iWallet Chrome Extension was upgraded to version 0.2.1 in August to support you to store more tokens easily. The new version can be found in the Chrome Extension Store. The IOST Foundation partnered with JustCo, the only Asian-based coworking service provider that has a multi-city presence in the Asia Pacific, to unveil the IOST Launchpad, a global initiative to give promising and talented blockchain founders building on IOST a platform to launch, market and accelerate the growth of their applications. JustCo Labs has now joined the IOST ecosystem as a Node, and will play a contributing role to the IOST ecosystem. ColdLar Wallet APP and ColdLar Pro3, the latest hardware wallet by ColdLar, have been integrated with the IOST ecosystem. Together with ColdLar, IOST will build a more secure and efficient blockchain ecosystem. This will create a safe environment for sophisticated institutional investors requiring cold wallets and cold staking functions to securely buy and store IOST in their financial portfolios. Stay tuned!
Development
Internet of Service Token (IOST) has released a version upgrade, the previous version v3.2.0 is now upgraded to v3.3.0.
Changes in v3.3.0
- Rich SDK API extension (GetBatchStorageContract, GetRamInfo, GetTokenInfo)
- Deletion of Bytes to Float64 function
- Default P2P connection timeout
- Code Optimizations
- Require Auth with Signers
- Improve Tests
- GoLint fixes
- Nilpointer exception handling
For more details about the upgrade check https://github.com/iost-official/go-iost/tree/v3.3.0
Version 0.2.1 of the iWallet Chrome Extension now has support for multiple IOST tokens. The new version can be found in the Chrome Extension Store:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/iwallet/kncchdigobghenbbaddojjnnaogfppfj.
Once installed you’ll find that some tokes are listed by default and others will need to be added via the Add Token feature.
Social encounters
Passive income is often the name of the game when it comes to traditional investing. However, the opportunities in the cryptocurrency market are still fairly new for most people and somewhat intimidating if you fall down the wrong rabbit hole like trying to build your own mining operation.
Thankfully, more accessible options exist, like DeFi and proof-of-stake (PoS) altcoins, which often only requiring holding a certain amount of the coin to begin earning income. In fact, several major cryptocurrency exchanges, including KuCoin, are now offering to automatically stake your holdings directly on the platform.
The combination of falling prices leading to higher yields and a trend towards ease of staking has made PoS altcoins a solid investment idea moving into the final quarter of the year.
Here are five altcoins with staking yields over 5% that might be worth picking up in September: IOStoken (IOST), Decred (DCR), Cosmos (ATOM), KuCoin Shares (KCS) and Komodo (KMD).
IOST’s rating grade on @TokenInsight is upgraded to BB with a positive outlook, based on IOST strong ecosystem development & significant innovations in consensus mechanism and virtual machines.
ICAC is the core governance community of IOST, which is initiated by Node Pacific (IOST Pacific). In order to make the majority of the community better understand the IOST nodes, the ICAC community formally launched the IOST node partners interview.
On Sep 23, 2019, the ICAC community invited BlockDevs Asia- token Engineer, Project Lead & Developer Amadeo Brands to share their story.
Team Introduction
The four core members are:
- Caspar Oostendorp is our Blockchain/Software Architect. He is the CTO of Oost & Voort Inc and Co-Founder of Lifemesh
- Chris Verceles is our Full Stack/Blockchain Developer. He is the CTO of Lifemesh and Developer at Consensys
- Amadeo Brands is our Token Engineer, Project Lead & Developer. He is a co-Founder & CTO of EOI Digital
- Tracy Li is our Software Engineer. She is the Co-Founder of Bitchikka.
ICAC Interview
What does BlockDevs Asia mainly do? Can you introduce it to community users?
BlockDevs Asia is a non-profit community group by and for software developers, technology enthusiasts and business people looking to learn more about developing (actual) blockchain apps or systems. By organizing free educational meetups about complex & technical topics, we dive together with a large group of passionate developers into advance blockchain technology. To date, we organized more than 20 events, 2 large hackathons, and 20 meetups.
