Keeping up with the latest trends in cryptocurrency is essential for projects that wish to stay in the long run and still be relevant and continue to gain market share. The hype is currently swirling around decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) ? and IOST is one such protocol that has been capitalizing on these growing movements to help expand its community.
In this article, we will be taking a look at a new blockchain platform called IOST which has become quite popular recently. Let’s get started with a quick introduction!
An Introduction to IOST
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One of the biggest problems blockchain technology faces is its slowing down with mass adoption, despite speeding up, like torrents. Ethereum is great, but it would crumble if made to process the load that companies like Google and Amazon handle.
IOST, a China-based solution to blockchain’s scalability crisis hit the headlines in 2018. It stands for Internet of Services Token and is an enterprise-level blockchain system in the making from the Internet of Services.
The platform is focused on blockchain technology that is ready for mass adoption through Blockchain as a Service. Efficient distributed sharding, a node-to-shard protocol, and Proof of Believability consensus verification mark the technology apart from other blockchain platforms.
To throw in some statistics, we have this graph from https://www.coingecko.com/en, highlighting the IOSToken’s journey for the past 1 year.
- IOST Price: $0.062233
- Market Cap: $1,412,479,101
- Market Cap Rank: #87
How Does IOST Work?
Based on Hyperledger Fabric, IOST is far ahead of other platforms and accessible to companies that want to integrate and evolve it. According to its developers, the blockchain platform is highly scalable and uses its consensus algorithm and proof-of-believability.
Decentralized applications can be run on IOST and at high speeds of up to several thousand transactions per second.
How does it do that?
Sharding, a database partitioning method, is used to achieve scalability.
Let’s see what Sharding is.
What is Sharding?
The transaction speed of many long-established blockchains like Ethereum is way too slow to run valuable applications on it and as we progress towards the mass adoption of blockchain technology, the need for scalable blockchains that can run hundreds of thousands of transactions simultaneously is increasing.
With sharding, the main chain of each blockchain is supposed to remain unchanged as transactions run on so-called sub-blockchains. This increases speed and scalability.
When sharding, the IOST network is divided into several sub-areas. A portion of the nodes is grouped into a so-called shard and executes transactions specific only to that shard. This allows many transactions to be executed and validated in parallel in the network. This increases the number of transactions per second on a blockchain.
Now that we know what sharding is, let’s explore the new Proof-of-Believability consensus!
Proof-of-Believability: What’s that?
Proof-of-Believability is a method of determining the credibility of a node. To do this, one examines its behavior and previous contributions.
The IOST team developed the consensus algorithm in 2018. It provides the algorithm to validate blocks based on the node’s past behavior and contributions. This way, the blockchain retains its decentralized nature while validations are secure and scalable.
The PoB consensus mechanism implements a new sub-token called servi, which is awarded to good actors and is non-tradable.
Combined with sharding technology, this allows maximum user convenience and high transaction speed.
The IOSToken
IOSToken is the native cryptocurrency of the IOST platform and is used as a ‘fuel’ to carry out transactions. The IOSToken also helps establish Proof of Believability (POB) consensus by varying through blockchain.
At the time of writing, the price of IOST stands at 0.06$.
Did you know?
Like the ERC20 standard on Ethereum, the IOST platform has its token standard for implementing tokens on the IOST blockchain called IRC20.
IOST: Highlights
Japan’s mixed martial arts federation sets to launch NFT marketplace on IOST blockchain.
NFT-Japan Inc. and Rizin Fighting Federation, a well-known Japanese mixed martial arts and kickboxing federation, announced the future launch of ‘The Rizin Fighting Collection‘ a nonfungible token marketplace for Rizin digital content on IOST.
Rizin Fighting Collection is a digital trading service that allows users to purchase NFTs of fight highlights and best photos and enjoy collecting and trading them.
Due to the exploded popularity of IOST, especially in the Japanese market due to its superior processing power, high-speed trading environment, low fees, and the ability to provide low-cost NFTs to its users, the NFT service will be built on IOST.
Exciting, right?
Recommended: NFT Smart Contract Security Audit
The Future of IOST
IOST is the host to many dApps, which is impressive considering that it is still a relatively new blockchain platform compared to the others in the ‘Big 4’. Gambling, games, and exchanges are the most popular IOST dapps.
The IOST team has big plans, and to do this, they will need to continue increasing their dApp usage and their partnerships with different organizations. They will continue partnering with more exchanges and bringing more developers and nodes into their ecosystem to create the ‘the world’s first scalable AND decentralized blockchain project‘.
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