FAQ - Most frequently asked questions in IOST Official International Telegram Group

I’ve been active in the Telegram group for some time now, daily answering questions. To make helping a little easier I’ve created this FAQ. It’s a bit filled with personal opinions but should help out a lot. In the future more tools, (hardware)wallets and blockchain explorers will be available, thus this post can become outdated.

For support please visit the official Telegram group https://t.me/officialios

Content (for the moment):

1 How can I create a mainnet account?

2 What desktop / mobile wallets can I use?

3 What about iGAS and iRAM?

4 Can I stake IOST?

5 How can I vote IOST?

6 How do I research a node?

7 When are the quarterly rewards expected?

8 How can I run a node?

9 Help! My wallet doesn’t work, nothing happens when I do a (trans)action.

10 How can I swap my ERC-20 tokens to mainnet tokens?

11 Why does IOST do the token swap only at exchanges? Can we do a manual swap?

12 When will the mainnet token swap end?

13 Where can I find IOST teammembers?

1 How can I create a mainnet account?

On mobile you can create a free account with PureWallet https://www.purewallet.org/, to export your private key read tutorial https://help.purewallet.org/en/iostaccount/

You can create a mainnet account for free at https://iostabc.com/wallet/createaccount. This site is made by a trustworthy node and creator of the best blockchain explorer we have at the moment.

Although you get a free mainnet account, those are not actually free, iostabc pays for you. You can check iostabc its balance here https://iostabc.com/account/iostabc when balance is empty, free account creation is not possible.

You can buy a mainnet account at https://iostaccount.io for 150 IOST. You can also use TokenPocket (linked at point 2) to buy a activation code trough PayPal for $1.

Some IOST nodes are giving away free TokenPocket activations trough Telegram:

Inside IOST in their Telegram group https://t.me/iostleobi

IOST Watch by admins Jim O’Quinn https://t.me/jimoquinn and Zico https://t.me/ModZic

If other nodes wants to be linked here for giving free accounts, please send @RCvdW a DM on Telegram.

Notes:

The name you choose when creating an account is also your wallet address.

Make sure to backup your private key safely!! When lost you won’t be able to access your funds and nobody can help u retrieve them!!

If you don’t feel comfortable creating a mainnet account trough a third party site/app, rest assure you can change the private key(s). See tutorial https://youtu.be/qgn992GUuIg You could use the Windows CLI wallet (linked at point 2) to generate a new private key offline, as advised in tutorial. Be careful when changing your private key(s), if anything goes wrong, nobody can help you access your funds.

2 What desktop / mobile wallets can I use?

At the moment iWallet (open source chrome extension) https://bit.ly/iost-iwallet, TokenPocket (IOST partner) for mobile https://www.tokenpocket.pro/ and Purewallet for mobile https://www.purewallet.org/ are your best options to access your mainnet account (although others are available). Just paste your private key(s) into them to and off you go.

For crypto veterans there is also a Windows CLI wallet available. https://iost.watch/iwallet-windows-64-bit/

Notes:

I hear a lot of people saying things like: “I’ve got my IOST in iWallet”. To avoid misconceptions, please understand that you don’t hold your tokens in any software wallet. iWallet, TokenPocket or other (future)wallets are just means to access your IOST account. You could even use iWallet to vote, delete iWallet, and use TokenPocket with the same private key to claim rewards or unvote. Again: You don’t store your tokens in a wallet but you access your IOST account with it. This way TokenPocket, iWallet, iostabc and (future)blockchain explorers / wallets are redundant and replaceable.

There is a reason the dev team didnt create an official IOST wallet. It dis-incentivizes any other wallet developers because they think the official wallet will get all the support, promotion etc so developers wouldnt be interested in creating these tools for IOST. Also, 3rd party wallets is pretty essential from a decentralization perspective. If IOST core are controlling protocol and wallet, its not ideal.

