What is IOTA?
IOTA is a new technology using the so-called Tangle instead of Blockchain. In IOTA, every transaction approves two previous transactions in the Tangle. This makes IOTA scale proportionally with the number of transactions per second and enables IOTA to be completely fee free. This makes IOTA the perfect fit for the Internet of Things (IoT).
A total number of ((3^33-1)/2) = 2,779,530,283,277,761 tokens were created and distributed in the ICO. This amount will never increase or decrease. IOTA uses SI units to quantify amounts. For example, to make more reasonable trading prices, all IOTA trading on Bitfinex is handled in units of Mi (MegaIOTA) - one million IOTA.
For more information on IOTA visit IOTA Support’s An Introduction to IOTA.
How to run an IOTA wallet
There are two different wallet types in IOTA that you can run as a full or as a light node. For new users, the GUI operated in light wallet mode is recommended. In the light wallet mode, your wallet connects to a Server on which the IOTA IRI is running. Learn all about setting up a node/wallet.
How to connect your light wallet to a server
To ensure that every light wallet can connect to a server without any issues, Bitfinex helped to create a geo-distributed network of light wallet servers to which a wallet can connect via load balancing servers. You simply have to navigate to "Tools > Edit Node config" and insert the DNS of this service provided below. Your wallet requests will then be received by a load balancing server that will execute them through communication with an available light wallet server in the network.
The address for the Bitfinex load balancer to be used by Iota light wallets is http://iota.bitfinex.com:80
Important Notes
In IOTA the security of a transaction decreases when you send tokens more than once from the same address. To ensure that you are safe, you should always generate a new address (by going into the "Receive" section of the GUI and attaching the new address to the Tangle) for each transfer that is made.
Sticky sessions
As long as your IP Address doesn't change, the load balancer you connected to will always choose the same server to handle your requests. This means that you can log in/log out of the wallet and see the balance, history, and addresses as usual. However, if your IP changes it is likely that the load balancing server will direct you to a different server (to keep work balance between all servers). As it is the nature of the Tangle that any node sees it from a different perspective, your balance and history might not be displayed completely. To resolve this, go to the "Receive"-section of your wallet and generate addresses until everything gets displayed correctly. You can resolve this issue permanently by accessing the service with a static IP.
Snapshots
After a snapshot, the Database of every full node (and with that the database on every light wallet server) gets deleted. Therefore, your history and balance disappeared. You can get your balance back by simply going into the "Receive"-section of your wallet and generate addresses until you see your correct balance again (your wallet will re-generate every address that you used pre-snapshot again).
New releases
After a new release, it might be required by the foundation to delete the database of each full node. The same issue with the same solution as seen in point #2 will occur.
Status reports
Follow @IOTASupport on Twitter for status reports of the service.
Disclaimer
Neither Bitfinex nor the other parties involved can be made responsible for potential problems/losses in any way. The service is provided "as is."