What Is ION?
ION coin is an open source and decentralized cryptocurrency of the Ionomy gaming ecosystem. The coin was launched in 2016 by Ionomy Studios that wanted to create a form of incentive for gamers and developers.
When Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin Core, his target was largely the financial sector. But he had opened the gates of the blockchain technology that would become the later defining benchmark for many industries. In the gaming industry, Ionomy, a gaming ecosystem joined the niche and released its native coin referred to as ION.
- What is ION coin?
The most notable of the Ionomy founding and development team members include Richard Nelson (CEO), Adam Matlack (chief strategist), Colin Adley, Vadim Akhundov, Audrey Torbenko, and Joddan Smith. The motto of Ionomy is “The Business of Fun”.
In line with the motto, the developer team has been working on new games and seeking new ways to make the gaming community enjoy their products. Some of the games on the ION platform include To The Moon, Crypto Gravity, Ionix, and UrbanWords.
- ION price history in the market
After Ionomy Labs was launched in April 2016, the native coin was released later in August 2016 through an ICO. The initial coin supply was 10.9 million ION. 3.4 million of the coins went to participants as incentives, five million was released through its ICO and 2.5 million as bounties.
The ION coins entered the markets early in June 2016 at a price of $0.22 and traded within a range of $0.2 and $0.3 until March 2017. From April 2017, the price grew steadily reaching a peak of $7.2 in January 2018. This was the highest mark in ION history.
However, the bullish trend changed immediately after hitting the peak. The price dropped steadily to reach a low of $1.8 on 6th February 2018 before rising steadily again to $4.88 by 2nd March 2018. The price took another downward trend culminating to $0.5 by the close of October 2018.
As the list of supported games keeps growing and more people realize the benefits of going crypto, the ION community anticipates that the value will continue on an upward trend.
What is the problem that ION Solves?
If you take a look at the blockchain niche, one might be tested to believe that everything is okay. For example, the number of coins that had entered the market by mid-2018 was more than 1600. But a closer look at the niche reveals that it is dogged with many issues. Here are some of the problems that ION solves.
- Centralization of mining
The discovery of decentralized technology gave people hope that the high cost of sending value and lack of privacy especially in the financial sector had finally come to an end. The pioneer cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin are decentralized networks that rely on nodes spread on their system to confirm transactions for a reward in a process referred to as mining.
However, the desire to mine more coin resulted in development of highly advanced ASIC mining equipment that generates a lot of computing power. The main issue with the equipment is that they are very expensive. This means that only the wealthy in the community can afford them.
As individuals, mining companies, and pools capitalize on mining, it implies that there is a risk of these networks getting controlled only by a few parties is very high. It also exposes them to threats of 51% attack.
- Poor uptake of cryptocurrencies in the market
While the concept of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology is no doubt gaining traction in the market today, the uptake is still very low. At this point, many people ask the question; “How can the argument that uptake of cryptos is slow yet most coins are bought within seconds when ICOs are announced?”
Every time that a new coin is released or a new network is discovered, the people who rush to acquire the tokens are those who want to take advantage of price growth. Their target is not using the coins to make a direct purchase in the market. Rather, they aim at making very high profits when the price goes up.
The slow uptake of the cryptocurrencies is also caused by poor penetration into other networks. For example, most networks target the financial sector while some niches such as gaming and social media remain unattended. ION was created as the main coin for the gaming niche.
- Poor scalability
One of the main goals of decentralizing crypto networks was to make transactions faster. Because there are no centralized organizations such as banks that are involved, the argument was that transactions would be faster.
However, the architecture of the networks requires that nodes have to sign transactions and store whole blocks resulting in limited scalability. For example, Bitcoin can only handle 7 transactions every second while the more advanced Bitcoin Cash can manage 60.
When the above numbers are compared to top financial services such as Visa that can handle up to 20,000 transactions per second, it implies that the crypto networks are indeed lagging. This is the gap that ION came to close.
How Does ION Solve The Problem?
Ionomy came into the cryptocurrency market in 2016, about seven years after the introduction of the first cryptocurrency. With its founders having watched the industry unfold and get stuck in the above problems, their commitment to looking for solutions saw them adopt the following strategies.
- Static-proof of work
To address the problem of centralized mining and limited uptake of cryptocurrencies, ION development team opted for a new consensus algorithm referred to as static proof of work. The common proof of work consensus model used in coins such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash requires a lot of hashing power and energy to mine new coins.
The preferred alternative to proof of work (PoW) is proof of stake (PoS). However, even proof of stake (PoS) consensus that relies on coin accumulation as opposed to computational power is still subject to abuse because people who can afford more coins get preference in mining.
