What is IOTA? 

• MIOTA is the token used to transact on IOTA’s distributed ledger. MIOTA cannot be mined or staked. There are no transaction fees, which enables different use cases.
• IOTA’s network, or The Tangle, is built on a directed acyclic graph (DAG). DAGs differ from blockchains by operating without the use of miners or blocks. They are scalable without the limitations of blockchains.
• IOTA currently offers three products:
  • IOTA Access: Build access control systems for connecting with the Internet of Things (IoT).
  • IOTA Streams: Data organizational tool ensuring integrity and authenticity. 
  • Firefly: Wallet software to manage and secure IOTA tokens.
• Nodes in the Tangle network confirm transactions. There are three versions:
  • Hornet: Lightweight implementation
  • Bee: Standard implementation
  • Chronicle.rs: Rust implementation

Key Metrics

Ticker	MIOTA
Token Name	IOTA
Token Type/Protocol	Directed Acyclic Graph
Total Token Supply	2,779,530,283
Current Circulating Supply	See Coinmarketcap
Market Capitalization	See Coinmarketcap
Token Creation Date	2015
Mining capability	No

Who is behind IOTA?

Dominik Schiener, Chairman of the Board of Directors & Co-Founder, is a serial entrepreneur. He has founded many companies and has a keen interest in governance solutions.

Serguei Popov, a Member Board of Directors & Co-Founder, is a mathematician and works in academia.

The IOTA Foundation is a global team. Clint Walker and Dr. Richard Soley are part of the supervisory board. Bill Buchanan, Mauro Conti, and Robert Shorten participate as part of the research council.

What is the purpose of IOTA?

IOTA is solving the issue of digital trust. Their goal is to be a pioneer in connecting the human and machine economies. IOTA seeks to be the pivotal infrastructure for the digital industrial revolution.

Insights:

• The IOTA Foundation is a non-profit organization overseeing the IOTA token.
• IOTA use cases can be seen in multiple industries:
  • Mobility & automotive: Cars are transforming into digital platforms with vast amounts of data. IOTA helps utilize the data for efficient payments, EV battery charging, and connectivity.
  • Global trade & supply chains: IOTA streamlines trade on a global scale, creating a trustless system between traders, governments, and businesses.
  • Customs & border management: The permissionless, distributed ledger technology allows customs agency and traders to seamlessly transact.
  • Digital identity: In order to transact in an ever-growing digital ecosystem, a digital identity provides greater security and ownership of one’s data. IOTA is creating an identity platform for individuals, institutions, and things.
  • Smart cities: IOTA partnered with Linux Foundation, Dell Technologies, ARM, IBM and others to create an open-source platform for managing hyperconnected cities.
  • Industrial Internet of things (IoT): IOTA created the Industry Marketplace. The neutral platform facilitates the trade of data, goods, and services.
  • eHealth: IOTA assists with the development of healthcare projects focused on insurance management, personal healthcare information, and health record management between institutions.
• IOTA has partnerships with Dell Technologies, Jaguar/Land Rover, Object Management Group, ClimateCHECK, and many others.
• MIOTA is a mega-IOTA, or 1 million IOTAs. MIOTAs support the higher volume and throughput on the network.
• Tangle is not a blockchain. Its consensus mechanism operates through a DAG. DAGs can confirm transactions based on the validation of two previous confirmations. The data is not structured into blocks, thus the transactions are much faster than a blockchain.
• Smart contracts are a layer 2 solution built on top of the network. Smart contracts allow for a decentralized, automatic execution of an agreement.

Risks:

• IOTA, like any cryptocurrency, is contingent upon how well-adopted it is. It serves multiple use cases in differing industries, all of which have competitors. As such, it has to carve out a piece of the market for itself and continue to improve in order to capture market share.

News and Updates:

• October 2021: IOTA launches a beta version for its smart contracts.
• April 2021: Chrysalis update released for fundamental changes to the IOTA protocol.
• The European Union (EU) has chosen IOTA to work on the EBSI’s blockchain project for its trustless flow of reliable data, on 27th October 2021. The EBSI was founded in 2019 to develop blockchain networks for individuals, businesses and governments.

Community & Whitepaper Links

Official Website: https://www.iota.org/ 
Whitepaper: https://docs.iota.org/ 

Disclaimer
*As cryptocurrency and digital tokens involve high risks, investors may lose all their investment money and should study information carefully, making investments according to their own risk profile.