The mining software is all opensource so you can check that for yourself. And, yes some gas has to be spent to mine the token. However, this is much much cheaper than ICO's that launch at highly inflated prices and require you to spend ETH as well.

We could've put together a shiny website and launched an ICO.. however, we want to show that we are serious.. we have to mine the KIWI just like everyone else, and so we are more focussed on making it a success... if you join our discord you will see how active we are and see that we are here for the longterm as well.