First of all, If you don't already know what 'IoT' and blockchain are, let's take a quick look into the two technologies that make up the foundation of the IoTChain project, and are what the ITC token are built on.
What is the Internet of Things?
In the most broadest of sense, 'IoT' by definition refers to everything and anything that is connected to the internet in some way, however in the current times with the large amount of new devices and appliances being able to connect it is more often being used to define objects and hardware that communicate or 'talk' to each other. (For example, your garage door might connect via WIFI to your home network, so when your phone then connects back to the WIFI when you arrive home, the door opens for you)
What is the Blockchain?
Recently, with the huge surge in prices of Bitcoin and the altcoin market in December, Cryptos made a lot of news and caught the attention of a lot of people worldwide. With SEC finally declaring that ETH and BTC are not securities, let's take a quick look into the fundamentals of the technology these projects are built on.
“The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.” -- Don & Alex Tapscott, authors Blockchain Revolution (2016)
In it's most basic forms, the blockchain could be seen as a database, or spreadsheet that is duplicated globally across thousands of computers and servers, forming a giant single network. This network, all update in realtime when a change is made on one of those PCs or nodes, updating the version that everyone else has also. Because the blockchain database is not stored in any one single location, but duplicated thousands of times globally, it provides a very high level of decentralization, and reliability with no option to being altered or changed by a malicious actor.
The IoTChain project
What IoT are planning on doing, is combining these two technologies to provide a solution that bridges the blockchain world and the IoT device world into a single, secure project, that rewards users for hosting their IoT connected devices and appliances on the network. Using their custom built operating system, they'll be able to ensure that communications between different networks by IoT devices are secured with no impact to the day-to-day peformance of the IoT devices that you connect to the platform. (think of your home PC connecting into your work network using a VPN, and you'll have a similar way in which IoTChain are going to be securing your appliances/devices) once a user has connected one or several of their devices, they are then able to share data from them to the network, this will be generalised usage data with no possible way of telling which user it came from, and earn ITC tokens from doing so. This allows users to secure their devices and earn money in the form of ITC at the same time.
Latest news and updates
Newsletter - One of the best ways you can stay upto date with the IoTChain project is to sign up to their newsletter on their site: http://iotchain.io you'll receive emails containing the best news, updates and community bounties and completions as soon as they happen.
Community video contest - IoTChain recently held a contest for the community to come up with, and create them a video, but not only that, they then had to publish this video on social media and various platforms and get the best reach on theirs in the form of likes, shares and views. There was dozens of fantastic entries that the team had to choose from, you can see the winners, as well as links to all the entries, here: https://medium.com/iot-chain/announcing-the-iot-chain-community-video-contest-results-94b451a16282
Team AMA - it's becoming common place now for communities to want to stay fully updated on projects that they are invested in, or are considering investing in, with AMA's becoming one of the best way for communities to get answers to all of their questions in a single place. IoTChain are no exeception and held an AMA at the end of May which went fantastic, if you didn't manage to catch it live, you can view the recap of the best questions and answers from the team, here: https://medium.com/iot-chain/announcing-the-iot-chain-community-video-contest-results-94b451a16282
If you'd like to get your hands on some IoTChain tokens for free or increase your holdings, id advise you to checkout their bounties which are available here: https://bounty.iotchain.io/ they run new ones nearly weekly, which include affiliate and referral bonuses, community graphics designs and many more options.
Otherwise, If you'd like to stay up-to date with the project, checkout their social media channels below;
Website: https://iotchain.io/
Telegram: https://t.me/IoTChain
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iot_chain