wo days before io.net was set to launch its IO token on Binance Launchpool, founder and CEO Ahmad Shadid announced that he was stepping down from his role. In a statement, Shadid said the move would allow the network "to move forward without distraction" amid unspecified "allegations regarding my past." However, he didn't directly address those allegations.
As io.net's first and former head, Shadid's departure just before the highly anticipated token launch understandably concerned some in the community. Speculation arose that he might sell off the majority of his coin holdings immediately. However, Shadid and io.net claimed strict vesting and lockup periods would prevent such an action.
Fellow founder Tory Green, previously the COO, replaced Shadid as CEO. Green soon addressed the community, emphasizing their "unwavering" dedication to achieving io.net's mission of building the world's largest decentralized AI network. Additional leadership changes were also promised in the coming days.
IO Token Launch and Distribution Details
As planned, the IO token launched on June 11th through Binance Launchpool. A total supply of 800 million IO will eventually be circulating. Of that amount, 95 million coins were released at inception.
Contrary to speculation, Shadid's personal IO tokens are subject to a four-year vesting schedule ending in June 2025. Furthermore, he donated 1 million coins to io.net's foundation to support ecosystem growth.
Io.net claims to have aggregated over 20,000 GPUs spread across clusters which are offered to AI companies at lower costs than traditional cloud services. The network suffered a temporary GPU metadata issue in late April but has since recovered.
Growing Partnerships and Expansion Plans
Under new CEO Green, io.net says their immediate focus remains in growing supplier and customer relationships. Several partnership deals and AI workload integrations were recently announced.
Among io.net's stated goals is further optimizing the network and SDK tools. They also plan to launch additional services like generalized GPU-based computing and machine learning training capabilities.
The recent leadership and structural changes aim to support these expansion efforts better. Metrics like GPU count and network uptime will be important to track going forward as indicators of io.net's progress in delivering on its vision.
So in summary, while questions lingered around the prior CEO's departure, io.net has transitioned smoothly. Launching their token as scheduled represents an achievement, and the project now enters a new phase centered around scaling operations. Continued developments will reveal how effectively they capitalize on this latest milestone.