3 What about iGAS and iRAM?

Read this article. https://medium.com/iost/what-are-igas-and-iram-learn-how-you-can-utilize-the-iost-network-8fa30f7362ff

TLDR:

iGAS is what u burn when doing (trans)actions. iGAS regenerates daily so (trans)actions are actually free. Although doing a lot of actions can burn up your iGAS. To get a bigger fuel tank you can stake iGAS. When u run out of iGAS maybe stake 10 IOST to it and see how that goes, you can always stake more if needed. When ‘done’ you can unstake the IOST, after a lockdown of 3 days those IOST are returned to your balance and yours to use again. You won’t make gains or get rewards for staking IOST on iGAS.

iRAM is memory to store information of your personal mainnet account. A mainnet account needs 1KB to be able to exist, this is the amount u start at. You’ll need to buy more iRAM when you need to store more information / smart contracts. For example when you want to vote for more than 3 nodes, you’ll need to buy 1kb extra. When you buy or sell iRAM 2% of the IOST you pay is burned (deflationary model) so you can sell iRAM back to yourself but you’ll get less IOST in return. You won’t make gains or get rewards for juggling iRAM. Just buy as little iRAM as needed.

4 Can I stake IOST?

Yes, read this article. https://medium.com/iost/iost-mainnet-faq-20cfca2f845e

TLDR:

We call staking ‘voting’. You vote for a node you favor, and lock your IOST on them. By doing so you support that node / the IOST ecosystem and you’ll get rewarded some IOST.

By voting from a personal mainnet account you won’t lose possession of your IOST tokens, they are still locked under your private key. You can even unvote when node goes offline.

If you unvote, after a lockdown of 7 days those IOST are returned to your balance and yours to use again. Just make sure to keep this in mind when you want to sell at a certain price point.

To estimate your ROI you can go to https://insideiost.com/#calculatordiv or https://www.iostabc.com/calculator

Personal thoughts:

You can vote trough the website iost.biss.com but I personally don’t recommend this because this is a exchange platform, just google the phrase “Not your keys not your coins” to educate yourself on this matter. Although I truly believe biss is a as safe as a exchange can be, I don’t recommend it. For any questions on biss go to their telegram channel https://t.me/bissofficial or english https://t.me/bissexchange

We are early adaptors now. Rewards are fixed. The more people will vote, the more rewards will (need to) be divided amongst voters. I do believe we will find a sweetspot this way. The ecosystem will give fair rewards in the future and still be cheap enough for developers and end users to actually use it. Thus market will give good value to the token. We should want both, I mean really, would 20% ROI (at the moment) else not be a red flag?

5 How can I vote IOST?

Many articles have been written and YouTube videos have been made about ‘how to vote’ by different nodes. I won’t link to any of them because you should do your own research and it’s not my intention to push you towards any node I personally favor. At the moment the best options to vote are iWallet and TokenPocket, the minimum amount to vote is 1 IOST.

To vote with iWallet just go to https://iostabc.com/producers and select the node you favor. After voting you can go to https://iostabc.com/wallet/votes to check your votes, check/claim your rewards or check unlock time of unvoted/unstaked IOST.

On TokenPocket you can use the native voting options. Note: not all nodes are listed on TokenPocket. You can access iostabc.com trough TokenPocket (Discover -> IOST ABC dApp) to vote and see the details I mentioned above. Also on TokenPocket the dApp IOST Voter is available.

6 How do I research a node?

I recommend doing research and vote for a node you can actually contact on Telegram or through social media. On https://iostabc.com/producers/ you’ll find a list of nodes and details such as their websites. As part as decentralization the node owner has to input a command https://medium.com/iost/node-partners-rewards-claim-guide-8abd70f0c6e4 (daily) to release your rewards. To see how often a node gives rewards, check nodes wallet address transactions see how often they execute candidateWithdraw command. This is also shown under the DIVIDEND RECORDS tab. Even when the node owner skips a day or two, your rewards will accumulate in the background.