ION uses static proof of stake consensus which rewards users not just by staking the coins, but also by keeping them active. The users who are engaged in contributing to a robust and secure network get 50% of the block reward.
Note that the coins’ weight still matters. Therefore, even those who simply buy and hold without being active are still given a portion of the mining rewards.
- Masternode network
One of the main causes of poor scalability is the requirement that nodes must come to a consensus before transactions can be confirmed. ION network uses a system of masternodes where only a few trusted nodes are used to find new blocks.
The masternodes in the ION network also facilitate private transactions via decentralized mixing of services that take advantage of the currency fungibility. The masternodes add complexity to transactions by breaking them into multiple private transactions to completely obfuscate the identity of users.
Because the masternodes are fewer, they are able to communicate to each other and confirm transactions faster compared to Bitcoin or other pioneer coins. The masternodes get 50% of the block reward as an incentive for their work.
- The Ionomy PWR-GRD
To make the ION coin and Ionomy attractive to more people, game developers are provided with an opportunity to develop and sell their games online. PWR-GRD is a complete suite for helping developers to facilitate games development, crowdfunding, cash rewards, and integrated advertising.
What makes ION better than it’s competitors?
When the ION founders created the cryptocurrency network, they knew that the field had many competitors. But ION has been performing relatively well in the market and sparking speculation that it could be the next big thing. Here are the main things that make ION better than competitors.
- ION is completely anonymous. As more cryptocurrencies grapple with the problem of anonymity, ION has managed to address it comprehensively through use of masternodes. This implies that ION platform users can now enjoy sending funds or running transactions without worrying that other people can access their transactions. They are also free from third party seizures.
- The ION network targets a niche that is less explored. Unlike most cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin and Ripple that target the financial sector, ION ventured into the gaming niche.
- The ION platform has helped to effectively address the issue of scalability. Because the masternodes required for confirming transactions are fewer, they easily communicate with each other and complete the transactions faster.
- The ION network is completely decentralized. When the ION founders released the cryptocurrency’s core code, they ceased being the owners. Instead, the platform is owned by the nodes that join the platform either to use the coins or stake them. This means that when you use the network, you also own it. In the cases of an issue that needs voting, you could be called to vote.
- As a peer2peer platform, the ION network allows users to send value or make payment without relying on a centralized entity such as banks or credit card companies. This helps to make the transactions faster and cheaper. It also allows users to make transactions at any time of the day or night.
How can ION be categorized?
ION is a next-generation cryptocurrency designed to help extend the benefits of blockchain niche to more niches in the industry. The commitment of the development team to drift from the commonly used proof of stake and proof of work to the more effective static proof of stake protocol implies that the industry still has the potential to grow.
However, it is the support for the gaming community especially allowing the developers to easily craft new games that are likely to edge the cryptocurrency and its platform further up in the industry. This makes it a reliable investment with good potential for growth because its native coins can also be used as a standard cryptocurrency in the market.
What’s ION’s vision on Security?
The success of any cryptocurrency in the market is dependent on the ability to protect user investment and the network from attacks. The main vision of ION on security is to become the most secure and reliable cryptocurrency for the gaming community. Here are some of the efforts used by the platform to deliver this security.
- Advanced encryption.
- Complete decentralization that guarantees even distribution of coins to prevent the danger of 51% attack.
- The platform uses static proof of stake consensus protocol that incentivizes masternodes to protect the network.
- The development team works progressively to identify vulnerabilities and fix them immediately to avoid attackers using them.
Examples of ION’s use cases/applications
Though the main target of developing ION crypto was the gaming niche, the development team has worked hard to extend its applications. Here are some of these use cases:
- Use ION coin to pay for transaction fee on the Ionomy platform. When you decide to send value on the Ionomy platform, the charges are paid in the native coins. Note that the charges go to promoting the development of the blockchain as opposed to building profitability.
- The native ION tokens can be used to pay for products and services in the market. As more traders come out to accept the native coins, it is possible to make direct payment for goods and services in stores that accept them. You only need to identify a store that accepts ION coins to make a direct payment.
- Trade ION coins in the market. Like other cryptocurrencies, ION can be traded in the markets. Once you identify a market that lists the coin such as Bittrex and Upbit, you simply need to join and pair the coin with others such as Ripple to start trading.
- ION coins for paying games in the Ionomy ecosystem. If you want to access and play the games on the Ionomy ecosystem, the charges are paid using ION coin.
- Use ION coin as an investment. Instead of storing your funds in a bank where interest is very low, you could consider buying the native ION coins and staking them. This means that you will be getting part of the block rewards for being on the network.
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