What a ride we’ve had this past quarter!
With the split from Fermat in June 2017, IoP switched from a centrally governed entity to a pure community project. The whitelist system is unique among all cryptocurrencies. Let me explain briefly why this is a central part of the IoP Blockchain.
Everybody knows that Bitcoin has become somewhat centralized. There are just eight big mining pools, and six of them are in China. A new class of super-rich token holders is being created: a 1% of the exact sort Satoshi wanted to avoid. And I don’t buy the argument that those people risked more and thus deserve to become the new 1%. What risk is there in dedicating a few CPU cycles to a cool new idea in 2010 and then sitting on the results? In taking advantage of a lax government’s energy loopholes? When we create a new economy, it must be built such that the latecomers are not left behind and can prosper like early adopters. Platforms which cannot solve this will perish in the long run. One option would be to start with a universal income system or something similar radical. But in IoP we want to explore all the possibilities and make gradual changes. There was also the burden of a centralized system from the Fermat era. We did not want to burn tokens, rewind the premine, delete information – the whole point of a blockchain is that it is immutable. So IoP is transitioning from a centralized permissioned system to a community one. Instead of rewinding everything, the community wanted to gradually open up and try not to fall into the same traps as Bitcoin. This placed IoP into a transitional phase, one which is almost over. The final steps in this transition will ensure ongoing development, keep finances secure, support the ecosystem and attract developers. So what is the status today? Is IoP still a permissioned chain? The answer is yes. But to leave it at that would be a huge oversimplification. Let’s look at what IoP actually is:
IoP is the first sharecoin of a true DAO. The IoP DAO is not running on top of a centralized platform that needs to be fueled by buying gas from the owners. It is independent and free. Those who want to join, can. Everyone who joins can use the chain and transact without discrimination or restrictions. In that sense, using IoP as payment is permissionless, trustless and borderless. It includes the latest technological advancements that Bitcoin offers, plus some modifications.
However, to correct for the emergent centralization that we see in Bitcoin and Litecoin and most other coins, mining is not permissionless. Mining is granted on a consensus basis to the most committed chapters around the globe. In this sense, IoP is a permissioned chain, running a PoW algorithm, but following a system that is similar to a dPoS. Imagine, 200 Chapters competing to get one of the rare 40-60 mining licenses. What do they compete in? Money? No. They compete in education of the public, spreading the word and attracting new members. In the future, we can imagine these chapters building long-term crypto-academies and later mining pools to make it even stronger. But the territorial restriction ensures maximum decentralization. You can take down China, or Venezuela, but Botswana and Nepal pop up next. This is an ingenious concept.
It took the developers more than three months to correct the old code, clean it up and refactor the whitelisting and lay the foundation for the huge changes that are upcoming. Today we can announce that this is finally done. Regular users will not see much difference, so there will be no disruption, but beneath the hood the whole codebase has been cleaned up. Today we are releasing the new client to the chapters as a closed beta that belongs only to IoP. We expect to release the final production version in the next 8 days.
So what’s in it? From today, IoP is the FIRST altcoin running on top of Bitcoin 0.15.1. The whitelisting has finally been completely reimplemented using a true database, connected to the blockchain using the same mechanism as Bitcoin’s Coin and Transaction Management, and is thus transparent and immutable. The synchronization of the chain is quick and independent of regular checkpoints. The transition from Fermat is complete, and IoP now runs exclusively on its own modifications on top of the latest Bitcoin code. The door for revolutionary systems in the spirit of SegWit and Lightning is finally open.
With this behind us, IoP can finally focus on transitioning to a completely decentralized community.
Development Timeline:
-Next week: Stable clean IoP miner with latest Bitcoin Codebase
-November: First multithread miner based on Bitcoin
-December: Community contribution contracts (reimagined)
-January: Community voting on whitelisting of Miner Addresses
Let me make this clear for all the Bitcoin Maximalists out there: Bitcoin got rigged and is governed by a mining cartel and the Core Developers. This is not permissionless. That is why chapters in IoP today vote democratically about miners. Soon this is done by the end users within their wallets. Everyone in IoP has a vote and then can decide about the best mining pool and take even part.
Then we finally transitioned to a DAO that cannot be taken down anymore like many other vulnerable projects out there.
Stay tuned and join our journey!
TAKEN FROM -IOP BLOG-