IQ.wiki: Building a Decentralized Knowledge Economy on Blockchain

IQ.wiki stands as one of the pioneering blockchain-based encyclopedia platforms designed to revolutionize how information is created, verified, and accessed globally. As a decentralized alternative to traditional knowledge repositories, IQ.wiki enables anyone with internet access to contribute, edit, and earn rewards through a transparent tokenized system powered by the IQ token.

Understanding IQ.wiki and Its Revolutionary Model

IQ.wiki began as an ambitious project called Everipedia, founded in 2014 by software developers Sam Kazemian and Theodor Forselius. Both were inspired by a vision to create a more inclusive and decentralized knowledge platform, building on concepts championed by entrepreneur Paul Graham’s 2008 essay that called for alternatives to Wikipedia’s centralized model.

What makes IQ.wiki fundamentally different from Wikipedia lies in its blockchain foundation. Operating on the EOS blockchain, IQ.wiki removes centralized control over information curation and content moderation. Rather than a single organization deciding what gets published, the platform distributes this power among token holders and community contributors. This architectural shift enables a significantly wider range of content diversity while maintaining quality through community consensus rather than top-down editorial decisions.

In October 2022, the Everipedia platform underwent a major rebranding, transitioning to the IQ.wiki identity. From its humble beginnings in Sam Kazemian’s UCLA dormitory room, the platform has evolved into a global knowledge ecosystem serving millions of users.

The Mechanics Behind IQ.wiki’s Decentralized Architecture

IQ.wiki operates through a sophisticated three-module system: the token module, the governance module, and the article submission module. These components work in concert to ensure both decentralization and content integrity.

The platform implements a practical framework to combat misinformation despite its open-source nature. Before submission, contributors must stake a fixed amount of IQ tokens—functioning as a quality assurance deposit. When approved by community editors, the staked tokens return to the creator. If content fails to meet community standards, the contributor forfeits their stake. This mechanism creates powerful incentives for high-quality contributions while penalizing bad-faith actors.

Every piece of content undergoes rigorous screening before acceptance. Community editors thoroughly review submissions to maintain balanced, credible information. This combination of financial incentives and editorial oversight allows IQ.wiki to operate as an open platform while actively preventing the spread of unreliable content—lessons learned from early incidents like a 2017 editor error regarding a Las Vegas mass shooting, which was corrected within minutes but still caused temporary misinformation spread across social media.

IQ Token: The Engine Driving the IQ.wiki Ecosystem

The IQ token serves as the foundational currency powering multiple functions within IQ.wiki’s ecosystem. Understanding its various applications reveals how the platform creates a self-sustaining economy.

Rewarding Contributions: Contributors and editors earn IQ tokens as compensation for their work. A portion of platform fees distributes directly to content creators and curators, creating a direct financial incentive for participation that Wikipedia’s volunteer-only model cannot match.

Governance and Voting: Token holders obtain voting rights proportional to their holdings and commitment period. This means active, long-term community members have greater influence over platform decisions, from feature development to policy changes. Users stake IQ tokens to accumulate voting power, granting them a voice in shaping IQ.wiki’s future.

Staking and Passive Income: Through HiIQ, IQ.wiki’s dedicated staking platform, token holders can lock their IQ for rewards. The longer tokens remain staked, the greater the accumulated rewards—incentivizing long-term community participation. Beyond additional IQ tokens, stakers receive digital collectibles (NFTs) with real utility and value.

Trading and Speculation: IQ tokens trade across multiple platforms including 1inch, the leading DeFi aggregator, providing liquidity and price discovery mechanisms. This enables investors to speculate on IQ’s value while traders access cutting-edge tools for token management.

The Journey From Everipedia to IQ.wiki

The project’s evolution reflects the growing sophistication of blockchain technology application. After launching in 2015 as a Wikipedia fork, the team gradually incorporated blockchain infrastructure. By 2018, Galaxy Digital’s EOS ecosystem fund provided $30 million in strategic investment, accelerating development.

In December 2021, IQ.wiki community introduced BrainDAO—the first Web3.0 Metaverse Knowledge fund. This initiative aims to connect blockchain networks with real-world information and establish a decentralized fund dedicated to knowledge preservation and creation, further expanding IQ.wiki’s reach.

A watershed moment arrived in 2017 when Dr. Larry Sanger, Wikipedia’s co-founder, joined the organization as Chief Information Officer. A longtime Wikipedia critic who believed the platform had become too rigid and excluding certain perspectives, Sanger’s involvement signaled serious institutional credibility for IQ.wiki’s mission to disrupt Wikipedia’s model.

Tokenomics and IQ Token Distribution

IQ.wiki operates with specific token supply mechanics designed to balance inflation and value preservation. The protocol currently distributes approximately 60 billion total IQ tokens, with over 24.8 billion in active circulation as of early 2026.

Interestingly, the community voted in 2021 to reduce the maximum supply from 100 billion to 21 billion tokens—intentionally mirroring Bitcoin’s supply cap. This decision signals the protocol’s commitment to Bitcoin-inspired principles of scarcity and deflationary pressure.

New tokens are created every thirty minutes through a community-voted process. Contributors and editors earn these newly minted tokens based on community validation of their work quality. This hourly reward system creates constant opportunities for compensation while allowing the community to vote on token reallocation toward developer funds, security bounties, and other ecosystem needs. Notably, if no contributions merit rewards during any half-hour period, no new tokens are created—preventing frivolous inflation.

IQ.wiki’s Competitive Landscape

Wikipedia remains IQ.wiki’s most formidable competitor, commanding vastly larger user bases due to decades of establishment and network effects. However, IQ.wiki has demonstrated impressive expansion, achieving over 3 million monthly active users by 2017 and continuing growth trajectory.

Within the broader Web3 content layer, IQ.wiki faces potential competition from projects like The Graph—an indexing protocol for data validation. The Graph operates differently, focusing on indexing and validating data sources rather than creating encyclopedic content. This distinction means IQ.wiki occupies a relatively unique position in the Web3 knowledge infrastructure space.

The decreasing attention spans of internet audiences, combined with preference for video and multimedia over traditional written content, present a longer-term threat. However, IQ.wiki’s blockchain foundation and tokenized incentive structure address Wikipedia’s fundamental limitations in motivating participation.

Strategic Partnerships and Investor Backing

IQ.wiki’s credibility strengthened through significant institutional backing and media partnerships. Early funding came from Mucker Capital ($130,000 in 2015), followed by angel investors providing $700,000 in 2017. Galaxy Digital’s 2018 investment of $30 million represented major endorsement from the traditional finance sector moving into crypto.

The protocol’s partnership with news giant Associated Press marked a watershed moment. In November 2020, AP used IQ.wiki’s OraQles (data oracle service) to publish 2020 U.S. Presidential Election results on-chain—the first time any blockchain protocol recorded political data at scale. The partnership expanded further in March 2021 when AP published March Madness basketball scores on Ethereum using OraQles, demonstrating the oracle’s practical utility for real-world data verification.

Strengths and Weaknesses: A Balanced View

Strengths: IQ.wiki’s highly decentralized governance model, diverse content repertoire, and Web3-native design create competitive advantages. The incentive structure—combining token rewards, NFT collectibles, and staking opportunities—provides multi-layered motivation for contributors that traditional platforms cannot match.

Weaknesses: The open-source nature means virtually anyone can participate, creating misinformation risks. IQ.wiki has faced criticism for promoting unbalanced perspectives on controversial topics. The platform’s history includes the aforementioned 2017 incident where a contributor falsely identified a mass shooting perpetrator, causing temporary reputation damage despite rapid correction. This remains a systemic risk inherent to decentralized governance.

Opportunities: As one of the first truly decentralized encyclopedic protocols with minimal direct competition, IQ.wiki stands positioned to benefit from Web3 ecosystem expansion and growing demand for trustless information infrastructure.

Threats: Established encyclopedic platforms maintain network effect advantages. Changing media consumption habits—audiences increasingly prefer multimedia over text—may challenge an encyclopedia-focused platform’s relevance in future internet ecosystems.

Future Development: The IQ.wiki Roadmap

IQ.wiki’s development roadmap reflects ecosystem expansion beyond encyclopedic content.

PredIQt Earn will function as a lending market similar to protocols like AAVE. Users can lend and borrow IQ tokens peer-to-peer, with borrowers paying interest to lenders. The borrowed tokens draw from PredIQt’s prediction market contract reserves, creating productive use of idle capital.

PredIQt Smart Assets enables users to collateralize IQ tokens and generate synthetic assets (iqBTC, iqETH, etc.). These synthetic assets can be traded, lent, borrowed, or held for underlying asset exposure—dramatically expanding IQ token utility beyond governance and staking.

Exploring the IQ.wiki Ecosystem

The IQ.wiki ecosystem comprises three core products expanding the protocol’s utility:

PredIQt: A prediction market allowing users to speculate on future events across politics, business, finance, and sports. Users purchase outcome shares, earning one token unit per favorable share. This incentive structure enables discovery of probabilistic truth while creating engaging participation mechanisms.

OraQles: IQ.wiki’s data oracle service bridges blockchain smart contracts with trusted external information sources. The November 2020 AP Elections integration and subsequent sports data publishing on Ethereum demonstrated OraQles’ production-grade capabilities for on-chain data verification.

HiIQ: The staking platform enabling IQ holders to earn passive income proportional to staking duration. Rewards distribute as additional IQ tokens or digital collectibles, with a July 21, 2022 listing on 1inch providing enhanced liquidity access for stakers.

Getting Started: Acquiring and Managing IQ Tokens

Purchasing IQ: The token trades on multiple cryptocurrency platforms including 1inch and other major exchanges. Users can acquire IQ using local currency through traditional payment methods (credit/debit cards, bank transfers) or exchange other cryptocurrencies directly.

Storage Options:

• Exchange Wallets: Centralized exchange wallets (like those on 1inch’s integrated platform) offer convenience and easy recovery, though custodial risks apply
• Software Wallets: IQ operates on both EOS and Ethereum blockchains, enabling storage on compatible wallets (Metamask for Ethereum, Exodus for EOS)
• Hardware Wallets: For maximum security, hardware wallets supporting ETH or EOS protocols provide the safest storage, though they require technical familiarity

Staking Participation: All IQ holders can stake tokens on HiIQ to earn either additional IQ tokens or NFT rewards, creating multiple pathways to passive income generation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does IQ.wiki differ from Wikipedia? IQ.wiki operates as a blockchain-based, fully decentralized encyclopedia that enables contributors to earn token rewards—fundamentally different from Wikipedia’s volunteer-driven model. IQ.wiki also permits a much broader content spectrum and operates on immutable blockchain infrastructure.

What’s the current IQ token supply? The maximum supply cap stands at 60 billion tokens, with over 24.8 billion currently in circulation. In 2021, the community voted to align the maximum supply with Bitcoin’s design principles.

Who founded IQ.wiki? Sam Kazemian and Theodor Forselius launched the concept in December 2014, later joined by Travix Moore (co-founder), Mahbod Moghadam (co-founder), and Christian Deciga (co-founder) in 2015. The platform was rebranded as IQ.wiki in 2024.

Where can I stake my IQ tokens? HiIQ serves as the official staking platform, open to all IQ token holders interested in generating passive income.

What makes IQ.wiki unique? IQ.wiki represents the first major successful attempt to bring comprehensive real-world knowledge onto a decentralized blockchain network. The platform’s expansion into products like PredIQt and OraQles demonstrates commitment to building a complete information infrastructure for Web3.

What activities can users engage in on IQ.wiki? Possibilities range from content creation and editing (earning token rewards), to staking for passive income, to participating in governance decisions, to browsing freely for information—creating a multifaceted engagement model for different user types.