Our article from July 7, 2017, titled IOTA — The Winner Takes it All has been read, or at least seen by over 10,000 people thus far. Both the staggering pace of IOTA development and increasing amount of trolling regarding this breakthrough technology, IMO, warrants an in-depth update on IOTA. So here we are:
The Cutting Edge Research
St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University creates one of the most powerful super-computing centers in Russia based on a heterogeneous system with RSC direct liquid cooling and peak performance over 1.1 PetaFLOPS.
Super-computing IOTA
David Sønstebø one of the already legendary IOTA's Fantastic Four wrote: "IOTA is working with software titan Luxoft and a great team at the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University who possesses a 1.1 PetaFLOP supercomputer. We are utilizing this talent and these immense computational resources to research different scenarios and topologies of the IOTA Tangle in order to optimize the protocol and explore the full underlying potential of the technology in great depth."
A petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS) so a petaflop computer requires a massive number of computers working in parallel on the same problem. Applications might include real-time nuclear magnetic resonance imaging during surgery, astrophysical simulation or IOTA's Tangle topology.
If IOTA tech is valuable enough to justify speeding such a sheer amount of computational power on testing and research, judge for yourself what does it mean for IOTA and its future. The devil's in the detail, so when Sønstebø writes: "With confirmation of current results we can move towards standardization of the protocol itself," he's telling you that IOTA might be on the verge of real breakthrough regarding one of its key goals: IOTA as the standard protocol for IoT. (Internet of Things) This by itself is huge.
Real World Application -- Weather Node
The IOTA Weather Node is a Weather Station built with a Raspberry Pi and the add-on board Sense HAT . The Weather Station send and receive data over the IOTA Protocol.
The IOTA Weather Node waiting until a client send a transaction with >0 IOTAs and a message. (note the zero, 0 IOTA's. That's IOTA's feature that is basis of its data integrity related efforts) With the message the client tell the node what is his request and an address on which the node can send his answer. So can be send a command is arrived over the IOTA Protocol. After this he read the Weather info from the Sense HAT and send them back or just show a promotion on his 8x8 LED Matrix.
As our most valuable friend, Andrew Burger, writes, "New, innovative information-communications technologies (ICT) have emerged as key facets driving rapidly growing investment in and deployment of innovative solar energy technologies, business models and enterprising “green” energy organizations around the world."
I am kindly asking you to take a second and ponder this for a moment. From the weather node to the solar energy and IOTA Tangle that "could dramatically enhance the sharing of locally produced solar energy, thereby enhancing returns on investment for solar energy producers, lower and substantially reduce energy costs for consumers and yield benefits for society as a whole." IOTA is a mind-boggling protocol that can indeed change how the real world -- outside of Bitcoin bickering and crypto kindergarten squabbles -- functions.
Wireless network sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), new satellite remote sensing technology and low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) are all being used to optimize production and performance of solar energy installations. IOTA could serve as a protocol and the money for all sort of data and value exchanges in the vast IoT economy it powers.
David Cohen of the IOTA Foundation further elaborates: “Peer-to-peer energy sharing using DER (distributed energy resources) systems, including ‘solar plus storage,’ is part of a larger trend towards deployment and use of ‘transactive’ energy systems. IOTA provides a unique architecture that facilitates the micro-transactions that enable smart home and smart building nanogrids and microgrids to share and trade energy.” Such is IOTA's potential, best summarized in one word: ENORMOUS.
World Class Team Expansion
Remember, in contrast to Bitcoin blockchain, "IOTA Tangle platforms do not rely on a special class of virtual “miners” with the scale of computer resources required to profit from solving complex cryptographic computing problems in order to win the rights to process digital “blocks” of transactions on Bitcoin blockchain “proof of work” virtual transaction, recordkeeping and administrative ledgers," writes Andrew Burger of Energy Ventures in his Genuine Peer-to-Peer Processing Makes IOTA Tangle What Bitcoin Blockchains Should Be article.
