What is IAS? All about EOS and pros and cons

EOS that in Farsi it Ias We read that blockchain was created with the purpose of transferring value, creating smart contracts and building decentralized applications. This blockchain supports both smart contracts and has good scalability due to the use of the consensus algorithm of proof of represented shares. As a result, IAS can be considered among the third generation blockchains.

This is a very brief definition of IAS. Like all other blockchains, EOS has technical details, proprietary applications, and unique features that we will explore in this article. to know What is IAS? And what is its place in the crypto ecosystem, stay with us until the end of the article.

What is IAS?

EOS It is a blockchain-based digital currency that entered the field with the promise of enabling decentralized applications (DApps) and super-fast, fee-free transactions. IAS blockchain is one of dozens of smart contract providers and a traditional competitor of Ethereum in terms of scalability. IAS uses Delegated Proof of Stake consensus (DPoS) and the block creation time is 0.5 seconds and the average transaction speed is 4000 transactions per second.

Read more: What are Decentralized Applications (DApps)? How is a decentralized application made?

In addition, EOS's innovative economic model is designed to cover network costs by encouraging users to stake assets. Therefore, IAS end users will not need to pay a fee to send a transaction.

Apart from the discussion of scalability, EOS developers have designed and implemented special security solutions to prevent hacking attacks and fraud in the network. For example, the ability to freeze (or block) accounts in the IAS network is an initiative that prevents a specific application or smart contract from harming the entire network.

Also, the ability to set various access levels and permissions in IAS accounts is a factor that will increase people's control over their assets. In the following sections, we will examine these features more carefully.

A brief history of Ias

Two American entrepreneurs, Daniel Larimer and Brendan Blumer, founded Block.One in 2017 with the aim of developing blockchain technology capabilities. Taking advantage of Larrimer's ideas, the Block One development team started working on the EOS project as a scalable blockchain network with the ability to support smart contracts.

Read more: What is a smart contract? How does Smart Contract work?

After presenting the IAS whitepaper (github.com), the initial supply of digital currency of this network in the form of ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network began. The initial offering process of IAS, which started on June 25, 2017 and continued until June 4, 2018 (i.e. for one year), was one of the most attractive and famous ICOs held in the history of digital currencies.

Read more: What is ERC20? All about Ethereum ERC-20 standard and token

During this period, 700 million EOS tokens (equivalent to 72% of the total supply of this coin) were sold with a total value of 4 billion dollars, and thus, it was called the longest and most successful ICO among all digital currencies.

Read more: What is Initial Coin Offering or ICO? Attracting capital through digital currencies

Features of IAS

We said earlier that IAS is considered a competitor to Ethereum and in a way it is one of the Ethereum Killer projects. But what features does this project have that make it a competitor to Ethereum? What you read below is a set of IAS features that the developers of this project have listed in its white paper:

• Support millions of users
• Free use
• Easy upgrade and fix technical problems
• High speed and low network delay
• Sequential performance and vertical scalability
• Parallel performance and horizontal scalability

Support millions of users

In competition with centralized platforms such as Facebook, eBay, Amazon and Uber, blockchain networks need to be able to manage tens of millions of daily users. Otherwise, blockchain will never achieve widespread adoption. IAS developers believe that this network has the ability to manage millions of daily users by using scaling solutions.

Free use

EOS developers consider the high costs of setting up and using blockchain applications as a serious obstacle to the widespread adoption of this technology. In order to provide more flexibility for Dapp developers as well as ease of use for end users, the EOS network has reduced transaction fees to the minimum possible amount (zero) so that only token payments are required for payments related to interactive services between people.

Easy upgrade and fix technical problems

All decentralized applications need to be upgraded to adapt to new capabilities and needs. In addition, any software, no matter how carefully reviewed, will still be subject to errors and bugs. For example, we can recall the story of the historical hacking of the DAO, which eventually led to the hard fork of the Ethereum network.

Read more: What is Hard Fork?

Therefore, a reliable blockchain platform should allow developers to easily upgrade applications. Also, the bugs of an application should not affect the main platform. Since the IAS platform uses the DPOS consensus mechanism, if an application crashes, accounts related to that application can be frozen (or blocked) so that the main system does not suffer.

Also read: The story of the origin and the differences between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic

High speed and low network delay

In order for people's user experience of blockchain platforms not to be disappointing, we need a feedback loop with a delay of a few seconds or less. More latency frustrates users and makes blockchain applications unable to compete with centralized instances.

The developers of EOS.IO claim that the network, using the DPoS consensus algorithm, can confirm transactions in approximately 0.25 seconds, with 99.9% certainty. Also, by using the BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance) mechanism, transactions will be finalized within 1 second after sending, with 100% certainty and completely irreversible.