The third quarter is going to be covered. Can you briefly tell us what have you done this quarter?
As previously said, we have organized tons of meetups in the past.
For Q3, we held an event called ‘Blockchain Gamble — How Blockchain Predicts and Shapes the Future of Online Gambling’ where we talked about the concept, current state, and future of online gambling and blockchain and IOST.
We also held an expert talk at University of Makati introducing blockchain and IOST to Univeristy of Makati students.
Lastly, we have another meetup planned called ‘The Importance of Communities in Blockchain’ with BlockchainSPACE Philippines.
Our website updates our activities from time to time. Check out our blogs here and our Meetup page here.
Any news of BlockDevs Asia to share with the community?
In the months to come, BlockDevs Asia will hold more meetups and events regarding blockchain and IOST. Everyone is encouraged to join and participate. For a quick list for the upcoming events, we listed them here below:
- More Dedicated IOST events — We want to prioritize IOST on everything we build and in our meetups
- IOST node token for increased voter rewards
- Building out the IOST IDE and dev tooling — Basically, we plan to make it easier for developers to develop on IOST
- Onboarding of new IOST developers
- Setup dedicated IOST Hackaton
- Initial launch for a dedicated IOST incubator program
- IOST Casino game development — Setting up IOST Casino games and start competing with https://www.iostvegas.io/. We see an opportunity here to put our dev community at work and make a better functioning and operating casino.
- IOST Game development courses for Blockchain enthusiasts
How did you get involved with IOST? Why do you choose to be an IOST node?
BlockDevs Asia’s involvement with IOST began with a collaborative event with Terrence Wang back in Q1 January 29, 2019 called ‘Platform Hands-On’. Our event held a technology demo from Wang himself and showcased how IOST works in a blockchain system and how to use it for developing blockchain programs and dApps.
During the demonstration, Wang showed how IOST differs from other blockchain bases. IOST emphasizes community participation and incentives than other blockchain. This is quite interesting because gives people more opportunities.
What contribution will be made to the whole IOST ecology? If you have a preliminary plan or idea, could you share it with the IOST fans?
Our main goal is to empower the developer IOST Community with education and tooling so that more applications will be built on top of the IOST network. The more applications or network layers/traffic are created the more value will drip down into the base protocol which will, in the long run, increase the intrinsic value of IOST and will create a strong economic foundation.
For the IOST partnership we are focusing on educating our community about the IOST technology and exploring together what the possibilities of the Internet of Services are. BlockDevs Asia contributes by promoting & educating IOST to the community of the Philippines and even across multiple South-east Asian countries.
As of now, we are setting up IOST Champ which will be a tool to train developers and have them earn badges and points. Then, the developers can also complete tasks like create and deploy applications to main net where they then be rewarded for out off our main IOST reward pool.
What expectations or suggestions do you have for IOST?
I hope we will keep our ecosystem strong and based on creating long term value instead of going for short term gains. Price is just a ticker and I believe that if we harden the network and stick with IOST for the long run we can make a change and outperform and compete against our competition.
What platforms can we get the latest development and situation of BlockDevs Asia?
You can always go to the BlockDevs Asia website for updates or go to our Github and see what we are working on. We are looking forward to seeing you at one of our events we also do live streaming so you can always attend an event digitally.
Why should the community members vote for you, and what will they get if they vote for you?
BlockDevs Asia is a non-profit organization that helps grow a blockchain community to help represent and propagate new technology in the Asian market.
IOST is one of the top global staking projects as reported by Coin Telegraph.
IOST is working with IMDA Singapore on a seamless data bridge to easily transfer information, transactions & asset values between IOST & ETH. Can you solve interoperability for IOST? Attractive prizes of SGD35k & more.
‘Stache: Tell me a little about your background Terrence. What did you do before helping to start IOST?
Terrence: I am an ex-Uber, ex-Microsoft software engineer. I used to study computer science at Princeton University, and after college, I worked in the Bay Area for several years before I went back to China started my crypto journey with IOST.
‘S: What problem did you create IOST to solve?
