IoTeX Explained: Latest Review of How It Works

Marcos Dinnerstein -

IoTeX is leading the creation of a new online economy based on machine-to-machine and person-to-machine transactions. These transactions are fully automated with software-based contracts - smart contracts.

IoTeX calls this economy MachineFi.

IoTeX Blockchain Explained Simply - Smart Contracts, EVM, MachineFi and More

The IoTeX leadership team includes:

Raullen Chai, PhD - CEO, formerly Head of Cryptography R&D at Uber, and Security Engineering Lead at Google

Jing Sun, Operations, Eco, Investments. Jing was the founding partner of Sparkland Capital where where she led over 40 investments in blockchain, security, and IoT.

Qevan Guo earned his Ph.D in Machine Learning and Computer Vision at NUS. Research Scientist and Engineering Manager at Facebook.

Simone Romano, Developer Community Growth, with an Msc. in Industrial Automation at U. of Naples Federico II. Machine Vision specialist,  Simone uses his passion for the IoTeX vision to build our community of developers.

Iotex’s Ucam blockchain security camera won the 2020 CES award. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the largest consumer electronic show in the world. Ucam is the first and only blockchain camera, giving users privacy and complete control over their data every day.

Before we get into specifics about IoTeX and the MachineFi economy, let’s understand what we want to do. We want to do business with each other and yes, with machines.

To do business, what elements are needed?

  1. We need to know who the other person or machine is
  2. We need to be able to trust that other person or machine to do what they say they will do
  3. We need to agree on the money to be used. Dollars, Euros, baseball cards, Beanie Babies, or cryptocurrency
  4. We need to agree on the rules of doing business
  5. We need a place where we’ll always meet to do business

If any of those elements are missing, business won’t get done.

How does this work in a schoolyard?

Identity and Trust: Larry and I know each other from school and our sisters are friends

Medium Used to Exchange Value: We agree to swap some baseball cards he wants for a Beanie Baby I want to give to my little sister.

Business Rules: We agree on the number of cards for the Beanie Baby  and there will be “no-backsies”, i.e. the sale will be final with no refunds

Where to Do Business: We agree we’ll do the exchange in the school’s playground

The deal happens as planned and we’re all happy, especially my sister who thinks I’m the best brother in the world.

IoTeX Reimagines Finance So Machines and People Can Do Business Together

How will IoTeX securely recreate this process online plus add in machines as business partners?

  • Devices and people will have their own trustworthy identities
  • Devices will create trustworthy information based on secure hardware and software standards
  • Each machine or person can buy and sell things because they are connected to a financial system using cryptocurrency
  • IoTeX will connect to the major cryptocurrencies
  • Devices and people will meet in decentralized, blockchain-based marketplaces to do business where
  • Machines will be programmed to do specific tasks
  • Automated contracts will trigger buying and selling or other tasks when specific events happen

This new system is what IoTeX is bringing into existence.

​​What is IoTeX? IOTX Explained with Animations

What would a real world example look like?

Bike to Earn with Pebble Tracker

Your suburban city wants to reduce morning car traffic from parents driving their children to school each morning. They hear about a secure, private tracking system from IoTeX, that lets them reward children for biking to and from school every day.

This Bike to Earn program would use a secure tracker device, such as the IoTeX Pebble to securely track your child’s trip in real time. The devices can measure distance traveled and might give greater rewards for greater distances. It could be any secure tracking device. So long as the device follows the same standards for hardware and software security, it will work on IoTeX. And users can manage how the data from their devices is used and who can see that information.

Your children love the program because they’re actually being paid to have freedom of movement, and it becomes a social activity to bike with friends. (You and your partner refrain from telling them it’s healthier too. You don’t want to spoil it)

The city benefits in less road repair needed. Fewer cars on the road means less air pollution so you and your children are healthier. And healthcare and insurance companies are happier when people are healthy.. Plus it’s better for your mental health when you’re not stuck in traffic every day.

Machines will be members of and participate in automated organizations, called DAOs. (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

Decentralized means a group of people and machines interacting without a central authority or referee to enforce rules and say who is and isn’t legitimate. The rules are written in the software.

The IoTeX MachineFi decentralized infrastructure will be based on:

Digital Identities for machines and people. These unique identities that have the power to do business, to be agents in a financial transaction. This makes machine-to-machine or person-to-machine business possible because a verifiable digital identity, based on independent standards is the foundation of it all.

Our real world data oracle brings the information from machines in the real world to our blockchain. We then take that info and trigger events if that info or data meets a predefined condition.

If the weather in Florida drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, then contracts for the value of oranges will execute based on likely crop loss. Our real world data oracle will make this process trustworthy and instructions in that contract will go into effect without a person lifting a finger. This launches in Q1 of 2022, which right around the corner.

Want to delve deeper? See the full machineFi Live Stream Event here.