Could IOTA be the next bitcoin? IOTA, the Internet-of-Things Application, is a form of cryptocurrency that has been around since 2012. So why are you only hearing about this now? Well, just recently, IOTA has taken off and surged to number 5 in cryptocurrency trading volume (the amount of something traded), and M(IOTA), or one-million IOTA, has hit $4.50 against the US Dollar. The main reason for this surge was a recently announced partnership with Microsoft, but also the Bitcoin craze helping it along - but the partnership really did more for them.
So why is IOTA better? What makes IOTA different from other cryptos is that it not only removes any central authority, but it also removes any third-party miners who need to verify transactions. Instead, there is a pre-determined amount of currency in the system, which was optimized to SI units, and for every transaction, which are stored in a ledger called the Tangle, a device will have to verify two other transactions with a small Proof-of-Work, which is a series of simple mathematical calculations that any computer/mobile device can solve. The system also allows for lots of microtransactions and increased speed of transactions. The more transactions are made, the quicker they are verified, and the faster they go through. And with IOTA being much more stable than other cryptocurrencies, it could be a benchmark for the stable currency that people are looking to mount, instead of using cryptocurrencies as an investment.
And with IOTA themselves supposedly releasing a much needed new graphical user interface to their wallet, improving network stability, and fixing other bugs, it seems as if IOTA might just take off.