Myst
12th August 2017, 12:07
The block chain, a decentralized cryptographic ledger, is now being recognized as a disruptive new technology by the mainstream, possibly comparable in social impact to the internet itself. But does the first example of a new technology remain dominant? Usually, no.
The block chain as exemplified by Bitcoin has well-known limitations. Bitcoin can only process seven transactions per second and as such could never replace a centralized payment processor like MasterCard, not without allowing an impractical growth rate of transaction storage requirements. Also, Bitcoin uses vast amounts of electrical power to secure its Blockchain and so is decidedly not eco-friendly. These latter two limitations have lead to such large transaction fees that Bitcoin no longer supports micro-payments, one of its original promises. And then there is its vulnerability to quantum computer hacking, which could result in catastrophic failure.
Naturally, developers have been devising solutions to these problems. Some solutions, such as segwit, do little to address these problems, while introducing complexity and possibly vulnerability. Others, such as using proof-of-stake to eliminate the need for costly and wasteful mining, as first exemplified by the Next cryptocurrency, are substantial improvements.
But some developers, including the lead designer of Next, have been working for two years on a solution to all of the aforementioned limitations and may have achieved it in the form of IOTA (https://iota.org/). They wanted to apply block chains to the Internet of Things (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things) or IoT but quickly realized that it could never work. The envisioned billions or trillions of small autonomous, sometimes networked devices exchanging fee-less micropayments with one another, resistant to quantum hacking. Their solution is IOTA, which refers to Internet-of-Things but also something very small, namely the smallest unit of currency, one iota. (There is a fixed supply of 2,779,530,283,277,761 = (3^33-1)/2 iota coins, optimized for ternary computation.)
IOTA started trading on a big exchange only a month ago and very rapidly appeared among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap (currently number 7), and yet it is still not trading on any other major exchange nor is it discussed by the pundits, at least one of whom has stated that Bitcoin will continue to dominate cryptocurrencies indefinitely, even when we colonize other planets.
I worked on Next myself, contributing to development, around the time that Sergey Ivancheglo a.k.a BCNext a.k.a ComeFromBeyond was departing to work on his Jinn project, a ternary-based hardware implementation compatible with the IoT and now IOTA. He is very smart. The other three founders are very smart also (David Sønstebø, Dr. Serguei Popov, Dominik Schiener). They have good funding, are building a strong professional team, established a foundation located in Berlin, and have a strong community is behind them.
IOTA is still at an early stage of development, but as one redditor wrote: "When I found IOTA I felt like I did when I found Bitcoin in 2010." The block chain will probably continue to be used for some applications, but in time it may be surpassed if not rendered obsolete by the tangle:
https://vgy.me/ScIju3.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Babe7yiScNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM_XhH6N2zc
The block chain as exemplified by Bitcoin has well-known limitations. Bitcoin can only process seven transactions per second and as such could never replace a centralized payment processor like MasterCard, not without allowing an impractical growth rate of transaction storage requirements. Also, Bitcoin uses vast amounts of electrical power to secure its Blockchain and so is decidedly not eco-friendly. These latter two limitations have lead to such large transaction fees that Bitcoin no longer supports micro-payments, one of its original promises. And then there is its vulnerability to quantum computer hacking, which could result in catastrophic failure.
Naturally, developers have been devising solutions to these problems. Some solutions, such as segwit, do little to address these problems, while introducing complexity and possibly vulnerability. Others, such as using proof-of-stake to eliminate the need for costly and wasteful mining, as first exemplified by the Next cryptocurrency, are substantial improvements.
But some developers, including the lead designer of Next, have been working for two years on a solution to all of the aforementioned limitations and may have achieved it in the form of IOTA (https://iota.org/). They wanted to apply block chains to the Internet of Things (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things) or IoT but quickly realized that it could never work. The envisioned billions or trillions of small autonomous, sometimes networked devices exchanging fee-less micropayments with one another, resistant to quantum hacking. Their solution is IOTA, which refers to Internet-of-Things but also something very small, namely the smallest unit of currency, one iota. (There is a fixed supply of 2,779,530,283,277,761 = (3^33-1)/2 iota coins, optimized for ternary computation.)
IOTA started trading on a big exchange only a month ago and very rapidly appeared among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap (currently number 7), and yet it is still not trading on any other major exchange nor is it discussed by the pundits, at least one of whom has stated that Bitcoin will continue to dominate cryptocurrencies indefinitely, even when we colonize other planets.
I worked on Next myself, contributing to development, around the time that Sergey Ivancheglo a.k.a BCNext a.k.a ComeFromBeyond was departing to work on his Jinn project, a ternary-based hardware implementation compatible with the IoT and now IOTA. He is very smart. The other three founders are very smart also (David Sønstebø, Dr. Serguei Popov, Dominik Schiener). They have good funding, are building a strong professional team, established a foundation located in Berlin, and have a strong community is behind them.
IOTA is still at an early stage of development, but as one redditor wrote: "When I found IOTA I felt like I did when I found Bitcoin in 2010." The block chain will probably continue to be used for some applications, but in time it may be surpassed if not rendered obsolete by the tangle:
https://vgy.me/ScIju3.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Babe7yiScNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM_XhH6N2zc