As such, IOTA keeps attracting world-class experts in their respective fields. Glance at this roster of mind-blowing talent that joined IOTA since our last in-depth update:
Andreas C. Osowski, IOTA's team new member focusing on Rust implementation on IOTA had this to say: "The IoT space lacks a well defined solution for M2M payments and universal secure M2M communication. When I first heard about the IOTA project and read the whitepaper, I was very impressed by the well defined approach therein. The future goals and past successes of the IOTA project and IOTA Foundation are very promising and I look forward to helping lay the foundation for the future of secure and scalable M2M and M2H solutions."
Chris Dukakis, "is currently working on a soon to be announced Proof of Concept that showcases how IOTA can uniquely create new business models in the real world, as well as Hub IXI which lowers the barrier for exchanges to list IOTA significantly." <-- Note this bit, and assess for yourself how hugely important Hub IXI is, given almost hysterical noise regarding
IOTA and its acceptance to new crypto exchanges.
Alexander Renz, initiated SAP’s activities around the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2001 with the sponsorship of the MIT Auto-ID Center following a meeting with the CIO of Procter & Gamble, Steve David. Ponder this for a moment, IOTA has attracted an expert how has been in the IoT space for over a decade. Says Renz: "Ever since I worked on IoT and self-governing systems in the early 2000’s I have been fascinated with the notion of smart, connected things and autonomous, self-organizing systems. What was missing all along was a scalable and secure infrastructure to run such systems. I am excited about the potential of distributed ledger technologies and the breakthrough that is IOTA. I strongly believe that IOTA has the potential to become the backbone of the Internet of Things and the emerging Machine-to-Machine economy."
He than continues: "This is a great opportunity not only for the New Mobility ecosystem but all of us to play an active role in shaping the next generation Internet. Let’s create a future we all want to live in!”
IOTA's Real Life Integration
It is worth mentioning that one of the most interesting ongoing ICO's -- Modum.io -- a Swiss based company that "combines IoT sensors with blockchain technology to provide data integrity for transactions of physical products, streamlining supply chain processes in many sectors," has already utilized IOTA as one of the payment options for its ICO.
It is easy to imagine Modum would use IOTA protocol in its products and services.
Than comes my personal favorite, Julie Maupin.
Julie, a truly professional extraordinaire "currently sits on the Fintech advisory board of the German Ministry of Finance and the G20 Digital Economy Experts Task Force and is a resource person for the UN Internet Governance Forum. In addition to her appointment at Max Planck, she holds external research appointments with the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies." And now she's a part of the IOTA Foundation. Here's why, in her own words:
"Decentralized technologies today are presenting humanity with unprecedented opportunities to re-think the way we organize both our individual and collective lives. Everything is up for re-invention. From finance to social networking to democracy itself… there has never been a better time to be on the cutting edge. Thanks to its adherence to the golden rules of parsimony, modularity, and interoperability, IOTA has the potential to truly become the backbone of the Internet-of-Everything. Especially when considered in combination with parallel developments in artificial intelligence, the possibilities are staggering. I’m thrilled to be part of this budding community of pragmatic idealists. I look forward to contributing to the mission to ensure that IOTA develops in impactful ways that deliver broadly distributed benefits not just to the fortunate few, but especially to the many historically underserved segments of our planet’s amazing and diverse populations."
John Edge, a new IOTA Foundation member "is currently a fellow at MIT Connection Science, with a mission to unlock the trapped potential of the digital networks that surround us — from social media, to civic infrastructure systems, to enterprise databases that house and protect personal information."
This is is why John has joined IOTA, in his own words: "The transformation of telecommunications networks into transaction networks is not a new phenomenon, as per FIX protocols impact on capital markets. There are of course technology breakthroughs which create potential for change, however potential can only be turned into tangible value through organizations that are founded on purpose and know that success is predicated off diversity and collaboration. It is the purpose and action of the founders of IOTA, on top of the architecture of the underlying technology, that has attracted me to the organization and I look forward to working with the foundation to deliver on the clear potential of the protocol." (emphasis ours)
Lewis Freiberg's "passion for technology is complimented by his Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Melbourne. A unique perspective that he uses everyday when tackling usability and interface design in his work," and now this passion servers to further IOTA's staggering progress.
