The Internet of Things (IOT) is firmly here with us. Now we can communicate with our cars, home security systems, thermostats and even kitchen appliances through Internet-enabled apps and sensors. Seeing as this interconnection covers literally every element in our daily lives, it was not going to be long before someone introduced a financial aspect to the IOT. The cryptocurrency industry welcomed IOTA (MIOTA) with intrigue. They wondered how a digital, secure currency was going to work without a blockchain system. Well, it works using its own unique Tangle. While fairly complex to understand, IOTA simplifies altcoin transactions and investment because there are no blocks to mine and no transaction fees involved. While Satoshi is silent about it, Vitalik Buterin and Nick Johnson from Ethereum have both had something to say. Discover more below.

Twitter fight anyone?



Nick Johnson is the core developer at competing cryptocurrency Ethereum. He posted a literary piece expressing a negative opinion on IOTA and its Tangle mechanism. Posted on popular tech website Hackernoon, Nick indicated that he thought IOTA was nothing more than a hobbyist project gone large scale.



David Sonstebo, a co-founder of IOTA (MIOTA) did not take things lightly and he took to Twitter to strike back at Nick for the condescending post. The two technology visionaries had a good old-fashioned Twitter fight that gained some unexpected tag team partners and led to matters no one had seen coming.



Why the disagreement?



Sonstebo enthusiastically defended the Tangle system that is used in IOTA. He indicated that it has no blockchain, no transaction fees, no mining required and is scalable up to infinity. While the facts may seem to floor the blockchain system used in Ethereum, Nick was quick to fire back that Tangle is perfect on paper but impractical in a real-world situation. He indicated that it was bound to come across a host of problems that will inhibit its ability to provide solutions. Furthermore, he explained that IOTA may even be unable to facilitate secure, anonymous, digital commerce.



Nick’s two cents on IOTA



From his post, Nick said that IOTA cannot be applied in modern, basic computer systems. That’s because an overwhelming majority of computers around the world are binary while IOTA is ternary in nature.



He argued that IOTA ternary data has to be converted into binary to be processed in a basic computer system and then transformed once again into ternary when used for online transactions. This is bound to take up substantial processing power and create unwanted computing overhead. While his argument made sense, David stuck to his guns and bowed out. It seems he had a card up his sleeve.



IOTA endorsed by major technology companies



Hardly two months after the Twitter fight, IOTA announced that they had entered a partnership with Samsung, Microsoft, Fujitsu and Deutsche Telekom to create a data marketplace utilizing the Tangle system. The development was great for IOTA and Twitter users couldn’t resist poking fun at Nick’s earlier negative post about the new entry in the cryptocurrency industry. The users made posts indicating that if major tech corporations believed in IOTA, Nick must have been wrong.



Conclusion



The Twitter war continues with cryptocurrency enthusiasts and investors taking sides. Vitalik Buterin found himself defending Ethereum while Sonstebo and his co-founder Schiener are letting their professional progress do all the talking. Seeing as IOTA now has major corporate backing, it is safe to say that they appear to be winning.



