocurrencies. Previously, it launched the Taringa! Pioneros pilot to test the waters with a stablecoin coin, DAI. Back in 2015, it also joined forces with Xapo to try out a revenue-sharing system. Again, this was an attempt to reward users for their posts via bitcoins.

While the program started in a beta version with 35,000 members, it ended with 2,500. Unfortunately, the program wrapped up sooner than expected after content got stolen and legal issues ensued. Perhaps the startup will have better luck now that it’s part of RSK. 

As of now, the future of the DAI program is uncertain considering RSK has its own content-rewarding crypto plan. We will reach out to Taringa! to understand more about the new initiative an update as soon as everything is more clear.

-JA