In the ever-evolving economic environment around, it is normal to be confused as a developer. There is now a wide range of exchanges, currencies, financial ecosystems, and more out there. Whether you are just a trader or a developer looking to implement blockchain in your software, the IoTeX ecosystem can be an ideal option.
This decentralized platform aims to reduce this uncertainty by allowing people and machines to interact with each other via ‘properly designed economic incentives’ (😵). In other words, it brings blockchain to IoT and other smart devices via DApps and a range of online transaction capabilities.
Let’s take a closer look at what IoTeX is, how it works, and the potential its native currency (IOTX) has.
What Is IoTeX (IOTX)?
IoTeX found roots as an open-source platform dedicated to bringing a range of crypto users together, such as people looking to earn a profit, project developers, service providers, and a range of consumers. By facilitating economics primarily for machines and allowing people a transparent environment to interact with each other on, IoTeX became popularized fairly quickly.
Guarantee, trust, free will, and several economic invectives – these are the principles you will find at IoTeX. The phrase “powered by IoTeX” is now known for the platform’s serviceability and functionality above all else.
It has a team of over 40 (forty) researchers and engineers behind it, who built this entire EVM-Compatible (Ethereum virtual machine compatible) blockchain from scratch. You will also find BSC and Heco blockchain at the base of IoTeX along with Ethereum, hence making it a very versatile and highly compatible platform.
Some of the more prominent infrastructures you can benefit from with IOTX (IoTeX native currency) include:
- IoPay Wallet
- IoTube Bridge
- Hermes, and more.
The main reason why you will see IoTeX being preferred by developers for websites, DApps, Dev Tools, Tokens, integrations, hardware solutions, and even exchanges is the low gas price, ability to enable self-sovereign devices, and security.
For example, Ucam is a tracking software that you can use in your household security system and other IoTT devices to enhance privacy and personal security at the same time.
The IOTX Coin – A Quick Overview
| Full Name | IoTeX coin |
| Abbreviation | IOTX |
| Market Cap | $535,827,125 |
| Market Dominance | 0.03% |
| Trading volume | $37,318,139 |
| Circulating supply | 9,543,341,114 IOTX |
| Max Supply | 10,000,000,000 |
| Market Rank | #130 |
| All-Time High | $0.141670 (Aug 21, 2021) |
| All-Time Low | $0.00121576 (March 13, 2020) |
The IoTeX Idea
The idea of IoT started to become popular by 2009, and by 2019, the number of IoT devices and the number of non-IoT devices were almost equal. In 2020, you may have heard the news of IoT being ‘the next big thing’ as the number of IoT connections exceeded non-IoT connections.
For those of you working with IoT, you may have experienced four core issues with the mass adoption of IoT:
- Scalability
- Lack of privacy
- High operating costs
- Low functional value
IoTeX was designed with these specific problems in mind. The blockchain infrastructure provides privacy, scalability, and versatility with its Proof-of-Stake consensus, while the use of side-chains allows for speed and accuracy.
Technologies Driving IoTeX
The developers behind IoTeX chose to go with a blockchain issue that went beyond the scalability and price issues presented by some of its competitors, specifically IOTA. For those of you who don’t know, IOTA is a lightweight Directed Acyclic Graph or DAG-based platform that offers immense scalability while having very low power requirements.
However, unlike using blockchain, DAG technology doesn’t have global consensus – a price that IoTeX developers think is too high. The primary technology driving IoTeX is the blockchain itself, as the infrastructure involves one root blockchain made up of many blockchains, a layer-2 infrastructure, in essence.
The History of IoTeX
The platform is headquartered in San Francisco Bay in 2017 by:
- Raullen Chai – Head of Blockchain Strategy, Advisor.
- Jing Sun – Head of Operations, Investment
- Qevan Guo – Co-Founder
- Xinxin Fan – Head of Cryptography
IoTeX had no ICO; instead, it was funded by a privacy sale in February 2018. It managed to raise $15 million in Ethereum (roughly 25,000 ETH) and managed to bring its token price up to 0.0000125 right from the beginning.
People like me and you were given access to the Mainnet on April 23rd, 2019. Soon after, it won the CES Innovation Award for cybercity and personal privacy. On its journey, IoTeX made several partners, joining alliances such as:
- Trusted IoT Alliance/Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
- China Mobile IoT alliance,
- IEEE
- Blockchain Task Group (IIC), and more.
What Makes IoTeX Unique?
There are several applications, Middleware, and DApps that are built on IOTX. It provides developers a robust decentralized backbone for self-governing machines and IoT-enabled equipment. This includes smart home devices, security systems, autonomous vehicles, and more.
The EVM-compatible blockchain gives them a secure infrastructure to work on, which is itself governed by IOTX, its native coin. Over the years, IoTeX has won numerous R&D awards and has published a whitepaper that explains how IoTeX is suitable for in-house and IoT innovations.
Key elements that set IoTeX apart from the competition include:
It Gives You The Ability to Innovate
IoTeX has been preferred by many developers over the years because of the freedom it gives you with its code. With every developer adding something new, the members of the IoTeX community are growing very rapidly.
It Has Already Started Powering Real-Life Devices
IoTeX is being used in several applications already the most common ones being Pebble and Ucam. The blockchain is powering security systems and consumer electronics, tracking geolocations, and helping residential and commercial consumers in any industry.
