IOTA 2.0: All You Need to Know

By IOTA Foundation Last updated Mar 7, 2024

An Index of All Introductory Content for IOTA 2.0

TL;DR:

This page lists all content released since October 2023 as part of the introduction to the upcoming IOTA 2.0 protocol upgrade.

Taking place in 2024, the IOTA 2.0 protocol upgrade is a groundbreaking improvement for the IOTA network. First as a testnet in Q1 before moving onto Shimmer and finally IOTA mainnet, its enhancements include uninterrupted transaction processing during disruptions, swift and democratic consensus, increased decentralization, and robust security features. IOTA 2.0 also introduces diverse output types, sustainable tokenomics, feeless transactions for token holders, and advanced protection against MEV manipulation. Beyond technicalities, IOTA 2.0 encourages active and long-term engagement, offering rewards through staking or delegating tokens. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the past few months, we’ve introduced all aspects of IOA 2.0 across blog posts, Wiki articles, videos, presentations, and more. Together they are blueprints for a future where everyone can enjoy digital autonomy. We’ve listed them here as a convenient starting point for your exploration of IOTA 2.0.

Blog posts

The starting point for your journey into IOTA 2.0, our series of blog posts starts with the general vision behind IOTA 2.0 before addressing the architecture, consensus, and tokenomics of the protocol upgrade.

Part 1: Digital Autonomy for Everyone: The Future of IOTA. The vision behind IOTA 2.0.

Part 2: Five Principles: The Fundamentals That Every DLT Needs. The principles that informed the design of IOTA 2.0.

Part 3: Data Flow Explained: How Nodes Process Blocks. How each module of the IOTA 2.0 protocol interacts with the data you share with it.

Part 4: Data Structures Explained: The Building Blocks that Make the Tangle. The vital structures of IOTA 2.0 – blocks, slot commitments, and payloads.

Part 5: Accounts, Tokens, Mana and Staking. The key elements of IOTA 2.0’s tokenomics.

Part 6: A New Consensus Model: Nakamoto Consensus on a DAG: The consensus mechanism of IOTA 2.0, and how every participant can agree on what’s stored and valid in the ledger.

Part 7: Confirming Blocks: How Validators Operate. The role of validator nodes in the consensus mechanism, how they form and how they are rewarded.

Part 8: Congestion Control: Regulating Access in a Permissionless System. How IOTA 2.0 manages congestion and ensures fair throughput with predictable fees.

Part 9: Finality Explained: How Nodes Sync the Ledger. How slot commitment chains help achieve finality in IOTA 2.0 by synchronizing the ledger.

Part 10: An Obvious Choice: Why DAGs Over Blockchains? The benefits of a Directed Acyclic Graph architecture as opposed to traditional blockchain.

Part 11: What Makes IOTA 2.0 Secure? How IOTA 2.0 will secure the Tangle (the underlying data structure of the IOTA DLT) against attacks and exploitations.

Part 12: Dynamic Availability: Protocol-Based Assurances. IOTA 2.0 combines dynamic availability – where the network won’t halt even if a majority of nodes disconnect – with definite finality.

Part 13: Fair Tokenomics for all Token Holders. Why IOTA 2.0’s tokenomics is designed to be sustainable and predictable for all users.

Part 14: UTXO vs Accounts: Merging the Best of Both Worlds. IOTA 2.0 combines the best of the UTXO and Account models for digital asset ownership, especially tokens.

Part 15: No Mempool, No MEV: Protecting Users Against Value Extraction. How mempools enable Maximal Extractable Value in blockchains and how IOTA 2.0 circumvents this.

Part 16: Accessible Writing: Lowering the Barriers to Entry. How IOTA 2.0, enables its users to interact with the ledger without barriers.

Wiki articles

The ideas presented in the blog posts and videos can be explored in more detail on the IOTA Wiki.

Videos

Taking their cues from the blog posts, short, sharp videos deliver IOTA 2.0 ideas in a nutshell:

Q&As and presentations

With much of the introduction campaign out in front of the public, Billy Sanders, our Director of Research, took time out to explain how IOTA 2.0 will work live on our Discord channel – you can re-watch the video on our YouTube channel.

In a follow-up online Q&A session, also held on Discord, community members asked several questions to Billy as well as Andrew Cullen, Andrea Villa, Darcy Camargo, Nikita Polianskii, and Piotr Macek from our team of researchers and engineers. You can watch the video here or read the transcript here.

Finally, Dr. Olivia Saa, Senior Research scientist at the IOTA Foundation gives an overview of the incentives and tokenomics behind IOTA 2.0. You can follow up by looking through the Incentives and Tokenomics whitepaper itself here.

IOTA 2.0 in 2024

From foundational principles to consensus models, the educational material listed above provided our community with an understanding of IOTA 2.0. As we await the protocol’s implementation, first as testnet then in full on the mainnet, the introduction campaign serves as a practical roadmap for our journey towards a decentralized future.