IOTA (MIOTA) The year is 2017 and machines can communicate with each other. From the smart thermometers in our homes to fitness trackers on our phones, these devices can collect data and share this data with each other. This industry is at the heart of a new wave of industrial revolution and it’s expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. This system, however, needs a secure, reliable and fast payment platform for the machine-to-machine transactions.

This is what led David Sonstebo and a group of developers from Germany to develop IOTA in the year 2015. IOTA is a cryptocurrency that focuses on communication and payment between machines by providing lightweight, secure and free transactions that are carried out in real time. The IOTA Foundation which is behind its development is a non-profit organization which is committed to developing their technology to make IOTA easy to use and free for all developers.

IOTA has gone on to become the 9th most valuable digital currency with a market capitalization of $2 billion. It’s uniquely to become the next big thing in the digital currency space because of the following factors that set it apart:



1. Better Platform

Many liken IOTA’s platform to the normal blockchain but it’s much more than just that. IOTA is based on a directed acyclic graph (DAG) which is popularly referred to as Tangle. Tangle is a form of a more general blockchain which means that it can perform tasks that a normal blockchain can’t. It is much faster and reliable. IOTA also uses hash-based cryptography signatures which can’t be broken by brute force attacks by hackers unlike the normal cryptography applied by other currencies which makes IOTA much more secure. The hash-based signatures also contribute to the speed of transactions.



2. Zero Transaction Costs

The rise of digital currencies was largely boosted by the very low fees they charged for the transactions which made many switch from using banks to send money online. IOTA has however introduced the next level invention by introducing transactions that are absolutely free! This is made possible by the elimination of miners, who act as intermediaries in a blockchain and who verify the transactions over the network. These miners are the ones who receive a huge chunk of the transaction fees as block rewards. IOTA, however, uses the Tangle platform in which every new transaction forms a new block by itself. The user sending the transaction must verify two other random transactions before his gets validated. This creates a self-sufficient system in which every user works for the good of the community.



3. Offline Transactions

This is yet another unique feature that is supported by the use of Tangle. In the normal blockchain, every network participant must be fully synchronized in order to make a transaction. This is not so for users on the Tangle platform. The network is able to build clusters and facilitate transactions even when the user is offline. The nodes in the network can work independently and store all the information when offline and once the user is back online, the information is relayed to the main Tangle platform.



4. Ease of Scalability

With an increase in the acceptability and use of digital currencies, the ability to scale and accommodate the new users will be a defining factor in the success or failure of any currency. IOTA is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this with its platform being designed to be indefinitely scalable. As its competitors like Bitcoin and Ethereum struggle to cope with new users, IOTA will become the currency of choice for the dissatisfied clients.



With a very low price of $0.7, IOTA’s potential is unimaginable. The developers of IOTA have continuously held talks with the biggest Internet of Things (IOT) companies which have welcomed this currency as it’s uniquely designed for them. These companies have very large turnovers and their adoption of IOTA will drive its demand and price higher. This is the best time to invest in the currency of the future before its price shoots up. And it will.



