What is IOTA, what is IOTA coin, what is IOTA cryptocurrency, what is IOTA crypto - all these questions have only one definitive answer: IOTA is the future that's coming.
IOTA was launched in 2015 and funded with ICO. The primary purpose of the project was to integrate blockchain with the Internet of Things, maximizing the efficiency of the payments made between the IoT devices. Almost all of 2016 was dedicated to beta testing, and in 2017 it was finally ready to rock the world. By the fall of 2017, its budget exceeded $100 million, and by June, IOTA was listed on one of the largest global exchanges - Bitfinex.
IOTA is a revolutionary cryptocurrency and decentralized network created specifically to be compatible with the Internet of Things. It is unlike other projects or coins, and that makes it unique and somewhat promising. IOTA might be able to become the bridge between the economy as we know it and the economy that we want to have. It might be the link that ensures the development of smart enterprises and machines united in one network.
Using IOTA, you can automate the fulfillment of any smallest task in a network: turn off the lights or the faucet in the bathroom, turn on the AC or close your garage door. Thanks to these features, IOTA can be easily integrated into the Internet of Things.
How does it work?
IOTA is not like Bitcoin or Ether, since it does not use blockchain. This platform uses Tangle - the data structure at the heart of IOTA, which uses DAG (directed acyclic graph) instead of a blockchain to store its ledger. In the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain, everything relies on blocks, where transaction information is recorded. There are no blocks in Tangle IOTA, and transactions there are connected according to their special algorithm: each new transaction (let's call it A) confirms the two old ones (B and C). Verification can also occur indirectly: transaction D can confirm A and Z, but at the same time, it indirectly confirms B and C.
Such a system forms a whole web of verifications, which protects the network from double spending and makes it efficient. This way, the more transactions network has, the faster they are. There is no mining of IOTA coins. All coins were issued at the very beginning – about 2.8 trillion.