In the second half of 2024, under the guidance of the "Make IOST Great Again" (MIGA) initiative, IOST embarked on a transformation journey towards a leading Layer 2 payment solution. By using BNB Chain as the settlement layer and launching BNBChain PayPIN Layer 2 designed for PayFi and DePIN, IOST aims to revolutionize the global Web3 payment experience. This IOST3.0 transformation not only involves the upgrade of the underlying technical architecture, but also covers the comprehensive reshaping of the token economic model and a comprehensive brand renewal. In order to build a prosperous ecosystem centered on the community and centered on payment, IOST has implemented a series of strategic initiatives, including strengthening community governance, incentivizing node participation, supporting the developer ecosystem, and expanding global market cooperation.
Now, let us look back on this exciting journey and witness how IOST will ignite the Web3 payment revolution in the second half of 2024.
Strategic blueprint, layout for the future
On July 19, 2024, IOST released a review of major events in the first half of 2024
In the first half of 2024, guided by the ecological concept of "innovation, openness, collaboration, and sharing", IOST continued to promote mainnet upgrades, infrastructure construction, node partner expansion, market development, ecological construction, and global activities, and achieved fruitful results, laying a solid foundation for future development.
On December 30, 2024, IOST released its strategic roadmap
The implementation basis of this roadmap is the integration of PayPIN and PayFi, and the strategic planning is divided into three stages: infrastructure development, ecosystem development and global expansion.
Mainnet Data
As of January 8, 2025, the data from IOSTSCAN, the IOST blockchain browser, shows the following:
The on-chain block height reaches 364 million
On-chain transaction volume exceeds 928 million
The number of on-chain accounts exceeds 1.19 million
The number of contracts deployed on the chain is 1,439
Rebranding
On December 6, 2024, IOST CEO Blake wrote a letter to the community: (Redefining IOST with PayPIN)
The letter mentioned: In the future, IOST will share several articles to detail the brand reshaping journey of IOST PayFi + DePIN’s new positioning.
「IOST Rebranding」 Ignites Web3 Payment Revolution
The content of this article includes: IOST will launch BNBChain PayPIN Layer2 designed for PayFi and DePIN. The payment reconstruction and value positioning of the PayPIN revolution; reshaping the token economic model, the motivation behind the transformation, and a clear path to market leadership, etc.
IOST 3.0: Transition to the next generation of Web3 payment’s exclusive BNB Layer2
This article comprehensively interprets the technical architecture of IOST 3.0 from the aspects of the evolution of IOST’s community-first token economic model and in-depth technical discussions of IOST 3.0.
PayPIN journey
This article explains the vision and concept of IOST decentralized payment and the design journey of IOST PayPIN.
IOST New Token Economics
On December 20, 2024, IOST officially launched a strategic token evolution plan, which includes the following key components: enhanced staking mechanism, community priority allocation, multiple value protection measures, and growth acceleration pool. In addition, the IOST [Node Sale] plan is about to be launched, which will effectively increase network participation and ecological development opportunities.
On December 22, 2024, IOST CEO Blake shared the latest progress of IOST’s rebranding and discussed the future development of IOST with everyone in the @IOST_Official X Space channel.
MIGA
On November 20, 2024, the IOST Foundation officially announced the launch of the MIGA event
The IOST Foundation has announced the launch of the “Make IOST Great Again” (MIGA) campaign, which aims to revitalize the IOST ecosystem through a series of important collaborations and developments. The MIGA campaign will include multiple initiatives designed to bring tangible growth to the IOST ecosystem.
In November 2024, IOST and NFPrompt reached a strategic cooperation; both parties will jointly explore new possibilities in the fields of AIGC and Web3
NFPrompt is a decentralized AI generation platform that originated from Binance Launchpool. This cooperation marks IOST’s official entry into the AI field, and will carry out in-depth cooperation with NFPrompt in AI-related fields.
On November 21, 2024, IOST will launch the Bitget flash sale function, and global users can easily purchase $IOST with debit/credit cards and Japanese yen.