"I’m excited to help build decentralised technologies with the IOTA foundation. This technology has the potential to change commerce for the better and fundamentally shift how we interact with the world," says Lewis as he now works to enable the said change.
Last but not least, Jeremy Epstein, represents IOTA's leap toward the mainstream recognition of this exciting tech. Jeremy acts as the "lead advisor to IOTA’s marketing / adoption team who is ramping up efforts to bring the vision, opportunities and technology of IOTA to the mainstream."
Jeremy has 20 years of international marketing experience, with a primary focus on helping to bring disruptive technologies to mainstream audiences. Most recently, Jeremy was VP, Marketing at Sprinklr, a “unicorn” which grew from a $20 million valuation and 30 people to $1.8 billion valuation and 1400 people in 4 years.
Not convinced yet? Well, read on what the other people with some merit have to say about Jeremy:
Neeraj Agrawal, a partner at Battery Ventures and a perennial member of the Midas 100 said, “there only about 100–150 people in the world who have this type of experience.”
Today, according to Joel Monegro, the former lead blockchain analyst at top-tier VC firm, Union Square Ventures “Jeremy is the only person in the world going all-in on blockchain+marketing”.
Expect great things in IOTA marketing, IOTA's former weakness trolls never failed to point to.
The South Hemisphere, its American portion, of our pale blue dot does not neglect IOTA as well. Sergey Popov, one of the Fantastic Four and the author of the IOTA's seminal White Paper, brought the two bright Ph.D students to IOTA.
Olivia Saa and Paulo Finardi "will be working on their Ph.Ds under IOTA co-founder professor Serguei Popov’s supervision with the intention to optimize Tangle algorithms, as well as providing formal proofs of its game theoretic assumptions," writes David Sønstebø on IOTA Blog, a MUST READ for anyone seriously considering IOTA.
At this point I must thank David for his timely, exciting updates I used so extensively for this summary.
Many Possible Futures
Carsten Stöcker, yet another valuable member of IOTA Foundation ponders the future: "But for the next revolution in commerce, governance and social interaction we need to look up – about 100 miles up, into the low Earth orbit. There, falling prices for communication and earth monitoring satellites, along with blockchain-enabled security, will make everything from broadband communication to crop monitoring available not just to technology elites, but to the most remote farm, village or machine."
Can anyone honestly think Bitcoin blockchan has the tech flexibility, speed and affordability (think IOTA's no fees protocol) will conquer this space, pun intended?
A sharing economy in space
"A sharing economy in space means the distributed ownership of space assets and the data and communication services they produce. In this economy, satellites and their “products” would not only be owned by for-profit entities and governments, but by non-profit community groups, NGOs and individuals. They could even be “self-owned” by the assets."
To me, IOTA seems perfectly positioned to pioneer this exciting opportunity.
Price, Exchanges, Trolls and Some Misconceptions -- a Final Word
IOTA guys created this mind-boggling tech on a shoestring budget. In September of 2017 as ICO insanity goes rampant to the point of having Floyd Mayweather (!) and Paris Hilton (!!, yes, her...) involved in the crypto space their budget seems so tiny:
IOTA total supply is 2,779,530,283 Mi or 2779.530283 Ti. 1,337 BTC has been raised in total back there, during IOTA ICO. It has NOT been premined and the IOTA founders had to buy their own IOTA on the open market, as anyone else. Ponder that for another moment and compare with scams and greed prowling around crypto.
Trolls can safely be ignored. IOTA is real, they are just that, irrelevant little trolls spewing garbage daily.
Exchanges will come. Paul Handy now has help in Chris Dukakis, as they develop Hub.IXI and it would happen sooner or later.
The price? Scroll through all of the above and ask yourself, do you really have to worry about the IOTA's price on Bitfinex, on September 1st, 2017, 6:02 AM ET (New York time) that's at $0.6531. This now represents 6.17% of ETH market cap and a comical 2.53% of the BTC market cap. IOTA, at this prices has already started to produce future stories, akin to those of buying BTC at $1.00 or $100.00...