T: We created IOST to make it the underlying architecture for online services that meet the security and scalability needs of a decentralized economy.
‘S: How do you plan on solving the issue of sharding & scalability on IOST versus what has been done on other major competitors like Ethereum, TRON, and EOS?
T: Our focus is on PoB, instead of sharding at the moment. IOST has reached the similar level of scalaility as EOS, with a better decentralization realization. Our Servi system enabled even the Servi node with the least number of votes among our 60+ block producers to have the opportunity to produce blocks, comparing to the 21 biggest nodes holding up the block-production spots rather unshakably in EOS and 27 super representatives in TRON.
‘S: Since mainnet launch we have seen a lot of dapps built on top of the IOST network. Have you used any or played any games on IOST? If so, what was your favorite one?
T: Have been trying Eternal Fafnir since its beta test. It is a blockchain role-playing game where players can summon four dauntless warriors to challenge evil monsters and collect fallen items.
One of the most impressive parts of Eternal Fafnir is its high-quality graphics. The graphics have a western magic style that outruns most blcockchain games. Besides, each character in the game has separate growing path and different skills. Players can decide which path they would like to pursue. The game is easy to get on board with. Simple operations and auto mode make it fun and smooth to play with. I had a pretty good gaming experience with them.
‘S: Do you plan on opening up a development bounty to help increase usage of IOST as a dapp platform? I believe there is a fund already established for this?
T: Yes, we have Featured DApps Support Program for our DApp developers, which was launched by IOST and Pioneer Fund, an exclusive fund focused on DApps under the BlueHill Foundation. It is open for submission to all DApp teams who have released DApp(s) on IOST mainnet. Applicants are required to specify their operation objectives such as account number, traffic and DAU in their application. Once approved by IOST, the operation plan will gain 70% of operation budget from IOST first and the remaining 30% later if the actual outcome matches the one stated in the application. For more information: Bluehill Announcement + IOST Launchpad Announcement
‘S: How do projects like OnBlock and Emogi Netowrk fit into the overall future plans for the IOST network and how closely do you work with these types of projects?
T: As an important investor and supporter of both OnBlock and Emogi projects, IOST is working closely with the two and has great confidence and faith in them. As a growing exchange, OB helps promote IOST and attracts a great number of new users to the ecosystem. It is an irreplaceable player in the diversified IOST ecosystem, providing IOST users with a secure and stable trading and Dapp exploration platform. At the same time, it offers great networking opportunities in the blockchain industry to IOST.
Emogi’s contributions to the ecosystem are demonstrated in two areas: real world mass adoption and user acquisition. As the first IOST’s major effort in real world application, the short video platform Bermi and its innovative token economy gained great traction and success. It is another strong booster in the IOST ecosystem and has successfully increased IOST’s brand awareness with its 6 million user base worldwide, especially in Latin America.
‘S: IOST recently launched a new website, but it seems the roadmap has been removed. Was there a reason for that and what major milestones can we expect in 2020?
T: We released our Back To Da Moon Plan in early August. And the plan for 2020 is still under discussion. We will keep our community members posted once it is out.
‘S: IOST keeps brining on some amazing partnerships, which one are you most excited about and why?
T: The partnership that excites us the most is the long running collaboration that we have with the Singapore government to mutually grow the blockchain ecosystem value and develop progressive blockchain technology. Back in May, IOST partnered up with Enterprise Singapore to support enterprise blockchain projects and give grants to promising startup founders. In July, IOST attended the National Blockchain Challenge as a corporate partner. It is a 3-day blockchain hackathon supported by SkillsFuture Singapore, a government agency dedicated to workforce upskilling. We were glad to notice that in the challenge, most of the developers chose to code on either IOST or Ethereum for their choice of platform. Most recently, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) supports IOST by holding a challenge to solve for interoperability between IOST and Ethereum. We are grateful to receive such comprehensive support from a world class government, and this will play a key role in the growth and international expansion of IOST going forward.
‘S: Cross-chain interoperability is a major milestone for IOST, what progress has been made on this front?
