Disclaimer: Before we get started, please understand that my team and I are not being compensated by IoT Chain (ITC) and we are not affiliated with ITC in any way. We flew to China at our own expense to meet with the ITC team and simply wish to share our experience and findings with those who do not have the same opportunity that we did. This article is not considered as business advice and you should always do independent research before investing.
A bit about me
My name is Eric and I have always been a person who is unwilling to settle for the norm and always looking for the next big thing. I don’t consider myself as someone who is easily impressed, however when something impresses me, I make it my mission to ensure that the rest of the world knows about it.
For the last five years, I have been running my own business in the medical industry, not as a pharmaceutical rep or your standard medical practice, but instead bringing an innovative medical treatment into the current medical framework which could disrupt health care and treatment as we know it.
The lure back to cryptocurrency
I have always had an interest in crypto, having mined for bitcoins and altcoins throughout the years, and understanding the underlying concepts of what crypto is trying to achieve. Despite putting crypto on hold for a few years to focus on my other business interests, I have always kept an eye on it, always looking for that innovative game changer. Then along came IOTA.
In IOTA I saw potential in the technological advances of Internet of Things (IOT), Big Data and Artificial Intelligence which also applies to the medical field that I was involved in however in it I also saw flaws.
IOT and co. in a nutshell
There are plenty of great articles out there explaining IOT related tokens, Blockchain and DAG technologies, so I will make this quick and outline just enough to justify why ITC is the leading IOT technology out there.
In the near future, there will be enough IOT devices out there to generate a massive amount of private data (Big Data) which are protected by Blockchain or DAG technology for personalised AI to use.
However, the two main issues facing cryptos hoping to utilise this technology are, one, the inability to integrate their technology onto the relevant platforms (due to a variety of factors including insufficient understanding of the technology, lack of personnel or the extensive costs involved) and, two, the constant hype in only providing concepts and talking about potential without any signs of when such technology will have real world application for monetisation. My team and I believe the latter applies to IOTA.
Along comes ITC
As such, we began digging for more IOT related token and eventually came across ITC. What initially caught our attention was how soon the team was planning on commercialising DAG technology. Due to the lack of available information, namely that the source code is not yet released for proof of concept, we assumed that the project hit the market too soon leaving a whole bunch of unanswered questions and confusion for the market.
We managed to get in touch with the development team, and after a bit of back and forth, we realised that the project is much more than it seems which prompted us to fly into Shanghai to meet with the ITC team at their head office.
Having the same burning questions as many of you, we were satisfied with ITC’s answers and left the meeting as firm believers of ITC. Needless to say, not everything discussed can be shared at this stage however we will do our best to keep everyone informed.
The origins and applications of ITC
The ITC team was originally working on an operating system for IOT devices called Zhouapp. However as botnet attacks occurred more often and became a threat for IOT devices, Zhoupeng Xie (CEO of ITC) started working on security measures to prevent this based off the blockchain concept and this was how ITC began.
To date the team consists of 15 members, and the core team is made up of individuals with very unique talent and knowledge in all things blockchain.
The big data bodyguard
Zhoupeng’s concept for security lie in the decentralisation and breaking down of central servers into small individual nodes. Think of central servers as a large castle containing valuable treasures many are vying for. The large castle is a sitting duck and the cost to maintain and defend it from attackers is enormous. For example, WeChat’s monthly server rental and maintenance fee costs tens of million in US dollars. By using nodes, ITC can potentially negate the need for server rentals while continuing to ensure all user information and conversations continue to be highly secured and encrypted using blockchain technology.
Putting your data back in your hands
During the development of ITC another marketable application was discovered in that the technology has the ability to split user and personal data collected by companies. For example, XiaoMi (MI), a multibillion dollar phone manufacturing company in China, have been collecting Big Data which consist of User Data and Personal Data which they cannot monetise due to the illegality of selling private personal data. ITC can help companies like MI split the collection of data using blockchain technology and transfer the personal data back to the individual so that MI is able to sell their user data to business partners while ITC users will be paid a portion of the sold user data through ITC for helping such companies obtain user data.
Imagine if Google no longer owns our information and know where we are heading after work. Our private data is now our own. This data can be integrated into IOT devices and later be integrated into personalised AI based of our own private data, lifestyle and most importantly, protected from other parties.
If it’s so good, then why isn’t the code on GitHub?
ITC’s unique integration of different blockchain technology is one of a kind. They would like the test net to be completed first before releasing the source code to GitHub so that the team can prove that they are indeed the original creator of this technology.
