IOTA has plans for seven new offices in locations around the world. IOTA will also host several virtual and physical hackathons throughout the year to encourage further development around the IOTA protocol. 2018 will see the implementation of a range of developments designed to optimize IOTA, with the goal of “reaching a production-ready state by the end of 2018 and begin the international standardization process together with the industry”. According to the blog post, “establishing proper structure and streamlined processes, as well as onboarding tens of new developers and other vital human resources, will be the No. Established in 2017, the foundation aims to ensure sufficient human resources and capacity to meet the demand for IOTA. However, some key goals for 2018 can be found in this 2018 preview published on the official IOTA blog, such as: Unfortunately, at the time of writing, IOTA’s next roadmap was still being prepared. One key way to determine what developments a company has in store for the future, and what impact those developments might have on a currency’s value, is to take a look at its roadmap. However, the effect of the scandal could have a long-term impact on widespread perception of the security of the platform. This claim was later debunked in a bombshell email leak, and at the time of writing, it appeared that IOTA was actually completely secure. In September 2017, the MIT-affiliated Digital Currency Initiative reported that it had uncovered a vulnerability in IOTA’s code.
Public perception of alleged security flaws. Being successfully listed on a wider range of exchanges could potentially increase the currency’s visibility and credibility, therefore driving demand. At the time of writing (2/27/18), MIOTA was only listed on a handful of cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, IOTA will need to compete with platforms like Ethereum and IoT Chain for market share moving forward. The ability of any new technology to achieve successful adoption will, in part, depend on how it stacks up against competitors. Whether or not the Tangle is ready for mainstream implementation and will be able to achieve a sufficient level of widespread adoption remains to be seen. The technology behind the IOTA platform is still in the early stages of development. According to the official blog post announcing the launch, the Ecosystem will be “a hub of education, innovation, tools, collaboration and development for the IOTA distributed ledger protocol”. In February 2018, IOTA announced the IOTA Ecosystem, a platform for developers, startups, hobbyists and initiatives around the world working on applications built on the IOTA core protocol. Make sure you consider the effects this could have on the supply/demand equation for this cryptocurrency in the future. The maximum supply of 2,779,530,283 MIOTA is already circulating (remember that 1 IOTA is the currency’s smallest divisible portion and 1 MIOTA = 1 million IOTA). Unlike many blockchains that are encountering issues with their slower transaction times and higher fees, the IOTA network is designed to be infinitely scalable. If IOTA can provide a successful alternative to the blockchain for IoT, there’s certainly a sizable market that could be tapped into. IOTA is designed as a platform for the Internet of Things (IoT), which is predicted to be worth $267 billion by 2020 and have 20.4 billion connected “things” by this same date. From web payments and remittances to smart cities, supply chain management and public transport, there are many potential real-world uses for IOTA technology. It has also partnered with the City of Taipei to give its citizens Tangle-based ID cards. IOTA has partnered with Volkswagen, Bosch, Samsung Group and a host of other big names in the corporate world.