- 10 years after IOTA was launched, it is worth taking a look at a project that was started with great ambitions. When the developers introduced the Tangle in 2015, it looked as if IOTA would turn the blockchain world on its head.
- Instead of classic blocks and miners, there was a directed, acyclic graph that was supposed to enable transactions without fees, with high scalability and minimal energy consumption.
It was the infrastructure for the Internet of Things that allows millions of small devices to communicate with each other without fees or technical bottlenecks getting in the way.
In the following years, IOTA has actually made remarkable technical progress. With Chrysalis, the network was fundamentally modernized in 2021. Shimmer now serves as an innovation platform, and smart contract features have been gradually integrated.
A lot has been achieved
At the same time, the team has been working for years on the so-called Coordicide, the transition to a completely decentralized network without a central coordinator. This step is considered crucial to making the original vision a reality.
But the path was rocky. The coordinator, which was supposed to be only a temporary solution, remained in place for much longer than announced and led to ongoing criticism of the lack of decentralization.
Security issues, particularly the 2020 wallet incident, shook the trust of many customers. Critical project milestones were also postponed several times, so that the project did not live up to its own requirements.
Meanwhile, other networks were catching up technologically and economically – such as Ethereum, Solana and Polkadot – or even overtaking them.
And there is still a lot to do
Nevertheless, the project has remained relevant in the industrial environment. IOTA collaborations with companies like Bosch, participation in EU projects and pilot applications in smart city contexts show that the project is still being taken seriously.
However, it remains unclear how many of these initiatives will go beyond the pilot stage and how much actual benefit will be achieved in everyday life. The big breakthrough in the mass market has not yet occurred.
The market development also shows this. The IOTA token was once one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies, but has lost significant ground over the years. The IOTA community remains active and loyal, but the market considers the risk to be high and competition is strong.
Whether IOTA can be called a success after ten years depends on the perspective. If you look at the technical innovative strength, the endurance of the project and the ability to remain innovative despite setbacks, you can certainly speak of a success.
However, anyone who focuses on the original promises, the delays, the lack of widespread implementation and the still incomplete decentralization will critically put the success into perspective.
Success prevails and the Tangle continues
The fact is: IOTA is neither a completely failed project nor a completely successful project. It remains one of the crypto industry’s most promising concrete experiments, a project whose final evaluation will only be possible once Coordicide has either succeeded or failed.
IOTA remains a symbol of ambitious innovation, but also of the challenges that arise when vision and reality are not close enough together. It looks like both of them are getting closer to each other.
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