We believe that this rationalisation is fair given that there are too many copycats out there. This does draw back to our earlier comment that the team released the token too early and should have waited until the source code is released. On the bright side, this does give investors the chance to get in early.
What about the test net stress?
The test net is being built for processing 1,000 transactions per second while the main net is expected to do at least 10,000 transactions per second which can be scaled up to 100,000 transactions per second if required. The potential to quadruple Visa’s transactions per second is pretty darn impressive if you ask us.
To fork or not to fork?
Although the code will be open source in the future for transparency, the team has confirmed that they have no intention to support hard forking of ITC on their network.
ITC is designed for corporate use and stability is the number one priority for corporations. The cost of switching technology for a large corporations is very high and not many corporations will be willing to adopt ITC’s systems if there are constant changes. The team will continue to provide support and upgrade through its existing ITC system so that hard forking is not necessary.
The ITC network will be used exclusively by ITC transfers only to ensure that the team can deliver on the promise they have made to their investors. In effect, showing loyalty to those who believed in them from the beginning as well as showing resolve to convince future investors and adopters.
So why is lighting the first choice of nodes?
Now this is one of the most interesting topic of all. Lighting was selected as the first marketable application in that it is the most widely used IOT device in the world at any one given time. ITC’s vision is to use each IOT light bulb to operate as an individual node. The abundance of IOT lighting devices is the reason why the transaction per second can be scaled so incredibility high. ITC will basically have been tested by the largest amount of nodes available in the crypto market place in comparison to any other IOT related cryptos.
When will the current ERC20 tokens be converted to real ITC tokens?
The token conversion will happen once the main net is completed and will likely to be carried out by an exchange. The total amount of ITC token available will be a lot more than 100 million tokens, the exact amount will be disclosed at a later stage. Rest assured, the conversion process will not devalue or dilute your ITC holdings. It will simply split your current holdings into more tokens to make it easier for new investors to enter ITC. The process is like a stock split similar to what Apple did back in 2014 with favourable results.
Why is ITC charging a fee to send when IOTA costs nothing?
The answer is simple. Security. Hundreds of million nodes can be produced at any one given time using lighting and in order to destroy the network, hackers will need to destroy at least half the nodes available. By implementing a fee into sending ITC, the cost per node of taking down half the network will not be worthwhile for hackers and acts as a great deterrent.
In order to offset the fees charged to legitimate senders, the previously mentioned monetisation through the sale and obtaining of user data comes into play.
Just how solid are your partners?
We have personally reviewed their partnership contracts and can confirm they are solid. Obviously it is not our place or right to disclose any further information at this stage. What we can say is that ITC’s partners have agreed to implement the technology into their IOT devices once the technology is ready.
What can realistically be achieved by ITC tokens in the foreseeable future?
Upon releasing the test net in roughly a month’s time and ensuring their security measures and protocol can withstand the test, ITC will move onto developing the main net.
Once the main net is completed, ITC will start implementing all the nodes to stabilise the entire ITC network. This will be done with the aforementioned IOT device partners such as lighting and smart locks manufacturers.
It is intended that the technology will be adopted by even more companies and partners in the near future due to ITC being used as a security solution to big data, cost reduction to server costs and monetisation of user data.
TL;DR? All good
ITC has got the right partners locked up and future partners lined up which will allow them to target IOT market both on a consumer device level which consist of over 90% of the current IOT market and the remaining at an enterprise level.
China is also the largest chip manufacturer in the world and ITC’s operating system is being written in a way that it can generally be run on any standard chip. The more ITC integrated chips, the more nodes there are in the network to prevent security breaches and protect big data.
ITC can make significant money from the follow sources and channels:
- Significantly reducing (and possibly eliminating) server hosting costs for big corporations
- Providing strong security through its expansive IOT network
- Allowing companies to monetise big data collection by returning personal data back to the individual
- Allowing users to generate money by obtaining user data for corporations
- Creating a fast ecosystem for sending payments given the network capacity to handle more than 100,000 transactions per second
From a business perspective we would definitely rank ITC as one of the most valuable tokens in the crypto market as it will have intrinsic value from real world applications. ITC also has the potential to be the first crypto company to monetise blockchain through the extreme ease of implementing such technology with their business partners.
This is a coin with a business model that is flying under the radar and we are very excited to keep you guys updated with the project as there’s more down the pipeline.
To be continued!