A new token called IOTA has launched today, and already jumped to the 7th position in the market cap ranking.
That's an incredible rise within such a short amount of time, so that caught my attention and I (like many others probably) wondered what it was all about.
Since I have a series on my blog where I introduce new or especially interesting altcoins, I thought why not share it with the steemit community!
Overview
Name: IOTA (IOT)
Market cap: $1,503,892,6558 (Top 7)
Current price: around $0.541
Launched: 2015, Token Exchange Launch 2017
Mission Statement: "THE BACKBONE OF IOT IS HERE - Scalable, Decentralized, Modular, No Fees"
- Website -
What's so special about IOTA?
It's the first cryptocurrency without a blockchain, it runs on the blockless ditributed ledger Tangle.
"Iota is the first cryptocurrency without a blockchain. It uses the “Tangle”, which is based on DAG technology. In a traditional blockchain, various transactions are bundled in each block before this bundle of transactions is verified by miners. In the Tangle, every single transaction forms a new block and is essentially verified by itself: In order to successfully conduct a transaction, you first have to verify two randomly chosen transactions is the network. This is done with help of a very simple version of proof-of-work, therefore one could argue that transactions aren’t zero-cost. Yet, the transaction costs are essentially not existent, as the needed PoW is so low that every single device is able to independently carry it out."
Another very interesting benefit of IOTA is that it aims to have basically nonexistent fees.
This means that micropayments and data transactions are feasible as well as any other, larger transactions.
The tangle network also has no mining, no blocks and no difficulty.
And it's getting more efficient the more use it gets, so it can be mass-scaled for the world - unlike bitcoin.
Key features and Differences between IOTA and other cryptocurrencies
- IOTA is based on Tangle, a directed acylic graph (DAG), not on a Blockchain
- No transaction fees
- No mining, blocks or difficulty
- Scaling is possible almost infinitely
- Wants to enable machine economy, Internet of Things
- Led by the IOTA Foundation, an NGO registered in Germany
Exchange Launch on Bitfinex
Today, on June 13, the IOTA token first launched on Bitfinex.
In a matter of hours, it jumped to a Market cap of over $1.7 billion.
Bitfinex has followed IOTA since its earliest stages of development and supports the project’s innovative approach toward a blockless distributed ledger. We believe the underlying technology can lead to a new ecosystem of applications built upon this decentralized and self-regulating peer-to-peer network. (...)Several factors have gone into our decision when considering the addition of IOTA trading on Bitfinex. Some of these factors include user requests, market capitalization, design parameters, and a thorough assessment of the token’s development process; including the team behind the token, their strategies for solving technical and nontechnical problems, as well as addressing the scaling issues currently confronting traditional blockchain technologies.
-Bitfinex
IOTA Team
As excpected, the team behind IOTA consists of experienced developers.
The original founder is Norwegian David Sønstebø, who has been working with cryptocurrencies and several internet-of-things applications for years.
Co-founder of IOTA is Dominik Schiener, a dev who created a fully functioning public voting system for Ethereum and has coded many other projects, according to his Github profile.
Other team members include web-, mobile- and blockchain-developers as well as cryptocurrency specialists and enthusiasts from all over the world.
Conclusion
IOTA is a promising new token. Its blockless ledger makes it one of a kind, which is why I'm looking forward to seeing how IOTA will perform in the future.
Its revolutionary technology without a blockchain could impact traditional cryptocurrencies, so we'll see where this goes!
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
© Sirwinchester