Here is my analysis that IoT Chain also known as ITC is overfunded and understaffed (and bonus - stealing LGPL licensed code)

Having looked at:

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain

And a more recent for that is considered the official git repository at the time of writing this post:

https://github.com/IoTChainCode/itc-blockchain/

After reading the code I was baffled - this implements nothing! Surely it must be a joke. I am talking on the level that this is a prototype OF a prototype.

I thought this surely is some playground but looking into git history gives hints that this is in fact ALL the code that the team has written.

Dateline:

Oct 21, 2017 initial git commit.

Nov 6, 2017

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain/commit/d298c81d038ef1ebf8aee0c3582fdfb5e42372b2

A strange commit message: "方案v0.1，hys初看过了。" translated via google translate to: "Program v0.1, hys had seen the first."

A file named "ITC项目设计方案_v0.1.docx" is uploaded.

This will probably be the "yellow paper" that the team is telling they will release soon.

In full chinese but if one runs it thru google translate one can see that it’s a design document.

It seems like this is the technical starting point of the project. Talking about bluetooth communication, multi leveled servers etc. Transaction logic and so on. This is all good.

There is nothing wrong with this specification, thought has been put to it.

But since then it gets worse and worse. The code commits are trivial beyond belief.

Nov 10, 2017

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain/commit/aacffddb90f5f610b79662fc300edb491f126a47

Commit message "删除部分失效文档" or in English "Delete part of the invalid document"

All documentation related to the project is removed.

Next 3 commits look like the team is trying to steal Markov Chain implementation from http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/dream/dream.html

Nov 29, 2017

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain/commit/a366da5ed4eb2e4f98c6bfe65d2d05a9514f32f3

v1.42 add in rnglib in mc

Nov 30, 2017

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain/commit/9fd1b4d1cf971864a6ff28e263c967062949cb8f

v1.42 add in pdflib for mc

Dec 7, 2017

https://github.com/ZhuoAppSofeware/itc-blockchain/commit/c9fe9a3df54c62ab14be4031eb3f687a90f5981e

v1.42 add in mc

This code is never really used all thru the later commits but what can we learn from this. It is still existing in the latest master branch at

https://github.com/IoTChainCode/itc-blockchain/tree/master/blockchain_v1.42

mc.c is stolen from http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/dream/dream.html

(specifically http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/dream/dream.c)

rnglib.c is stolen from http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/rnglib/rnglib.html

(specifically http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/rnglib/rnglib.c)

pdflib.c is stolen from http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/pdflib/pdflib.html

(specifically http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/c_src/pdflib/pdflib.c)

NOTICE LICENSING, EVERYTHING IS GNU LGPL, team has REMOVED all licensing information. For those not familiar with GNU licenses - LGPL does not allow this.

They removed all licensing and all comments but kept everything else.

The author of the original code was paranoid and licensed EVERY single function and not just the 3 files, so counting all the removed comments these are the number of LGPL violations:

mc.c 39 LGPL violations

pdflib.c 52 LGPL violations

rnglib.c 29 LGPL violations

Funny thing is that this code is not used anywhere. And even more funny - LGPL code can be used in open source projects - it makes no sense removing the license. LGPL code can be used in open source projects but the license information must be kept intact.

My best guess is that they had to show some real mathematical code to big investors. The use of this kind of mathematics is CRUCIAL for this coin.

Commits continue daily which shows that this is not some intern doing testing - this is the real code that they have, this is ALL they have.

The commits are trivial, the code is trivial, nothing is implemented on the mathematical side.

https://github.com/IoTChainCode/itc-blockchain/commits/master

Do not just trust my word, the code is so minimal that anyone who has basic C language knowledge can read it and judge what that in 3 months the implementation is basically written on the level of a beginner programmer.

If one removes all files related to crypto (because they don't implement nothing new there, could have used openssl or bitcoin code), the total lines of code is:

220 blockchain.cpp

9 blockchain.h

55 include.cpp

30 include.h

18 initial.ini (technically not code)

186 layer.cpp

175 layer.h

902 layer_device.cpp

29 layer_device.h

352 layer_mainchain.cpp

11 layer_mainchain.h

1987 total

Having gathered millions of dollars of financing they have literally written 2000 lines of code in 3 months!

PS! NB! IMPORTANT! For anyone technically competent run "git clone https://github.com/IoTChainCode/itc-blockchain" now to back up this information before they remove it from github. Or if you have a github account you can fork the code.

Big investors have put millions of dollars into this - they have no option than to remove the code and move to a promise of "code will follow in the future" trust mode.

And just as a bonus here is the original Chinese time plan and how it was made to English time plan. They just added half a year. So half a year of development and 2000 lines of code:

https://imgur.com/a/MCLXw

DO NOT TRUST ME OR MY OPINIONS, TRUST THE CODE.

Regards,