Sequential performance and vertical scalability

Some decentralized programs and applications, such as exchange and exchange services, require sequential performance due to the dependence of the steps on the time order. This means that the processes must be done one after the other and sequentially. The EOS.IO operating system realizes the sequential and fast performance of these applications by using vertical scaling (that is, by allocating more processing resources to these applications).

Parallel performance and horizontal scalability

Some large-scale decentralized applications require parallel operations. The EOS.IO operating system significantly increases the speed of execution of smart contracts by using horizontal scalability (that is, distribution of operations among a larger number of nodes) and interoperability among nodes.

How does IAS work?

The operation of the EOS blockchain is based on the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm. In addition to the DPoS algorithm, the IAS platform uses another algorithm called Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) to finalize transactions. In this section, we will have a look at these two algorithms.

Delegated Proof of Stake Algorithm

The IAS platform uses the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm in order to provide the required speed and scalability in decentralized applications. This algorithm is also known by other equivalents such as proof of assigned shares or proof of proxy shares, all of which refer to the same concept.

Delegated Proof of Stake is actually a democratic mechanism for selecting a limited number of validators for a network. This means that all the owners of the network coins, by pledging or so-called staking their coins, can choose representatives through voting to perform the task of validating transactions and creating blocks on behalf of other network participants. In this mechanism, the voting power of each participant is proportional to the number of staked coins.

In the DPoS model, the number of verifier nodes or nodes in the network is 21, and voting continues continuously to determine the selected nodes. Anyone can vote for a node using their staked coins, or withdraw their vote and vote for another node at any time. Therefore, anyone can become a validating node, provided that they can receive the votes of the network participants.

The DPoS consensus model is one of the most debated topics in the blockchain world. On the one hand, the defenders of this mechanism consider its speed and scalability necessary for the widespread adoption of blockchain technology, and on the other hand, the opponents of this method believe that DPoS sacrifices decentralization to the security and scalability of systems.

If we want to judge strictly, we have to accept that in the DPoS mechanism, all the power of the network is in the hands of a limited number of nodes, who can abuse their authority in case of collusion.

In more advanced consensus models, such as NPoS (or Nominated Proof of Stake), ordinary shareholders are also responsible for their votes on nodes. This means that in case of sabotage or violation of any of the candidates, the locked shares of the users who voted for him will also be fined. This method encourages users to be more careful and responsible in choosing candidates.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance algorithm

The way the BFT algorithm works is that each of the selected representatives can sign and verify the generated blocks; Provided that two blocks do not sign with the same timestamp or with the same block number.

In this way, whenever more than two-thirds of representatives (15 or more) sign a block, the transactions in this block will be final and unchangeable. According to this model, the consensus on the immutability of each transaction will be done within 1 second.

IAS applications

EOS digital currency, like other digital currencies, has general uses and specific uses. The most important applications of IAS are as follows:

• Payment instrument
• Create a user account and get the minimum required processing resources
• Determine network representatives
• Obtain processing resources for the development of decentralized applications
• Payment of rewards to block producers

1- Payment tool

As we said, the simplest use of EOS is to use it as a means of payment. But for this purpose, several basic conditions must be met, the most important of which are system security and limited or controlled supply.

We will fully explain the security of the IAS network in the following; But its supply is in a controlled manner, and the power to decide about it rests with the elected representatives of the network.

IAS network has an annual inflation rate of 1%; This means that the number of coins produced each year will be equal to one percent of the previous year's circulating balance. This artificial inflation is included in order to cover the costs of network development and payment of rewards to block producers.

According to the EOS.IO software code, 100 million EOS coins will be allocated to Blockone for the development of this network's ecosystem in the future. These 100 million coins are supposed to be released linearly and within 10 years after the registration of the genesis block (the first block of the network) and will be available to this company.

2- Create a user account and get the minimum required processing resources

All IAS users need to create an account and activate it to use this network. As we have seen in the previous sections, to activate each user account, you must first transfer some EOS coins to this account and receive the required CPU resources and bandwidth in exchange for a part of it.

3- Determination of network representatives

The IAS blockchain works based on the DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) consensus model. Based on this, the task of validating transactions and producing blocks will be the responsibility of 21 nodes (nodes) of the network, and their selection will be done based on weighted votes; This means that all users can vote for network representatives by staking their EOS coins, and the vote of anyone who has staked more coins will have more weight.

Read more: What is staking? Staking training in digital currencies

4- Obtaining processing resources for the development of decentralized applications

Decentralized application developers will need more processing resources (than normal users) due to hosting multiple users and high volume of operations. Therefore, these developers can get the resources they need by investing more coins.

One of the strengths of the EOS.IO software is that it calculates the value of bandwidth and CPU independently of the price of coins. In other words, users or developers who have staked a significant number of coins and received processing resources are protected from IAS price fluctuations and will enjoy the same CPU and basic bandwidth indefinitely; Because the price of bandwidth and CPU is calculated only based on the number of IAS coins.

5- Payment of rewards to block producers

Since the users of IAS network do not pay fees for their transactions, the reward of the block producers (which is actually their motivation and incentive to function properly and maintain the security of the network), will be paid through the creation of new coins.

As we mentioned before, the annual inflation of IAS is currently 1%. This means that every year, as much as one percent of the circulating coins, new coins are produced and added to the network. Of this one percent, 0.25 percent is allocated to block producers and 0.75 percent to standby producers.

Alternate representatives are nodes that have the maximum number of user votes but have not yet been included in the 21-person list of block producers. As these nodes are ready to be replaced by elected representatives, they will receive a smaller portion of the network reward.

The annual inflation rate of IAS varies from 1% to 5% and it will be determined by the representatives of the network.

The growth of the value of IAS and consequently the growth of the value of the agents' reward will ultimately benefit the entire network. Because in this case, block producers can provide more processing resources and allocate them to the network. In this model, naturally, the increase in the price of IAS coins leads to an increase in the efficiency and speed of the network.

IAS development roadmap and phases

Here we briefly review the development phases of the EOS blockchain.

First phase: initial test environment (summer 2017)

The purpose of this phase is to create APIs for developers to create and test decentralized applications on the IAS blockchain.

Phase II: Launching the initial test network (autumn 2017)

All the tests of the first phase were carried out in the conditions of an isolated and reliable test environment that executed each developer's code separately. Before an actual test network can be launched, several additional features need to be implemented and tested in this phase.

The third phase: conducting tests and security reviews (Winter 2017, Spring 2018)

During this phase, the EOS.IO operating system is subjected to the most rigorous testing aimed at finding bugs and security issues. At the end of the third phase, version 1.0 of EOS.IO software will be named and released.

The fourth phase: optimization of parallel processing in the network (summer and autumn 2018)

After the release of the initial stable version, the development team will optimize the software code for parallel execution of transactions.

The fifth phase: implementation of node clustering and release of EOS.IO version 2.1 (in the near future)

At this stage, some of the weaknesses reported by users will be resolved by adopting a new approach. By implementing the node clustering mechanism, the IAS blockchain will move towards greater efficiency, reducing technical complexity for ordinary users and application developers, increasing security and trust for public and private projects, as well as increasing scalability.

Comparison of IAS and Ethereum

As we mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal of IAS is to create a scalable blockchain and take over the largest share of the decentralized application market. IAS developers have taken a completely different approach to achieve this goal and compete with their traditional competitor, Ethereum.

Read more: What is Ethereum? Getting to know Ethereum, the smart contract blockchain

The design of the Ethereum network is relatively simple; A globally distributed, decentralized supercomputer (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which charges users fees for processing smart contracts and making transactions. This fee is paid through the main digital currency of this network, Ether (ETH), and is given to miners (block producers). But the IAS network architecture is a bit more complicated:

All executive operations in the EOS network are performed through the decentralized operating system of this network, EOS.IO. EOS.IO allocates network processing resources to users in exchange for staking EOS coins, and in this way, users no longer need to pay fees.

Unlike Ethereum, in the IAS network, a 21-member assembly of representatives (whom the network users determine by staking coins) is responsible for validating transactions and building blocks. For this reason, the process of consensus among nodes and verification of transactions will be done much faster.

Despite all the technical advantages of the IAS network, currently the Ethereum network still has the largest share of the decentralized application market. The chart below shows the distribution of transaction volumes related to decentralized applications among the most popular smart contract platforms (in 2020).

In the table below, we have briefly compared the features of the Ethereum and IAS platforms.

Buy IAS

The best way to buy IAS is to visit an Iranian digital currency exchange. By searching the term “buy IAS” or “buy EOS” on the Internet, you will find a list of Iranian exchanges that support this currency.

You know that authentication is mandatory in domestic exchanges and this is for security reasons. Of course, the good thing is that authentication in these exchanges, unlike foreign examples, is unobstructed for Iranians and can be easily done with users' identity information.

Therefore, if you have not registered in any exchange before, you must do so first. But if you have already passed the authentication in an internal exchange, you do not need to do it again and you can use the same exchange.

We also suggest you to use IAS purchase page of Erzdigital website. Authentication on this page is instant and is done only by entering the national code and phone number. After entering this information, you will be directed directly to the payment page and you can finalize your purchase.

The best Ias wallet

EOS is a popular cryptocurrency and many wallets support it. The Erzdigital website has chosen 7 among all IAS wallets, which you can see in the table below.

Frequently asked questions

final word

“On a mission to find free market solutions, to secure life, liberty, property rights and justice for all; Co-founder of EOS.IO, Block.one, Voice.com and Steemit.com.” The sentences you read are a brief biography written by Dan Lerimer (the creator of IAS) on his Twitter profile.

In this article, we reviewed the EOS blockchain and took a close look at its unique features and how it works. It is up to you to judge how successful this blockchain has been in fulfilling its mission.