IOTA: Next big thing or vaporware?
IOTA: Next big thing or vaporware?
Some months ago, the whole crypto scene wondered about the crazy rocket which IOTA had launched in terms of price (more than 5 dollars worth at the time). But now we are struggling with one dollar. So is this coin any good? I shall argue that it is absolutely worth buying and that it has increased its value — even though the price has dropped.
I. The team
I have been around the crypto scene since 2013 and I have to say that I have never seen a team around a project such as this. Everyone who has worked with them is impressed by the way they do their work; even Jesse Babbra said after leaving the team:
Ralf Rottmann, who co-founded Germany’s largest system integrator for IoT/ IIoT/Smart Products and is one of the newest members of the IOTA Foundation, has put it this way:
The focus has always remained the same:
Unfortunately, the new website with an overview of the whole IOTA Foundation has not yet been released; the Foundation is hiring a lot of developers at the moment so it can be hard to keep track of the people working for IOTA. This is why I have written about some of the more than 40 persons working for and advising IOTA:
Rolf Werner, Head of Europe at Fujitsu
Johann Jungwirth, CDO at Volkswagen
Johann Jungwirth @JohannJungwirth
@DavidSonstebo & @DomSchiener I am looking forward to start serving on the Supervisory Board of the IOTA Foundation. Great work @iotatoken!
Julie Maupin, Board member of the Fintech Advisory Board of the German Ministry of Finance and the G20 Digital Economy Experts Task Force, as well as a resource person for the UN Internet Governance Forum
You should read this article about her.
Gur Huberman, Robert G. Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance at Columbia Business Schoo
Welcome Gur Huberman to the IOTA Foundation
Oliver Bussmann, President of Crypto Valley Association and Ex-CIO at UBS, held top tech jobs at companies such as IBM and Deutsche Bank
Excited to join the @iotatoken
Ex-CIO of UBS has joined the non-profit behind one of the largest cryptocurrencies https://buff.ly/2x11CQ3
II. The Future
The IOTA community is currently waiting for announcements among which the following play an important role (and thus will also affect IOTA’s value):
- Q (one of the — if not THE- most important projects for IOTA (according to David Sonstebo; due soon (yet there had been delays in the past, we’ll see)
- new homepage (completely redesigned, much information, new roadmap etc.; due in April)
- Trinity (new wallet which is supposed to be the best on the market plus security audited; due in May)
- basically all of the big exchanges listing IOTA (due very soon once IXI Hub is released, which is an extension making it easy for exchanges to list IOTA)
- marketplace (the experiences of the first round’s collaborators will be made public, more persons and companies will gain access; due soon)
- hardware (IoT chips specifically designed for IOTA; no ETA yet)
- Come-from-Beyond’s 1000th tweet (he is the inventor of NXT and one of the “founding fathers” of IOTA)
However, there are also many meetings lined up which will be important for IOTA’s next steps:
Live auf der #Huawei Channel Konferenz 2018 in Frankfurt: @DomSchiener mit “Beyond the Blockchain, into the Machine Economy with IOTA” – Jetzt anmelden: https://goo.gl/cfj8XR
Very happy to have you on our Berlin stage @DomSchiener @iotatoken
What is the best thing as a entrepreneur in a city like Berlin?#TEDx #TEDxMauerpark #Berlin #Saggyboobsmatter #TEDTalk #TEDSpeaker
Always felt vein scanning is the most secure biometric, good choice. https://twitter.com/i_am_pass/status/979807747402289159 …
Dr. Rolf Werner shows #Bavarian minister of state Franz-Josef #Pschierer a real #I40 showcase which is powered by the new #INTELLIEDGE device, enables #secure #IoT and can be connected to the @iotatoken. #Fujitsu is looking forward to show #Industry40 cases on the #HM18
Looking forward to present in #Oslo at the Oslo Cancer Cluster event together with @wilfriedpimenta and Navin Ramachandran.#IOTA #cybersecurity #Atos #cryptocurrency https://lnkd.in/gF92J3e https://lnkd.in/gghhN2Z
RBVC and Friends: IOTA Meetup at Bosch Venture Capital — “We were delighted to host […] German industry such as BMW, EnBW, Ernst&Young, LBBW, MAHLE, Porsche, Trumpf, Vector, VW and Vito Ventures. The main topic of the event was RBVC’s recent IOTA investment.” …
IOTA’s expert @JensLundNielsen is joining a strong panel on Blockchain meets Supply Chains. Thanks to Government Blockchain Association for hosting the event on April 19th in London. https://lnkd.in/ejJZx_N https://lnkd.in/grkYFfS
Startup Autobahn picked #IOTA among other tech startups to work on an innovation platform for mobility. The corporate partners are shown in the image below.