In November 2024, IOST established a strategic partnership with the blockchain game development team PetPals
In November 2024, a new game trailer developed and deployed by IOST chain developers will be launched
On November 21, 2024, IOST Co-CEO Blake held an AMA in the "IOST Community" to explain more about the MIGA event.
On December 18, 2024, IOST and OKCoinJapan jointly held the 2024 [Web3 Community Year-End Party] in Tokyo, Japan.
The event was hosted by OKCoinJapan and Aptos, and co-organized by IOST and Mask. IOST CEO Blake spoke at the meeting, highlighting IOST’s progress in the field of Web3 payment solutions and sharing plans for community activities to be launched in 2025.
On December 3, 2024, IOST held a community design event
On December 10, 2024, IOST officially launched the BITPOINT Staking service
On December 11, 2024, IOST and Aethir officially reached a strategic cooperation to accelerate the development of PayPIN and artificial intelligence cloud computing
The cooperation will focus on five key areas: enabling dApp development, building high-performance gaming infrastructure, innovating digital asset management, expanding AI application scenarios, and jointly building a prosperous ecosystem, in order to maximize synergy and create breakthrough results.
On December 18, 2024, Binance IOST Simple Earn current product activity will be launched
Node Partner
In the second half of 2024, the number of node votes will increase
On July 29, 2024, OKX Earn nodes added 11.83 million IOST votes
July 29, 2024, Stir adds 5 million IOST votes
September 7, 2024, IMS Medica added 12.7 million IOST votes
On September 9, 2024, OKX Earn added 9.38 million IOST votes
On September 19, 2024, Liebi added 10.03 million IOST votes
On October 10, 2024, Liebi added 23 million IOST voting
On October 20, 2024, OKX Earn added 16.46 million IOST votes
On November 4, 2024, Stakebowl added 70 million IOST votes
On November 29, 2024, cigtst2 added 15 million IOST votes
On December 7, 2024, OKX Earn added 18.29 million IOST votes
On December 11, 2024, BITPOINT JAPAN added 20 million IOST votes
On December 11, 2024, OnBlock added 70 million IOST votes
On December 16, 2024, BITPOINT JAPAN added 40 million IOST votes
On December 24, 2024, BITPOINT JAPAN added 15 million IOST votes
On November 22, 2024, PetPals officially became an IOST ecological node partner
Strategic Cooperation
On August 9, 2024, IOST and prediction market platform NODO formed a strategic alliance to jointly promote community growth and participation
In September 2024, IOST and Metaline reached a strategic cooperation
The collaboration will focus on: the integration of IOST and MetaLine X’s full-chain gaming solution and the deployment of MetaLine X’s Zk-Omni modular computing layer on IOST. Both parties will provide developers and players with a seamless, efficient, and scalable gaming experience, and promote the vigorous development of the Web3 gaming ecosystem.
On December 19, 2024, IOST and the decentralized game chain BG Labs officially reached a strategic cooperation
Ecological Construction
In October 2024, the digital certification issuance service “A Trust” based on IOST blockchain technology will be integrated into the IOST mainnet
IOST has officially reached a strategic cooperation with Cabinet, a Web3 developer node service provider. Cabinet’s digital content authentication service “A trust” has been successfully integrated into the IOST mainnet.
On December 10, 2024, the first pet feeding game Meme on the IOST chain, Petpals, was officially launched.
On December 13, 2024, iDEX, a new decentralized trading platform on the IOST chain developed by Petpals, was officially launched.
In December 2024, Petpals announced an airdrop of PPC tokens to the IOST community
The airdrop will be divided into two phases, with 1% of the total $PPC supply airdropped in each phase; the first phase snapshot time is 20:00 (UTC+8) on December 19, 2024, and IOST mainnet accounts with $IOST quantity ≥ 4,000 will share this airdrop equally. The first phase of the airdrop has been completed.