T: A couple of days ago, together with Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) , IOST initiated a challenge and offered 35,000 SGD to the problem solver. Later in the Q4, we also plan to run hackathons that include interoperability as part of the development theme to collect all as many solutions as possible to solve this question.
‘S: Being a developer myself, I always have a few projects going on. Are you working on any other interesting projects right now?
T: Nope, I am focused on IOST and simply have no time for other projects.
Past events:
Finance
IOST started its 1.2 Billion EMOGI Airdrop rewards plan on August 13th, which includes two parts: Genesis Airdrop and Long Term Airdrop. By September 16, IOST has finished the distribution of all Genesis Airdrop and the Long Term Airdrop rewards for August.
According to snapshots of all voters’ accounts throughout the mainnet taken from August 1 to August 31, IOST issued a total of 10,500,000 LOL tokens.
How To Get My Rewards?
- All on-chain voters will receive their rewards directly. (On-chain voting channels: TokenPocket Wallet, PureWallet, IOSTABC Explorer, IOST Voter and Huobi Wallet.)
- Voters through BISS will get their rewards from BISS.
- Voters through following staking pools and exchanges will receive their rewards from their respective staking pool or exchange: Huobi Pool, Ok Pool, OB Pool, Liebi Pool, Cobo Pool, TPool, HashFin, BigOne, HelloPool, KuCoin, Infstones, and CoinInn.
Learn more: Who Receives Emogi ($LOL) Airdrops?
Long Term Airdrop Ongoing
IOST started the issue of Long Term airdrop rewards to all voters from September 2019.
- Total giveaway volume: 630,000,000 LOL.
- Long term airdrop event will last for five years, starting from August 1, 2019 and ending on August 1, 2024.
- Each round of airdrop lasts for a month and rewards are issued the month after.
- Every month 10,500,000 LOL will be airdropped to eligible participants.
- Distribution volume to an account in a given month = Votes on the account for the month / Total Votes for the month *10,500,000 LOL
The objective of the Contribution Reward System is to incentivize all Nodes to contribute towards building and developing the ecosystem, as well as allowing Nodes that do not receive a large share of votes to still earn a large number of rewards for significant contributions to the IOST ecosystem.
The following document lays out the contribution rewards mechanism and process for IOST Nodes. Any feedback and suggestions on the Contribution Reward System is welcome.
Nodes Reward Pool Overview
The total Nodes Reward Pool is 840M IOST, equivalent to 4% of the total IOST supply. It comprises of
- Ecosystem Reward Pool (420M, issued by quarter) and
- Token Issuance Reward Pool (420M, issued by day).
Ecosystem Reward Pool includes quarterly-issued Contribution Rating Rewards (210M) and quarterly-issued Share of Votes Rewards (210M).
Token Issuance Reward Pool includes daily-distributed Block Production Rewards and daily-distributed Share of Votes Rewards.
Ecosystem Reward Pool Timeline
Dates for Q3 Contribution Rating Rewards:
- September 23rd — September 30th: submissions open for Q3 node contribution reports
- October 1st — October 14th (Due to China’s National Holiday): report assessment and ranking by IOST/ICAC & Initial results release
- October 15th — October 21st: Dispute period & Final results release
- Before November 30th: Finish the distribution of Contribution Rating Rewards
Share of votes snapshots are taken daily, and rewards are based on the average share of votes received for the quarter.
Contribution Assessment Method
Nodes submit their contribution report each quarter, detailing the contributions they made to the ecosystem for that period and which contribution category is most relevant.
These contribution reports are then assessed and ranked for each category starting from the most valuable contribution to the least. Based on these rankings, Nodes are split into Reward Tiers and then issued rewards.
Contribution Categories
Nodes can submit reports for 1 of the 5 categories. The chosen category for each Node should be the most relevant one. If there are contributions made outside of this category, they should still be submitted as they will count towards the final ranking.
Example: Two Dapp developers launch Dapps of equal value, but if one of the Dapps also creates content to promote it, this Node will rank higher.
