An Exclusive Look Inside The K.im Beta

By Aaron Kesel

Kim Dotcom just launched a demo of his new micro payments business K.im and I got into the exclusive preview. Here’s what you need to know about the revolutionary service.

Only 1,000 users got into the test site and yours truly got an invite.

I'll send out 1000 K.im and Bitcache feature demo invites tomorrow. First come, first serve. Have a look at the next big disruption ??

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 29, 2017

First, it’s extremely easy to use. You just upload your file, set your price, title your item and finally input your Bitcache wallet then post your content anywhere you wish to sell it.

Although this is just a demo, and the content uploaded right now is only on the servers for a limited time, the service looks to be a game-changer for content creators.

“Services like this will unchain the artists, because they can sell directly to their fan base on any platform of their choosing. No middle men,” Dotcom said.

I decided to test it out and uploaded this image:

A cute kitten with the words “taxation is theft” below him. I then set my price for the smart feline at $1 USD, which the system converted to being 2.45 Bits of a Bitcoin in other words Satoshis.

I was then presented with setting my title for my content in which I named “Cats are awesome and taxation is theft,” a statement that most normal people can’t argue with unless you hate animals and love being fondled by the tax collector every year!

The website then asked me to set a short description of the content and requested my Bitcache address. So I signed up for Bitcache, got my wallet and was gifted with $10 in Bitcache.

The final step of K.im was setting up additional mirrors for my kitten hanging on a rope. I was presented with a multitude of options in categories: cloud services, peer-to-peer networks, press and media sites, community sites, swarm sites, and social media.

Some of the services offered as a mirror include Dropbox, Mega, Google Drive, WikiLeaks, various news organizations, torrent websites, IPFS, Filecoin, WeChat and many more (see the screen shots below)

Yes, Kim Dotcom’s service can even utilize IPFS and Filecoin, which Activist Post’s Vin Armani has talked extensively about how the technology is essentially the new decentralized Internet 2.0.

The file that’s uploaded is encoded into a special file type to ensure that creators get paid and can only be opened up with the site.

“We have our own file type,” Dotcom explained to Fortune. “So to open it you will need one of our apps or third party apps that will use our application programming interface. That way we ensure that no matter where your file is hosted, the content owner gets paid.”

Dotcom has done it again with another amazing project putting users back in control as he tweeted out “this is a revolution let’s take our internet back!” Ironically, and I didn’t think of this when uploading the image, K.im doesn’t tax you. Hurray for free markets for the people by the people!

Looks like everyone who's seen it loves K.im and Bitcache. It's not just a business, it's a revolution. Let's take our Internet back! #ICO

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 29, 2017

The announcement of Bitcache and the newly-reborn Megaupload 2 in the form of K.im comes amid Dotcom facing legal pressures in the U.S. to be extradited from his home country in New Zealand.

Under New Zealand law, distributing copyrighted material to users as an ISP is not a criminal offense.

“As we have said all along, there is no such offense under our Copyright Act. We were right,” Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said.

To win the major plank of the case but to get that outcome is extremely disappointing. It is hard to accept the logic that, if the conduct that all accept at its heart relates to assertions of breach of copyright… how it can nonetheless be massaged into a general fraud offense.

Despite Dotcom not having committed a crime in his country, and not being a citizen of the U.S., he still faces potential extradition to the United States for 13 counts, including allegations of conspiracy to commit racketeering; copyright infringement; money laundering and wire fraud.

All for running a website that some users chose to abuse and upload copyrighted content; Dotcom argues that he provided a service and is not liable for other people’s actions.

New Zealand Copyright Law (92b) makes it clear that an ISP can't be criminally liable for actions of their users. Unless you're Kim Dotcom?

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) February 20, 2017

I reached out to Kim Dotcom for a comment on his service. This article will be updated when/if he responds. I know he’s a very busy man.

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post and is Director of Content for Coinivore. Follow Aaron at Twitter and Steemit.

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