Online Activities
In August 2024, IOST and prediction market platform NODO jointly held a community event
In September 2024, the IOST Chinese community held a Mid-Autumn Festival limited event
In September 2024, IOST and W240 held a joint event
On September 30, 2024, IOST launched a limited-time event for National Day
In October 2024, IOST and Fireverse Ventures jointly held a community event
On October 14, 2024, IOST and prediction market platform NODO jointly held a community event
In November 2024, IOST will support the W2014 Bangkok World AI + Web3 Expo
On October 31, 2024, IOST launched a limited-time Halloween event
On December 11, 2024, IOST launched a global event - Meme Creation Competition
On December 20, 2024, OKCoinJapan held the "Participate in IOST Staking and Share an Extra 2 Million IOST" event
On December 23, 2024, the IOST Chinese community held the "IOST Christmas Costume Show" event
Offline Activities
On July 4, 2024, IOST co-hosted an event - [IVS Side Event] OKCoinJapan × DEA FORTUNE Night
The event was held in Fortune Garden Kyoto, Japan, hosted by OKCoinJapan and Digital Entertainment Asset Pte. Ltd. (DEA), co-organized by IOST Zilliqa, and supported by CryptoTimes and Lolite Media.
On July 5, 2024, IOST co-organized an event - [IVS2024 KYOTO] Side Event: "Web3 SUSHI & GEISHA Night"
The event was held in Kyoto, Japan (Heian Jingu Shrine Hall), hosted by HashPort and co-organized by IOST HashKey DX, Beosin, and Kyuzan Inc. The event invited more than 100 companies and more than 250 guests from global Web3 projects, venture capital, and regulatory agencies.
On July 31, 2024, the Big Demo Day was held in Hong Kong (CyberArena) hosted by Central Research and supported by IOST and many other institutions, project owners and media.
Carter, head of IOST Hong Kong, was invited to the event to discuss and exchange ideas on the topic of (Future Development Direction of DeFi) with three other guests.
In August 2024, IOST joined WebX 2024 TOKYO as a gold sponsor
IOST participated as a gold sponsor in the largest global Web3 crypto conference in Asia, “WebX2024 TOKYO”, organized by Japanese Web3 media oinPost. The event was held at the Prince Park Tower Tokyo from August 28 to 29, 2024.
In September 2024, IOST became a partner of WikiEXPO Bangkok
On September 4, 2024, IOST, together with HG Ventures and K300 Ventures, held an offline Web3 event called "HANGANG DIVE" in Seoul, South Korea
On September 25, 2024, the head of IOST Hong Kong market was invited as a roundtable guest to attend the 17th BIG DEMO DAY
On October 23, 2024, the “A trust” Web3 Night offline event, a digital certificate service based on the IOST mainnet, was held at Tokyo’s Web3 Center — Shibuya Centrum.
The brand upgrade and technological transformation in the second half of 2024 have laid a solid foundation for the future development of IOST. Looking ahead, IOST will continue to deepen technology research and development, expand application scenarios, and actively work hand in hand with global partners to jointly lead the innovation and development of Web3 payment technology. We believe that through continuous efforts and innovation, IOST will play an increasingly important role in the Web3 payment field with a new brand image, and bring more convenient, secure and inclusive Web3 services to global users. We sincerely invite you to join the IOST ecosystem and witness and participate in the arrival of a new era of Web3 payments!
Introduction to IOST
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, IOST has received support from top global investment institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Matriy and ZhenFund.
Currently, IOST has developed a decentralized Web3 payment network through PayPIN. Based on IOST 3.0, PayPIN uses the chain abstraction layer, DID, and unified payment protocol to achieve seamless cross-chain payments and multi-chain asset management.
Official website: iost.io
Block Explorer: iostscan.com
Link3: link3.to/iost
Zendesk: iost.zendesk.com
IOST Chinese Community X: x.com/IOST_CN
IOST Chinese Community Telegram: t.me/IOSTChina
IOST Chinese Community Medium: medium.com/iost-cn
IOST 2024 Second Half Major Events Review was originally published in IOST_CN on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.