The reward categories are as follows:
- Content creation and promotion
- Dapps
- Integrations (wallets,exchanges,explorers etc) & Technical Support
- Events / meetups / hackathons
- Community building
Contribution Assessment per Category
Each contribution report is assessed based on the following criteria for each category.
1. Content Creation and Promotion
Creating awareness and education about IOST to crypto and mainstream audiences is one of IOST’s most important objectives in order to grow and attract more users and developers. Quality of content is important, but even more so is the number of people this content reaches. Quality content produced should be placed where it can get a lot of exposure outside of the IOST community and shared via social, news and community channels.
- quality of the content (accuracy, production quality)
- views / clicks / impressions / shares / comments
- Enjoyability / watchability
2. Dapps
- Value to the ecosystem (e.g is it an interesting, useful novel Dapp, or a clone of an existing Dapp already on IOST)
- Daily active users (DAU)
- Daily transactions volume
3. Integrations (wallets, exchanges, explorers etc) & Technical Support
- Value to ecosystem (is it an interesting, useful novel integration, or a clone of an existing already)
- Downloads / Visits
- Daily active users (DAU)
- Token volume
- Quality and frequency of technical support
4. Events / meetups / hackathons
- Quality of event (content, topic, speakers etc)
- Number of attendees
- Press / News coverage
5. Communities
- Community activity (e.g. airdrop and giveaway)
- Growth of members
- IOST community support and engagement
- Number of active users
Contribution Assessment Submission Format
Contribution reports should be submitted through the official report submission channel: https://iost-eng.typeform.com/to/V3dFPM
Each contribution activity should be specified in a numbered list with a clear description and addressing each assessment criteria. As much supporting and verifiable documentation should be included for each activity. Any activity which is not verifiable will not be included in the Node’s ranking.
Contribution activities will only be considered in contribution assessments if they are accretive to the ecosystem. Example: Node A casting votes for Node B or Node A providing a specific service (such as marketing or technical) for Node B are not considered contributions given that these are commercial dealings between nodes only.
Contribution activities should only cover the time period for each report (3 months). Example: A Dapp’s DAU should only report the increase during this 3 month period. Forward-looking statements, such as plans for the next quarter, are not considered in contribution assessment.
Contribution Tier Rewards
Nodes in each tier receive the same amount of reward regardless of category. The 210M Reward Pool based on contribution is divided between tiers in the following way:
In April this year, IOST announced its Global User Acquisition Program — Project Pegasus, and its plan to distribute airdrop to IOST’s long-time supporters who have staunchly stood with IOST since the launch of our mainnet.
To extend its appreciation to long-time IOST supporters, the Foundation has prepared an exclusive surprise for you. Between March 1 to August 1, 2019, the longer you had staked your IOST, the higher the amount of airdrop you will receive.
More Details
- Airdrop category: Rewards for IOST’s long-term supporters
- Eligible participants: IOST staking holders between March 1 to August 1, 2019.
- Airdrop amount: 31,500,000 LOL, accounting for 0.15% of its total supply
- Distribution plan:
- The airdrop will be issued in three batches in Sep, Oct, and Nov respectively, to maintain price support.
- The distribution of this airdrop will be based on individual voters’ staking proportion between March 1 to Aug 1.
Roadmap
The Token Buyback Program is expected to:
- Reduce the supply of IOST available in both public and private markets
- Bring excess capital and fund inflows into the IOST ecosystem
- Provide market support on investor confidence and valuations
- Compound the growth effects of increased token utility following its mainnet + Dapp launches.
Partnerships and team members
The IOST Foundation announced its partnership with JustCo to unveil the IOST Launchpad, a global initiative to give promising and talented blockchain founders building on IOST a platform to launch, market and accelerate the growth of their applications.
JustCo Labs has now joined the IOST ecosystem as a Node, and will play a contributing role to the IOST ecosystem.
JustCo is the only Asian-based coworking service provider that has multi-city presence in Asia Pacific, catering to freelancers, entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small and large enterprises.
