What is IOTEX? Here’s what you need to know

IOTEX: What is it?

iotex (IOTX) is one of the world’s first “blockchain-within-a-blockchain” scalable solutions for the Internet of Things.

Thanks to a unique Roll-DPoS consensus mechanism, it will be both fast and scalable, connecting the physical world of internet devices block by block. A lightweight method of preserving privacy is also brought to bear by IoTeX.

With the launch of IoTeX in 2017, IoTeX has built a decentralized platform that aims to empower the Internet of Trusted Things. It provides a safe, trustable, free, and private ecosystem for people and machines to interact.

Featuring over 30 international researchers and engineers, the project aims to enable smart devices and networks that can preserve privacy by combining blockchain, secure hardware, and confidential computing.

Creators:

Raullen Chai, Xinxin Fan, Qevan Guo, and Jing Sun are the founding members of IoTeX.

Hyperconnect Lab was founded by Qevan Guo as well. Previously he worked at Facebook as an engineering manager and research scientist.

Sparkland Capital is another company headed by Jing Sun. She is an angel investor at Rippling and an LP at Polychain Capital.

Xinxin Fan co-founded IoTeX after serving as a senior researcher at Bosch Research and Technology Center, North America. As well as working as a research associate and project manager, he worked at the University of Waterloo.

As well as co-founding IoTeX, Raullen Chai is an advisor at BootUP Ventures and a member of the Industrial Distributed Ledger Task Group of the Industrial Internet Consortium. Previously, he led the crypto R&D and engineering security teams at Uber.

The foundation of any good project should be solid. For holders of the IOTX coin, this may be great news since the platform was launched in 2017 as an open-source project to allow humans and machines to communicate in a safe, secure, and trusted environment. 

While many coins are available on the market, IoTeX is unique in its value proposition and mission. This initiative is aimed at enabling both companies and ordinary people to be in control of their data and devices. IoTeX is a platform that links the physical and digital worlds to make machine-based applications, assets, and services available to the masses, delivering value to users and fostering the creation of a new machine economy. 

How does it work:

As a “layer 1” blockchain solution that is EVM-compatible, IOTX currently powers an ever-growing network of smart devices, DApps, and digital assets. It also allows anybody to be a stakeholder in the IoTeX Network as the IOTX coin powers network transactions and smart contracts. 

It has been running glitch-free since April 2019 and has more than 60 delegates, including Blockfolio, CoinGecko, and DraperDragon. Furthermore, it has an international community of more than 100,000 members from over 100 countries who are united by a similar vision for the Internet of Trusted Things.

The oTeX Native Token and Utility

 As part of the launch of Mainnet Alpha, the IoTeX native token was also launched. The IoTeX native token is a utility token that will be used in the Root Chain (orchestration layer) and Gravity Chain (governance layer) for the following purpose:

• Decentralized governance: The stake/vote process for delegates, their rewards and slashing, and network-wide voting/referendums (regarding changes to rules, parameters, protocols)
• Gas fees: Executing smart contracts and conducting transactions on the IoTeX Network. The gas fees are collected as a “tax”, and then are pooled/distributed to block producers
• Bond/operation costs for L2 chains: The Root Chain must be staked as a bond and operational costs must be paid to provision a Layer 2 chain. An L2 chain may have its crypto-economics and token, but will pay “registration costs” to access Root Chain resources.

IoTeX Staking/Voting

Token holders elect Delegates to run consensus on behalf of the IoTeX Network, using a Roll-DPoS consensus model. A Delegate’s primary role is to maintain and grow the network by providing robust node infrastructure, ensuring high server uptime, running consensus with other Delegates, and contributing to various network initiatives.

 A smart contract-based voting system is used by IoTeX for staking and voting. Therefore, no centralized entity can manipulate the results of the vote – it is purely decentralized, just as voting should be! In the IoTeX network, 1 token equals 1 vote, and voters have the option of getting bonus votes by setting their stake duration in advance (bonus curve).

Does it have a future?

Founded in Silicon Valley, IoTeX is supported by a global team of 30+ top-tier engineers, researchers, and administrators from companies such as Google, Facebook, Uber, Bosch, and many others. A project like this is being led by highly qualified professionals such as Raullen Chai (Uber’s Head of Cryptography), Qevan Guo (Facebook Product Lead in Machine Learning), and others.

Additionally, it is based on the IoT (Internet of Things) concept. Using the Internet of Things we can connect everything around us to the internet in a new way and learn about our environment in a new way. As IoT dominates the world in the upcoming years, IoTeX may play a significant role in this transition. The goal of IoTeX is to create a borderless environment where humans and machines can interact in a manner that is free, secure, and private. 

IOTX holders will benefit if IoTeX manages to dominate the IoT sector once again, as this will boost the price. While this is true, there are numerous competitors on the market who are offering similar or better solutions.