7 When are the quarterly rewards expected?

Depending on the level of contributions from your chosen node, your quarterly bonus may be up to 300% of the daily rewards you have received for the same period! The expected 2019 quarterly contribution rewards distribution schedule is:

Mid to late April, 2019 - results : https://medium.com/iost/iost-contribution-reward-system-final-results-2add85c15de

Mid July, 2019

Mid October, 2019

Mid January, 2020

8 How can I run a node?

There is differentiation between Servi and Partner nodes, you can become for both. Read this articles about minimum specs and application here. https://medium.com/iost/iost-servi-partner-node-registration-24597c78d373

To streamline the on-boarding of Servi Nodes, enable the stability and progressive scaling of the IOST network as well as ensuring profitability of Servi Nodes from block production rewards, as of 30th April 2019, the required vote amount received from Voters and/or from self-staking has been increased to 8,000,000 Votes. https://medium.com/iost/servi-node-guide-requirements-and-on-boarding-abcae30f18e1

If you wish to be rewarded for your contributions to the IOST ecosystem, you can check out these programs here:

Featured DApps Support Program https://medium.com/iost/iost-x-bluehill-featured-dapps-support-program-for-iost-developers-now-launched-4c945a91100

Bug Bounty Program https://medium.com/iost/iost-bug-bounty-program-building-a-secure-blockchain-c352b19ca64c

Dapp Referral Program https://medium.com/iost/dapp-referral-program-become-a-contributor-to-the-iost-ecosystem-6f4f5f334206

9 Help! My wallet doesn’t work, nothing happens when I do a (trans)action.

This happens when you don’t have enough iGAS or iRAM, check if you got enough (see point 3).

If trying to stake/buy iRAM/iGAS with iWallet gives error undefined(status code: undefined}) then use https://www.iostabc.com/wallet/resources to succeed.

If you get a -time out- error, make sure your time and region settings are right, maybe reboot or just press F5. When on mobile, set time to auto instead of manual.

10 How can I swap my ERC-20 tokens to mainnet tokens?

Currently, all swaps from ERC-20 IOST tokens to Mainnet Tokens are done through exchanges. You can deposit your ERC-20 IOST tokens to exchanges that support the IOST Mainnet Token Swap. To keep it short I’ll just talk about swapping trough Binance for now. https://support.binance.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024642452-Binance-Will-Support-The-IOST-Mainnet-Token-Swap

Quote: Please note that even after the IOST mainnet is online, if you choose to deposit ERC20 IOST tokens into your Binance account, we will continue to process the token swap for you.

So just send the ERC-20 IOST to your main ETH account on Binance. Binance will swap them for you, in about 20 minutes they will appear as IOST mainnet tokens on your balance.

11 Why does IOST do the token swap only at exchanges? Can we do a manual swap?

Token Swap is still an abstract concept for many non-technical users. Manual swapping is not only complicated, but also risky. IOST has not yet officially launched a manual token swap scheme. Please avoid trying it, or any company claiming to provide such a service outside of the above-mentioned exchanges. IOST’s selected exchange partners are world-renowned, high-security global exchanges where users can use safely without any concerns.

12 When will the mainnet token swap end?

IOST has already started the Mainnet Token Swap, and it will be continued throughout 2019 for users to complete the swap from IOST ERC-20 Token to IOST Mainnet Token. IOST has set an adequate time frame for this token swap to ensure that every user can complete the token swap during this transition period. IOST Foundation will send advance notice to communities on various platforms before it ends the token swap.

13 Where can I find IOST teammembers?

As the IOST Foundation is transitioning towards a more corporate identity, the team page is no longer available. However you can still view the LinkedIn profiles of the founding team below.

CEO - Jimmy Zhong https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-zhong-iost/

CTO - Terrence Wang https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannan-terrence-wang-3092252a/

CMO - Wang Sa https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangsa/

CIO - Justin Li https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiancheng-li/

CDO - Kevin Tan https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-tan-a09428bb/

Other team members can be found by a LinkedIn search as well: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=iost&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER