IOPn: Building the Internet of People With Identity First

IOPn stands for Internet of People. Jimi, its co-founder and COO, joined MG from Surgence Labs for the first broadcast in an IOPn series. Surgence Labs ran IOPn's launch go-to-market, and the host framed the session around the project's new positioning: put the individual, not the institution, at the root of the internet.

Jimi strips the pitch to three ideas. A person owns a digital identity that works across apps, controls what data is shared and for how long, and shares in the value their activity creates. The identity product is NeoID. Instead of recreating accounts everywhere, reputation, preferences and relationships travel with the user. The team is also launching its own native wallet. Jimi says the idea took shape after seeing web2 platforms centralize data, crypto route power to the same actors, and AI train on behavior without consent. His own path into crypto began when banks in his country defaulted and savers lost their money.

The growth story rests on community first design. A testnet campaign began before the chain was live, and the host cited more than 13 million testnet transactions. Surgence reports 3,000+ builders onboarded, 100+ projects incubated and X followers growing from 10,000 to 100,000. Jimi says people came for what was being built, not for rewards, and that the chain broke under the influx at one point, which he counts as a positive signal. A reputation system with tiers, progression and multipliers is coming, and early participants such as badge holders and Discord role holders are promised recognition. Jimi expects mainnet within about a month of the broadcast.

The second pillar is Atlas, which stands for advanced tokenized liquid cooled AI stack. Atlas builds modular data centers for sovereign AI computing, aimed mainly at governments so that they own the machines, data and storage. Jimi says IOPn has a relationship with Super Micro and is procuring Nvidia B200 GPUs. Over time he sees a mesh of government data centers and GPU access for users through staking. The chain also covers tokenization of real estate and commodities, and a path toward global mobility perks such as visas and passports for stakers. His ambition for the next year is for IOPn to become unavoidable.