The IOTA network is seeing a lot of activity lately with some major updates on the way. In the November Standardization Update, IOTA also announced the agenda for the upcoming December Quarterly Meeting.
In the last Object Management Group (OMG) meeting, the platform noted that it advanced several distributed ledger-related (DLT) initiatives. On 10 November, the IOTA Foundation had released the IOTA Smart Contracts (ISC) Whitepaper as part of DLT standardization.
As far as IOTA 2.0 is concerned, the blog noted that decentralized IOTA Protocol might soon be ready for the Request For Comment (RFC) process.
In October, the beta version of the smart contracts was made available by IOTA on 2.0 DevNet. Soon after, it also announced the incorporation of a multi-asset multiverse.
In a previous interview, co-founder Dominik Schiener had said that he envisions fully upgrading the IOTA 2.0 network before the end of 2021. But before IOTA 2.0 hits the mainnet, he wanted smart contracts on it.
In December, IOTA is aiming to present and finalize the Smart Contracts information and publish it the following year. The blog noted that the Request for Information (RFI) covers a wide range of business, legal and technology-oriented questions for further development.
Meanwhile, IOTA is also soliciting responses on Linked Encrypted Transaction Streams (LETS) Request for Proposal (RFP). The proposed standard for creating streams of linked messages is expected to go under review in the December meeting. Moving forward, the team stated,
“At the OMG our first major submission, the LETS RFP Response, is on track for the current quarter.”
Furthermore,
“The OMG Blockchain Platform SIG continues to explore other potential areas for standardization in the DLT space.”
This can essentially include features like DAOs and NFTs. Additionally, IOTA noted that the Finance Domain Task Force (DTF) has ‘been working on an RFI for digital currencies, including but not limited to cryptocurrencies.’
What’s next for the IOTA network
According to the IOTA Roadmap, native asset support and cross-chain communication is next for release under Extended EVM & Solidity Support. And of course, with the big goal of mainnet release.
The blog noted that the current progress at the IOTA Foundation on the IOTA 2.0 consensus mechanisms is looking strong.
