How and Where to Buy I/O Coin (IOC) – Detailed Guide
- What is IOC?
- Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
- Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
- Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
- Step 5: Trade IOC
- Last Step: Store IOC securely in hardware wallets
- Other useful tools for trading IOC
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Latest News for IOC
- IOC Price Prediction and Price Movement
What is IOC?
Overview
iOC (I/O coin) is currently in steadfast development, upgrading it's open source blockchain protocol to host a fully private cryptocurrency. Enabling fully confidential, decentralized peer to peer digital payments. iOC currently fuels Dapps (decentralized applications) that take advantage of a full array of features, from encrypted document storage, encrypted transfer, identity storage to a fully encrypted messaging system.
Profile
iOC was fair, launched on July 24th, 2014. iOC is a Privacy based cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem. iOC was initially launched via POW X11 algorithm. The difficult mining period lasted for 2 weeks. This was in order to properly and fairly distribute 16M coins before switching over to their own unique flavor of Proof of Stake Cipher. There are around 18 Million iOC in circulation with a maximum cap of 22 Million. The remaining iOC are minted via POS reward system for Stakers who work on confirming transactions. Stakers also receive transaction fees from on chain services. There is no governance model. The iOC community values freedom. The project was built with a free, fair minded and decentralized spirit. iOC was launched without any Initial Coin Offer (ICO) or Premine.
In 2015 iOC was the first project to move away from the Bitcoin QT wallet and replaced it with a unique "fully decentralized" HTML5/JS based UI wallet. Along with IONS DNS. In 2016 the iOC community and developers formed the I/O Digital foundation to further awareness of the open source public blockchain as it was done for Bitcoin, Litecoin and a few other fair launched projects. In 2017 I/O developers upgraded iOC's blockchain protocol to codename DIONS "Decentralized Input Output Name Server" further enhancing the base platform to host decentralized applications.
With the release of DIONS, the iOC Blockchain enabled identity storage. Users can store their own personal identification and be in full control of who can view it and who they want to share it with. It also allows storage of art and pictures including deeds, copyrights, trademarks, proof of ownership, data and much more. All of which are fully encrypted, fully controlled by the users private keys.
In addition the blockchain enabled features include, Private and Public identities, Stealth Addresses, AES 256 Encrypted 1MB Document/Data (upload, transfer via private users) capabilities, along with AES 256 Encrypted Instant Messaging. The I/O dev team also enabled and increased capacity to 4MB blocks with up to 16 second confirmation times. Along with our very own shuffle staking features. Ensuring that even low weighted users will always see a reward for their work.
In 2019, iOC's main focus continued a strong path towards privacy for all. Ensuring to serve as a privacy based economic and social platform. This by expanding their own privacy based mechanism in coding a Zero Knowledge protocol "NightHawk" ring signatures and Anon Balances.
NightHawk protocol is currently on stand-by as the team is embarking on developing Non Turing Complete smart contracts to be deployed in 2021. The team will follow with a project codenamed "Chameleon - a scalable entropy based molecular graph ledger, to advanced interoperability of multiple blockchains and deploy our own scalable virtual machine and I/O abstract smart contract Ecosystem". The team will follow Chameleon with DIOEX. Essentially creating a completely private, secure and fully decentralized economic ecosystem.
iOC is a fully decentralized world wide cryptocurrency maintained by the I/O Digital Foundation and the iOC World Wide Community.
IOC was first tradable on 2nd Aug, 2014. It has a total supply of 18,764,965.47,434,563. As of right now IOC has a market capitalization of USD $unknown. The current price of IOC is $0.332 and is ranked 1059 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 46.20 percent at the time of writing.
IOC has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying Bitcoin from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy IOC.
Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange
You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, Bitcoin (BTC). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.
Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:
- UpHold
Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:
- Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
- Currently more than 7M users worldwide
- You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
- Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
- No hidden fees and any other account fees
- There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
- You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
- USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.
You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.
Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.
Step 2: Buy BTC with fiat money
Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.
Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose Bitcoin, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.
Step 3: Transfer BTC to an Altcoin Exchange
- Bittrex
But we are not done yet, since IOC is an altcoin we need to transfer our BTC to an exchange that IOC can be traded, here we will use Bittrex as our exchange. Bittrex is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.
Bittrex is an exchange based in Seattle that started off its operations in February 2014. There were a lot fewer exchanges out there then than there is today. Bittrex still sees itself a global leader in the revolution of blockchain revolution. They refer to its platform as a platform for people who require “lightning-fast” trade execution, secure digital wallets and leading industry practices. Bittrex also work as a “Blockchain Incubator”, meaning that they – in order to promote global innovation in the business – work with teams globally to help new tokens that have the potential to transform the way goods, services and operations are managed in the world. Bittrex is one of the more known exchanges in the USA. As they are based in the USA, they also permit US-investors from most states. America is in many ways the ruler of crypto right now. It has a very large number of platforms and a large part of the everyday crypto trading occurs on American exchanges or on other exchanges but involving American traders.
After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.
Step 4: Deposit BTC to exchange
Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.
If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'BTC address', this is a unique public address of your BTC wallet at Bittrex and you can receive BTC by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought BTC on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.
Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on BTC on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose BTC under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".
On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.
After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Bittrex!
Now go back to Bittrex and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the Bitcoin network, during busy times it may take even longer.
You should receive a confirmation notification from Bittrex once your BTC has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase IOC!
Step 5: Trade IOC
Go back to Bittrex, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.
In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "BTC" is selected as we are trading BTC to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "IOC", you should see IOC/BTC, select that pair and you should see a price chart of IOC/BTC in the middle of the page.
Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy IOC", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy IOC". Voila! You have finally bought IOC!
Apart from the exchange(s) above, there are a few popular crypto exchanges where they have decent daily trading volumes and a huge user base. This will ensure you will be able to sell your coins at any time and the fees will usually be lower. It is suggested that you also register on these exchanges since once IOC gets listed there it will attract a large amount of trading volumes from the users there, that means you will be having some great trading opportunities!
Gate.io
Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.
BitMart
BitMart is a crypto exchange from the Cayman Islands. It became available to the public in March 2018. BitMart has a truly impressive liquidity. At the time of the last update of this review (20 March 2020, right in the middle of the crisis with COVID-19), BitMart’s 24 hour trading volume was USD 1.8 billion. This amount placed BitMart on place no. 24 on Coinmarketcap’s the list of exchanges with the highest 24 hour trading volumes. Needless to say, if you start trading here, you will not have to worry about the order book being thin. Many exchanges does not allow investors from USA as customers. As far as we can tell, BitMart is not one of those exchanges. Any US-investors interested in trading here should in any event form their own opinion on any issues arising from their citizenship or residency.
Last Step: Store IOC securely in hardware wallets
Ledger Nano S
- Easy to set up and friendly interface
- Can be used on desktops and laptops
- Lightweight and Portable
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
Ledger Nano X
- More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
- Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
- Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
- Larger screen
- More storage space than Ledger Nano S
- Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
- Multiple languages available
- Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
- Affordable price
If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your IOC for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.
Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.
Other useful tools for trading IOC
Encrypted Secure Connection
NordVPN
Because of the very nature of cryptocurrency – decentralised, it means that users are 100% responsible for handling their assets securely. While using hardware wallet allows you to store your cryptos in a safe place, using an encrypted VPN connection while you trade makes it harder for hackers to intercept or eavesdrop your sensitive information. Especially when you are trading on the go or in a public Wifi connection. NordVPN is one of the best paid (note: never use any free VPN services as they may sniff your data in return of free service) VPN services out there and it has been around for almost a decade. It offers military-grade encrypted connection and you can also opt-in to block malicious websites and ads with their CyberSec feature. You can choose to connect to 5000+ servers in 60+ countries base on your current location, which ensures you to always have a smooth and secure connection wherever you are. There is no bandwidth or data limits that means you can also use the service in your everyday routines such as streaming videos or downloading large files. Plus it is among the cheapest VPN services out there (only $3.49 per month).
Surfshark
Surfshark is a much cheaper alternative if you are looking for a secure VPN connection. Although it’s a relatively new company, it has already 3200+ servers distributed in 65 countries. Apart from VPN it also has some other cool features including CleanWeb™, which actively blocks ads, trackers, malware and phishing attempts while you are surfing on your browser. Currently, Surfshark does not have any device limit so you can basically use it on as many devices as you want and even share the service with your friends and family. Use the signup link below to get an 81% discount(that’s a lot!!) at $2.49/month!
Atlas VPN
IT nomads created Atlas VPN after seeing a lack of top-notch service within the free VPNs field. Atlas VPN was designed for everyone to have free access to unrestricted content without any strings attached. Atlas VPN set out to be the first trustworthy free VPN armed with top-notch technology. Furthermore, even though Atlas VPN is the new kid on the block, their blog team’s reports have been covered by well-known outlets such as Forbes, Fox News, Washington Post, TechRadar and many others. Below are some of the feature highlights:
- Strong encryption
- Tracker blocker feature blocks dangerous websites, stops third-party cookies from tracking your browsing habits and prevents behavioural advertising.
- Data Breach Monitor finds out whether your personal data is safe.
- SafeSwap servers allow you to have many rotating IP addresses by connecting to a single server
- Best prices on the VPN market (only $1.39/month!!)
- No-log policy to keep your privacy safe
- Automatic Kill Switch to block your device or apps from accessing the internet if the connection fails
- Unlimited simultaneous connections.
- P2P support
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy IOC with cash?
There is no direct way to buy IOC with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase BTC, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your BTC to respective AltCoin exchanges.
LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.
Are there any quick ways to buy IOC in Europe?
Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.
Are there any alternative platforms to buy IOC or Bitcoin with credit cards?
Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.
Read more on I/O Coin's fundamentals and current price here.
IOC Price Prediction and Price Movement
IOC is up 378.44 percent over the last three months, while its market capitalization is still considered relatively small, which implies that the price of IOC can be very volatile comparing to those with larger market cap during big market moves. However, with a stead growth over the past three months, IOC has the potential to grow further and may yield some very decent gains. Again traders should remain cautious at all time.
Please note that this analysis is purely base on IOC's historic price actions and is by no means financial advice. Traders should always do their own research and be extra careful while investing in cryptocurrencies.