What is IOST?

IOST stands for the Internet of Services. It's a new type of blockchain that was meant to solve scalability issues. IOST was presented as a blockchain which is immutable to fraud and has no censorship or third party interference. So from the very beginning it was meant to find answers to the most important requests.
IOST has one significant peculiarity that differs it from the most part of competitors. It works on the "Proof of Believability" protocol. This technology was created by the IOST team. The main feature of this protocol is that each node is evaluated by contributions it made in the past. The main aim of the IOST is extensive adoption of the blockchain technology. The developers believe that the Proof of Work protocol prevents wide usage of the blockchain. So the team invented their own methodology that should allow users to adopt the technology easier, as well as increase the productivity of the system itself.
IOST platform covers several areas, such as technology, marketing, project investment, and commercialization.

Initially IOST was based in China. The first time the world heard of it was in 2018. In the beginning IOST was created as a new way to run dApps.
There were several co-founders: Jimmy Zhong, Terrence Wang, Justin Li, Sa Wang, Ray Xiao, Kelvin Tan. The ICO happened in December 2017 - January 2018 and raised $31 million. The launch happened in February 2019.