Notably, in May 2018, JustCo has received USD177 million in funding from GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, and SGX Mainboard-listed Frasers Property to grow and strengthen their Asian presence. JustCo’s rapid expansion plans will see it continue to grow quickly in multiple cities it already had presence in, like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan as well as new markets like Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, India and more.
Alongside JustCo, IOST will benefit from growing our offline penetration into all major Asian economies. With IOST’s deep tech positioning and strong digital footprint, JustCo’s extensive physical presence is complementary to our ecosystem development and will provide the IOST developer community with a full-service launchpad in all major Asian cities.
To kickstart this exciting partnership, IOST and JustCo have lined up a regional series of offline blockchain events and media interviews. These events will be co-branded and co-marketed by IOST and JustCo and aim to bring greater awareness and education to the mass public on blockchain and its numerous benefits. Stay tuned for exciting updates coming up!
Together with ColdLar, IOST will build a more secure and efficient blockchain ecosystem. This will create a safe environment for sophisticated institutional investors requiring cold wallets and cold staking functions to securely buy and store IOST in their financial portfolios.
ColdLar Hardware Wallet has a significant market share in the high-end hardware cold wallet market, having successfully penetrated and built strong followings in markets including Japan, South Korea, US, Singapore, and Russia.
Now, its latest product, ColdLar Pro3 has officially integrated with IOST. In the near future, other products from ColdLar will support IOST ecosystem, including ColdLar Touch line, Cloud Wallet, ColdLar Line E, and more.
ColdLar Wallet APP now supports a series of functions focused on IOST, including IOST account management, asset transfers, buy / sell, and voting.
In addition, users now can receive a free IOST mainnet account directly in the ColdLar Waller APP.
ColdLar Wallet will continue to optimize its products and upgrade its IOST functionalities until it fully supports the whole IOST ecosystem. It is dedicated to providing the best user experience for IOST community members.
Boomstarter.Network that runs a blockchain-based crowdfunding platform is excited to share a special, limited offer for the IOST community.
- You can now launch their crowdfunding projects without listing fee.
- For IOST community members, we subsidize fees for our value-added services.
IOST and Boomstarter.Network have completed integration: IOST token can now be used as a fundraising currency along with BC, the platform’s native token. It means that IOST is accepted as payment to support any startup running a crowdfunding campaign on Boomstarter.Network.
What is crowdfunding
With crowdfunding, you raise funds by offering a community to support your idea. You should set the financial goal you want to reach within a limited timeframe to accomplish your idea. If you successfully raise the needed amount, you receive the funds to make your product and provide awards to those who helped you raise funds.
You may offer different awards to those who support you. It may be a symbolic treat or even your future product. So with crowdfunding, you can sell pre-orders, offering to buy your future product at the idea stage, at an attractive price.
How to start with IOST-based crowdfunding
For any product or service — DAPP development, a new gadget idea, or your local charity — you can launch your crowdfunding campaign now and receive IOST as payment.
* Register at https://boomstarter.network and start your campaign now.
IOSTPay for Oscommerce is the first E-commerce integration available for IOST allowing merchants who use Oscommerce to accept IOST on their online store. Over 100,000 online stores are powered by Oscommerce.
Metanyx are proud to announce the general availability of IOSTPay for Oscommerce which is the first in a series of E-commerce integrations we will be releasing. Our focus will be on adding support for all major shopping carts with WooCommerce being released by the end of 2019.
- WooCommerce (Wordpress) > 250K online stores
- Shopify > 500K online stores
- Magento > 100K online stores
IOSTPay is performing real-time transactions that are confirmed during the checkout process, IOST is one of the fastest blockchains in the world producing blocks every 500ms with irreversible blocks in under 10 seconds. The speed of IOST makes it a viable alternative to traditional payment schemes such as VISA, Mastercard or Paypal which are centralized solutions.
IOSTPay will be a direct competitor to Coinbase Commerce and Bitpay but without introducing a middleman as transactions will be direct between the customers wallet and the merchants wallet.
Rumors
No updates
Social media metrics
The charts above show the decline in the number of Twitter followers.
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of IOST Facebook likes, Reddit subscribers and Twitter followers. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