Link: http://www.startup-autobahn.com/en/#partners
IOTA selected by Tokyo Metropolitan Government Program https://blog.iota.org/iota-selected-by-tokyo-metropolitan-government-program-fde6b34ddc16 …#IOTA
Again, these are just some examples of what is going on — there will be alot more in the coming weeks and months.
Like it or not, this alone shows that IOTA has achieved a prominence in the industry which cannot be ignored anymore.
III. The already working projects
IOTA’s goal is to be production-ready by the end of 2018. Already now, many projects are under way, some of which you can see here:
It might be a important project that we will work with Taiwan AI Labs to transform the #PTT(kinda like Reddit, the no1. Social media in Taiwan) to the #TangleMedia & #TangleID which all based on the @iotatoken . A high DAU social media on #BlockChainhttps://ailabs.tw/smart-city/ptt-ai-using-blockchain-for-ai-data-justice/ …
Welcome #QQAQ to the Lab. The Air quality prediction by using AI & #Blockchain based on @iotatoken
Put the prediction data onto @iotatoken APIs by @biilabsrocks https://dlt.csie.ncku.edu.tw/ #AirQuality #pm2komma5
#Fujitsu will introduce the #IOTA technology with a Live-Demo at the largest industrial fair in the world “Hannover Messe Industrie” in #Germany, April 23 – 27, 2018. #Industry40 #IoT #blockchain #AI @kaipasing @Fujitsu_DE @DomSchiener @DavidSonstebo https://t.co/X8C8xt96RH
— IOTA News (@iotatokennews) 21. März 2018
The team of researchers at @InnopolisU working on #IOTA use case in Electric Autonomous Vehicle charging! Paper describing our vision is out: https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.00658 . It is an ongoing project! #IoT #InternetOfThings @iotatoken @DomSchiener @DavidSonstebo @iotatokennews
You think #blockchain will revolutionize the #IIoT? Then you need to know about the #Tangle and @iotatoken. Apply now for Hiwi/master thesis/PhD/PostD @DanielTrauth. Join us and lets build the first industrial use case @RWTH. @digitalHUBac @Aachen2025 @kevrchen @DomSchiener #IOTA
Hardware Wallet #IOTA implementation finally working on @arduino like #ESP32 microprocessor with WiFi, can fetch balance, attach valid transactions to mainnet – pure C++ implementation, ultra fast ! #IoT #DLT #arduinohttps://thetangle.org/transaction/LCMVLKIMXGQEOWIQSHPNYXYDWCSUASQPSZEDNXPGDKGEZWVT9QZYBMQBLZDTBNHNLTUOQSNDSRVLA9999 …
#IOTA TipBot just went live on our Discord. Check it out: https://medium.com/@TobiMZ/the-iotipbot-51f6528ce64b … Fantastic work team.
How ElaadNL built a PoC chargestation running on #IOTA https://www.elaad.nl/news/how-elaadnl-built-a-poc-charge-station-running-fully-on-iota-and-iota-only/ …
Always felt vein scanning is the most secure biometric, good choice. https://twitter.com/i_am_pass/status/979807747402289159 …
IV. The tech and its usecases
Of course, partnerships and good people are not enough — the product itself must be good! Despite some allegations, IOTA’s code has not been hacked so far and no funds have been hacked accordingly (yet some people were hacked after using phishy seed-generator websites) Here are some usecases:
IOTA Use Case Concept: Save your important documents #IOTA pic.twitter.com/TJhWQ5WRx2
— Sabri Goldberg (@sabrigoldberg) 8. April 2018
Keep in mind that this can be achieved without any mining rigs (and the corresponding electricity waste), without fees and in a network which gets faster the more people (and companies) use it (as opposed to basically any other crypto out there which get slower in the same case).
Final thoughts
Yes, there have been delays.
Any yes, the communication was sometimes not really good.
But looking at the people at the IOTA Foundation and their skills and experience,
looking at how the team works 24/7,
looking at their goals and what IOTA is being made for,
looking at the working PoCs and projects,
looking at new exchanges and volumes soon,
looking at the companies involved (make sure you know what BOSCH (and thus the partnership with IOTA) is about in terms of IoT),
and considering the fact that the team has always delivered (even if sometimes delayed), I am really looking forward to what is going to happen in 2018 and beyond to IOTA. There are reasons for the delays which we have seen so far; one of the Discord community members has put it this way:
Julie Maupin also pointed at the restructuring of the Foundation which has cost time but which will ultimately pay out:
