IOTA (MIOTA), a smart contract platform redesigning the distributed ledger technology, has been on the surge lately. The platform gained popularity among crypto-investors due to its unique use-cases. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing, however, with one episode seeing it go offline for 11 days due to critical issues.
Many would argue though that its position isn’t any better today. In fact, IOTA was tanked 40th on CoinMarketCap, at press time. That being said, the project has been in the news lately thanks to ongoing developments in its ecosystem.
During a recent AMA session, IOTA Founders Dominik Schiener and David Sønstebø answered questions from Satoshi Street Bets’ sub-Reddit platform. The interview touched upon topics around IOTA’s development within its ecosystem, as well as plans for the network.
According to Dominik Schiener, the development of IOTA’s unique distributed ledger technology (DLT), Tangle, marked a major milestone within the network. It solved issues such as scalability, transaction fees, and network inclusivity. He added,
“Using the platform now brings the benefit of zero transaction fees along with other upcoming features such as smart contracts.”
Partnerships and Developments
Earlier this year, the project launched the much-anticipated IOTA 1.5. This release aided in simplifying network use and increasing transaction speed.
“What’s more, developments such as tokenization, NFT incorporation, and car e-wallets are underway,” Sønstebø replied when asked about it. Moreover, its full implementation is expected to lure more developers and investors to the network.
The Nectar DevNet launch has already laid the foundation for the release of IOTA 2.0 in late 2021.
The AMA session also touched upon Coordicide, along with IOTA 2.0. When asked about the progress of this major step before completion, Schiener responded by saying,
“It’s definitely more than 50% cause we’ve published peer-review papers and I can highly encourage all of you to look it up and the research that we’ve done .”
“We’re still working on the Coordicide project which restores decentralization,” he concluded.
The same will be launched as part of IOTA 2.0, although on an unspecified date. Currently, the platform is running a testnet without a Coordinator.
Plans going forward
Over the next few weeks, the network aims to incentivize the use of the IOTA 2.0 testnet to encourage user participation. Sønstebø opined,
“The road to IOTA 2.0 is over 50 percent complete. The IOTA team also plans to advance into the US and migrate its development fund to Switzerland for broad-spectrum project support.”
Needless to say, IOTA’s executives are still confident that such developments will fuel the growth of its native token. At press time, the latter was trading around the $1.54-mark following a market correction of 6% in 24 hours.
