IOTA, the biggest thing since Ethereum
I've been reading a lot about IOTA lately and am convinced it's going to be huge, for a couple reasons.
It's based on an entirely new technology. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are based on the blockchain and have a different (and maybe not really competing) function, IOTA is based on an entirely (or mostly) new concept, the tangle. A tangle is a distributed ledger, but the structure is totally different, much more organic, versatile and adaptive than a blockchain. Less store of value and more medium of exchange. It's more unproven than many projects which are layered on top of Ethereum, but also has a ton of revolutionary potential.
They have a working product, unlike many projects.
There is a real world use case: the Internet of Things. Whether or not IOTA can capitalize on it is a different discussion, but there is no doubt in my mind that the Internet of Things is going to be enormous. The timing of the adoption curve of smart refrigerators, cars and lightbulbs is unclear but I do think we'll move inevitably towards more distributed, more autonomous computing in more devices. A tangle seems better suited to those use cases because its proof of work is much lighter, serves a different function, and doesn't require parsing the entire history of the currency to verify micro account balances.
Superficially, the name is perfect: succinct, suited to the target (IoT), and a clever double meaning.
It's still super cheap and off it's highest price. Most of the cryptocurrency space is still pretty speculative, but I think this is a pretty good wager.
There are a shitload of people working on it, both on staff and crowdsourced. Again, unlike many projects. Check their Slack, there are a ton of people building it out and helping people get onboarded.
The whitepaper is extremely technical, unlike many projects.
It's supposedly somewhat quantum resistant. Unfortunately I don't fully understand it yet but with quantum computers FAR outpacing Moore's law (2000qubits just announced for next year, vs 16qubits in May2017) this is going to be relevant very soon. At least as relates to SHA256. Hmm... I wonder what other parts of the Internet that'll affect...
Wow. That's a big statement.
I own IOTA since it was 25-40 cents and am glad to see it's increase. Like you I saw it's potential but I do have concerns on it's actual real use cases.
Yes the "IoT" is going to be big... but we are already living in a IoT world and there is not much of a need for microtransactions. Especially one that couldn't just be billed to someone's credit.
I think for it to succeed everything is going to have to accept it as the industry standard... if not then it will be worthless.
@cryptoindex I disagree; we have barely scratched the surface of IOT. It's starting but "saying not much need" might as well be the same as saying: no way the internet will be a big thing.
examples where microtransactions will be useful for: automatic purchase of finished groceries in your fridge, automatic transfer of finances when you resale a used durable good in sync with the durable good, taxi or meal-sharing apps where everyone shares the cost, in-app/in-game purchases that are very small in denomination, sale of digital goods without an app store - imagine selling a 3d render you created, paying the tiny amount for the electricity used while charging a phone at the airport etc etc etc...the list is endless.
If IOTA does this right it could be huge...
The tech still feels very beta but that makes me excited for the future. It can only becomes better. I see that another 'no fees' token is gaining a lot of traction lately: RaiBlocks.
The concepts of 'no fees' and 'no blockchain' are gaining ground.
I agree that IOTA is the biggest thing since Ethereum, I think technology wise it's even bigger. Just about all altcoins are copies of Bitcoin that have been modified in some way, they all use a blockchain, they all have scaling limitations, most of them have fees to send transactions. The technology behind IOTA and the tangle system they have created is phenomenal, limitless scale-ability and zero transaction fees make it the most advanced cryptocurrency yet... It's Bitcoin 2.0