We hate all types of scalability.

As we get older, our weight scales poorly.

We step on a scale, then we step right off...who needs that hard hit of reality?

One scalability issue that we can talk about head on is that of blockchains.

As more people use it, the more important scalability becomes.

Today’s review is IOST, which is yet another project aiming to solve the blockchain scalability issue.

Let’s dig in…

IOST (ticker: IOST)

Mid-Tier Shitcoin (upward momentum)

Wtf is this shit?

We’re going to dig right in with this one, especially because there is not as much technical information as we’d like online. IOST (internet of services token) is the token of a China based project, IOS. IOS wants to offer an extremely high throughput solution, promising up to 100,000 tps (transactions per second) that can compete with dApp platforms such as Ethereum. PRETTY WILD…but, easier said than done.

Let’s talk consensus. IOST utilizes a ‘Proof of Believability’ (don’t like this name/term...it sounds soft and cheesy), but let’s call it PoB. In this consensus algorithm trusted nodes are validated based on past behavior, uptime, token balance, and user behaviors.

For scalability, they have a unique sharding logic where different blocks are spread across different nodes. This is contrary to most blockchains where each node keeps an entire version of the ledger. Partitioning (basically, indexing) data out to different shards (groups of nodes) greatly helps with scalability, leaving some nodes with more bandwidth than others. (we explained this in layman’s terms, but you get the picture). Many argue that the improved scalability as a result of sharding comes with a risk of less security. They are doing penetration testing to ensure proper security.

They intend to launch their mainnet towards the end of 2018 and they are really competing with Ethereum to offer a fast and reliable dApp environment. They started with funding from an ICO. Funny enough, like most other projects, it is currently an ERC-20 token. BUT, to their credit, the team has been on target with hitting milestones and those watching their Github say they have completed significant work as they said they would. The community is quite loyal and content.

We do wish that they had a whitepaper available, it seems they took it down. Maybe re-working it? It simply says to reach out to one of the cofounders, Jiamang Zhong.

Who tf is behind this shit?

They have six co-founders: Jimmy Zhong (believe that is the same dude mentioned above, ‘Jiamang’ as it says when trying to access the whitepaper), Terrence Wang, Justin Li, Ray Xiao, Sa Wang, and Kevin Tan. Jimmy is the most notable one of the bunch around the interwebs. A graduate of Emory University and based in San Fransisco, he certainly has a strong background working with tech startups. One of his major accomplishment is a network founder for ‘500 Startups’ a Silicon Valley based seed fund and accelerator program (founded by both PayPal and Google alumni). He was also the founder and CTO of a company called StudyPool (an online academic platform to help students with their studies), which was backed by 500 Startups. He currently seems to be full time in IOST (good).

All in all, mid-tier shitcoin, and it seems to be moving up. The community is enthusiastic and they seem to hit technical goals on time - let’s see if the mainnet launch is timely. The biggest hurdle will be marketing...they have LOTS of competition...so let’s see.

Hope you learned some shit.

Chat soon!

- Mike and Aaron