The IoTeX Network Security
IOTX is considered among the more secure cryptocurrencies out there, proof of which is the fact that it hasn’t experienced any scams or malfeasance yet. The primary focus of the network is your privacy and security of transactions. The transaction originator or receiver’s address is replaced with an encrypted code that third parties can’t identify. As a result, third parties can’t tamper with either party during ongoing transactions.
Furthermore, the delegated Proof-Of-Stake concept revolves around the idea of having you and other stakeholders individually vote for Block Producers. Once you elect the producer, only they can add new blocks to the chain and further the ecosystem’s security.
Interoperability
Because of the layered design of the IoTeX ecosystem, it boasts impeccable interoperability with its blockchains. Hence, the root chain acts as a financial hub that powers different nodes of your home system by transmitting instructions from one the root to the side layers.
The nodes are therefore able to function independently as well as being interoperable. Because of IoTeX’s high-performance, high-skill EVM compatibility, the root chain can also connect with different applications seamlessly, provided you can establish the link between them.
Buying & Selling IOTX – Where to Buy?
IoTeX (IOTX) coins are widely accepted now and, therefore, available on a majority of exchanges, including:
- Binance
- Huobi Global
- HBTC
- Xtheta
- VCC, and more.
You can also swap your existing cryptocurrencies with IOTX by importing them on PancakeSwap, but be very careful. Anyone can create a BEP20 token on BSC with any name and list it on PancakeSwap to be imported. If the imported currency you bought turns out to be fake or doesn’t represent the project that you originally intended to buy, these arbitrary tokens cannot be sold back.
Furthermore, you cannot use Binance’s credit card option to buy IOTX directly, either. You will instead have to buy another crypto and convert it into IOTX.
Tip: If IOTX is your first currency, I would suggest that you take a step back and get familiar with the environment first. Go with Dogecoin or BNB. If you want to play it safe, go for Stablecoins.
Buying & Selling IOTX – How to Buy?
Once you are ready to invest in IOTX, be it for trading use, farming, or if you are a developer and are looking to become a member, begin by analyzing the market. As of the time of writing, there is just one live farm that accepts an IOTX-BUSD token. So, make sure you also have an option open to invest/stake in.
When analyzing, take a look at the different exchanges out there and see which one offers the best yield and the time it takes for said yield. If you’re going to have any cryptocurrency, might as well make good use of it until you need it, right?
Once you have done your due diligence, head on over to your favorite exchange. Let’s consider Binance here.
Buying on Binance
If you don’t have an existing portfolio, consider buying BNB, BSC, or USDT as your first crypto as you can’t buy IOTX directly. Head on to the “Buy Crypto” tab on the top left corner. Choose the currency that you want to use to purchase the coin. Depending on the one you choose, your options may get limited. We prefer using USD for most of our transactions.
Click on your favored payment option. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to use a Credit/Debit Card.
Depending on the currency you choose, your minimum investment amount will also differ. For example, for BNB and BSC, the minimum is $15, while for AVAX it is $30.
Click on continue and follow the on-screen instruction. Within a few minutes, you should see BNB deposited into your account.
Trading on Binance
Now, hover your mouse on “Trade” and click on Convert. This is the easiest way to get your BNB turned into IOTX. There are other, more complex options as well, but you can get familiar with them later on.
On the next page, simply click on the “MAX” button to input the total amount you have available in your wallet.
The converter will also tell you how many IOTX you are going to get against the BNB or the currency you are looking to exchange. Click on “Preview Conversion” and you will get details about the gas fees, inverse price, and more.
Within a few seconds to a minute or two, you should have IOTX in your account. Log in to the IoTeX website and viola, you are a member!
One Last Thing… A Closer Look At The IoTeX Tokens
IOTX token was an ERC-20 token initially and was swapped into a native token in Q1 2019. With a maximum market cap of 10 billion IOTX – out of which roughly 9.5 billion are in circulation – the coin is now mineable under its ticker symbol (IOTX) for the next 48 years.
At the same time, the alpha mainnet also went live. This meant that as soon as the native token went like, it started using the power generated by the IoTeX network solely, which is why it isn’t as low-priced as others. The currency can fuel distributed apps fairly easily because of this – and because the token is very energy efficient.
Binance holds the largest volume of IOTX tokens. Based on volume, the hierarchy would be as follows:
- Binance
- Kucoin
- Gate.io
- Bilaxy
And a wide range of others follows after, including PancakeSwap, Kraken, and more.
With So Many Pros, Why Not Just Dump All Others?
While the IOTX token is secure, uses a consensus mechanism, and is very private, it does not mean that there aren’t any issues to consider. First of all, despite its uses, it is more beneficial for developers than for normal users. If you are looking to trade, farm, or stake, there is no doubt that you can find better currencies as well.
It is transparent and has offered a lot of utility as a payment medium, but that is not, by far, the only use of IOTX. It is great for IoT applications – perhaps the best – but not so much as a financial tool; this is by design, though. IoTeX is designed specifically to facilitate and empower the new generation of real-world and real-time DApps, NFTs, and digital assets, not just to be used as a currency.
What do you think? Is IoTeX worth your time as a developer or a consumer? Do you think IoTeX has something valuable to offer you? Get in touch with us on Twitter and Telegram, and let’s continue this discussion with your opinions!
