In this article, we will analyse and explain what is IOTA, why it was created, and how it differentiates with other cryptocurrencies. At the moment, IOTA is one of the most important virtual currencies in the market and calls the attention of several investors.
Table of Contents
What is IOTA?
IOTA is a third-generation cryptocurrency or platform. The most important features about the network is that it offers fast transactions and no fees to process them. Yes, that’s right, no fees. But how is that possible?
Well, the first point is that this network it does not use blockchain technology, but instead, it uses a technology known as tangle. With it, each transaction performed by a user confirms to other transactions, and so on.
In this way, there are no miners, and blockchain does not exist anymore here. And tangle can be free because the user is doing the work that in a blockchain is being done by miners.
It is important to mark that there are no smart contracts and it cannot support dApps, but instead, the cryptocurrency and network have been created and designed to be used by other machines and devices. More specifically, it can be used to power the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. And here is where IOTA takes its name from the Internet of Things Applications.
With IOTA, devices are able to interact with each other, and even pay for things that are needed. IoT devices are spreading all over the world and in many different fields. As technologies like 5G start to be applied, this crypto platform may have a very interesting future ahead.
Another important thing to mention is that IOTA is quantum-proof. But what does it mean? Quantum computing may be very harmful to some virtual currencies, including Bitcoin. In the future, quantum computing may harm blockchain networks such as the one of Bitcoin.
With these new technologies, a supercomputer would be able to discover the private key of a certain Bitcoin user and steal his funds. But IOTA has an already built-in function that would make it quantum computing-proof.
What is Tangle
Tangle and Blockchain are two different platforms. Tangle is able to process transactions without paying for monetary fees. But it is important to mention that the ‘fee’ is paid when a very small computation is used for processing other transactions.
It has also a very important feature. In the Bitcoin’s network, a group of miners is trying to process the transactions and participate from mining activities. The network is decentralized. But Tangle allows for greater decentralization. Each individual processing a transaction is ale to take part in the consensus.
With this technology, this network is able to process microtransactions that would allow it to be integrated with its main purpose: The IoT. As the number of devices connected starts to grow, an increased amount of transactions will take place in the network.
IOTA in the Cryptocurrency Market
MIOTA has a fixed number of coins in the market: 2,779,530,283,277,761. But in general, exchanges list it as MIOTA – which means that this is the price of 1 million IOTA units.
At the beginning of 2018, MITOA was traded around $3.5 dollars. Currently, it has a value of $1.8 dollars. When the cryptocurrency market skyrocketed at the end of 2017, MIOTA reached all-time highs being traded above $5.52 dollars.
This year (2018), its lowest point was $0.9 dollars at the end of March/beginning of April. However, the price of MIOTA tends to change according to market conditions.
Where to Buy IOTA
IOTA can be bought in many different cryptocurrency platforms all over the internet and with many different trading pairs. We can mention Bitfinex (IOT/USD), Binance (IOTA/BTC), OKEx (IOTA/USDT), Coinone, Gate.io, HitBTC, Cobinhood, Coinfalcon, and more.
The IOTA Foundation
The IOTA Foundation was established in Germany as a formal non-profit organization that has been founded by Dominik Schiener and David Sonstebo.
The main intention behind the foundation is to research, develop, educate and standardize.
Research and secure the foundational protocol layer and create new knowledge to benefit the ecosystem behind the economy of things. Develop production-ready software for the community, partners and ecosystem. Educate and promote technologies and use cases for new generations to understand and ensure the Foundation’s success. Finally, standardise and ensure the maturity and adoption of the economy of things.
The Foundation receives funding in different ways: holdings of IOTA tokens from the community, unclaimed tokens form the initial crowdsale, grants from governments to perform research and development and donations from individuals or enterprises.
IOTA has an important team of professionals, which is also growing rapidly.
David Sonstebo is the co-chairman of the board of directors and founder of this project. He is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for any kind of technology that can push human progress forward.
Dominik Schiener is the co-chairman of the board of directors and founder. He is an entrepreneur from Italy, with a passion to drive change in society and business.
Ralf Rottmann, member board of directors. He is a serial entrepreneur that founded Alcatel-Lucent and co-founder of grandcentrix.
There are important developers and figures including Johann Jungwirth, Richard Soley, Rolf Wernern, Lewis Freiberg, Alon Gal, Edward Greve, John Licciardello, Julie Maupin, Wilfried Pimenta de Miranda, Dancy Camargo, Jakub Cech, Dyrell Chapman, Paul Douglas, Chris Dukakis, Alon Elmaliah, Paulo Finardi, Sabri Goldberg, Andrew Greve, Eric Hop, and many others.
Conclusion
IOTA is one of the most important technology projects available in the market right now. With its modern technology (and revolutionary) tangle, it aims to change the way IoT devices interact with each other. At the moment, an important amount of enterprises are working with this cryptocurrency, trying to leverage their services and products.