IOTA Eyes Big Crypto Leagues Again With Series of Network Boosting Plans
- IOTA developers plan to release a new ecosystem fund and a new blockchain that will support decentralized applications.
- These changes are supposed to boost the value of MIOTA tokens and improve network security.
- IOTA was one of the most-hyped and popular blockchains in the 2017 bull run, and developers plan to get it back on top.
A formerly major crypto project is eyeing the big leagues again with a series of decisions that benefit network development and token prices – years after fading out of popular circles.
IOTA, which was one of the most hyped and fastest-growing tokens in the 2017 bull market, has lost market share to newer blockchains in the past years. However, IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener told CoinDesk that the network is planning to release an IOTA 2.0 network and increase the utility of it’s MIOTA tokens in the coming months.
The key upcoming improvements are the introduction of an upgraded network, which will introduce smart contracts, a focus on layer 2 blockchains and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, the introduction of a new ecosystem fund, and an increase in the utility of iota tokens.
The new IOTA ecosystem fund will be backed by the vested release of new MIOTA tokens. The Stardust hard fork is planned for an Oct.4 release and will lay the technical bedrock for IOTA 2.0, which is planned to go live in Q4 of this year.
A hard fork is a change to a blockchain protocol that renders older versions invalid.
The IOTA smart contracts will be introduced through a general-purpose virtual machine (VM), or a piece of software that executes smart contracts. Applications built on IOTA through later smart contracts will generate significantly more demand for Mana, a reputation system for nodes within the IOTA network, which in turn will increase the demand for MIOTA.
“This self-sustaining economic system is key to increase the security of the IOTA network and in turn, to generate more demand for applications and layer 2 networks to build on IOTA,” an IOTA representative told CoinDesk.
