You may remember a couple weeks back when I posted about Hashgraph and DAGs.
For those of you who missed it, Here is a short recap:
Hashgraph technology is the product of the Swirld’s software platform.
Since the filming of that video, I learned that Swirld’s had actually licensed the aspect of their Hashgraph technology called “Gossip about Gossip”. Essentially rendering this technology unusable unless you pay up. So it’s not exactly open sourced (and quite frankly shows the true colors of Swirld’s).
Regardless, Hashgraph is what is called a DAG, or a Directed Acyclic Graph. Of course, there is a lot more that goes into this type of technology, but here is an image that I think sums up the differences at least in a visual way so you can get a very general idea how blockchains and DAGs differ.
(Source)
Check out this links in the description of this video for a more in-depth look at this new type of technology.
For those who have spent at least a little bit of time in the crypto space, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that people are searching for better ways to accomplish the same things that blockchains can.
It certainly isn’t inaccurate to say that blockchain technology was developed in an effort to circumvent the current financial system and all of those annoying middlemen.
The goal was always to bring decentralization to all and to finally empower individuals to take control of their wealth, to be their own bank.
But now, looking at the largest and arguably the most successfully crypto in regards to adoption, the one we all know as Bitcoin, we’re beginning to see this ideology taking the backseat. Mainly, there is no doubt a type of centralization occurring with the mining pools of Bitcoin. There are now a handful of companies who can control the transactions of Bitcoin.
The only reason there was room for this to happen is thanks to the inclusion of transaction fees as a way to motivate miners to participate in the network.
Despite Satoshi’s best efforts to invent a system that could undermine the greedy financial system as we know it today, because money is still being used as a motivator in this new system, and us still being humans that are running it, we are still vulnerable of our human condition, in this case, that is to be greedy.
We are always looking for fast transactions, low or no fees and complete decentralization. Many cryptos have these perks right now, but the issue that hangs over everyone’s head is that of scalability.
This is where IOTA can be a game changer, and here’s why.
IOTA uses a type of DAG that they are calling Tangle. In their system, if you want to participate in their network, if you want to make transactions on their network, you need to help.
For every transaction you’d like to submit on IOTAs Tangle, you will have to process two transactions from other users.
This shifts the motivating factor from extrinsic (that is only processing transactions for the sake of getting paid) to intrinsic (you help to secure the network so that you may also take part in it.)
This also means that the more users of this network, the faster the transactions will be confirmed.
IOTA has the potential to be completely decentralized, but for now, in its beginning stages, the network uses what you could call a bottleneck that they refer to as the “Coordinator.”
So for now, it hasn’t yet reached it’s ideal status of being completely decentralized.
That being said, there are some security concerns that have been voiced. One of the points has to do with a flaw in the custom hash function called Curl. Basically, instead of taking tried and true cryptographic primitives to build their system, the IOTA team decided to write their own hash function called Curl. Basically, this can open the door for vulnerabilities concerning the validation of transactions.
If you’d like to learn more about this concern and how the IOTA team has since addressed the issue you can always take a look at their blog. As always, links to this and additional information can be found in the description of this video.
Additional Reading/Sources:
IOTA Website
White Paper
IOTA GitHub
Great Blog Post by Roman Semko (1)
Great Blog Post by Roman Semko (2)
Overview of Hashgraph
Definition of DAGs
Blog on IOTA and Internet of Things
IOTA Tangle Security Concerns
IOTA Team Addresses Security Concerns
Thanks @heiditravels, always informative postings!
Soon people will wake up to the infinite scalability and fully decentralized powers of Bitshares, which has solved these problems years ago, by now. I'm so glad you have underlined IOTA's information as I have invested some into their crypto last week and didn't know much about them. Since then, you are the second person to inform me about this new crypto that has an amazing team and end goal. Thank you!
Namaste :)
Me too. I invested a very small amt into IOTA. That makes me want to understand and follow it. Thanks Heidi for your explanation.
Good comments.
Thanks! Namaste :)
@heiditravels super interesting post, thanks I needed to read more about IOTA and that's def a start!
It's a pretty cool project. I have to say that I really like their philosophy and motivations.
I am a kinda newbie so I need to read some of your old posts to find more also about other coins. Thank u @heiditravels keep up the good work! :D
Sweet! Welcome to the Rabbit Hole ;)
Nice to see you again.I feel like it is a great project with a bright future. Thank you for sharing it and keep the good work up!
Thanks @hanen :)
Thanks
@heiditravels that was a great point about even a brilliant designer having a difficulty getting around human's natural greedy tendency.
Hi is there any platforms where I can buy IOTA for £ ?
Hi @heiditravels Anidel here 19 y/o, from the Philippines. Thanks for sharing that very informative post. I am sure a lot of people will be excited to learn more both DAG. To add to your post I would like to inform everyone that there are 2 other cryptocurrencies that use DAG technology. There is the Byteball and the Dagcoin. There will be 4th one soon when paragoncoin switches from an ethereum based token to an IOTA base token. I might write about them soon. Again thank for sharing your information and Stay being awesome. I am a fan of yours.
Awesome! Thank you for supplementing. What are your thoughts on Dagcoin? I heard it is similar to the scam Onecoin, but haven't yet had the chance to look into that claim.
@heiditravels I've invested some money on Dagcoin through an MLM called daguniversity. Yes a lot of people who were proponents of Onecoin is also in dagcoin. The thing is Onecoin never had a crypto under development where as the developers of Dagcoin sought out MLM companies to market their cryptocurrency. They (Dagcoin developer and MLM company) are leveraging each other comparative advantages.
The developers of Dagcoin are from Estonia from what i've gathered. Great place very friendly to cryptocurrency in general. It also host one of my favorite cloud mining site called HashFlare. I would love it if you can feature Estonia in one of you videos. I think they're awesome. They are the first country in world that offers E-residency you can find more information here: https://e-resident.gov.ee/ . There were even news about having their own national cryptocurrency.
Anyway going back to Dagcoin I think they will be in exchanges on Feb. 2018. I just hope it does and not turned into another scam coin like Onecoin.
Hmm. I'd been wondering about IOTA. Currently I'd say it's one of the currencies that is the most worth invested in (along with EOS and Steem).
I have a question: what currencies do you think are worth investing in (for example, would you/have you invested in IOTA?).
I think that, for now, these currencies will always move towards centralization because companies with resources will always have some inherent advantage and strong motivation to take adavantage as much as possible. For now, it's all about the rate at which it moves towards centralization, although I expect this to (hopefully) start changing. Maybe currencies like IOTA are at the very beginning of this trend.
Great post!
Usfull artical tnx @heiditravels
Por eso no estoy de acuerdo con los hard fork, cuando crean estos derivados del Bitcoin lo único que hacen es especular y la descentralización, se pierde.
Great video. I invested in IOTA months ago. I think this is a very good project, with a good technology, and a great potential!
Nice read!
I am sad to say that I sold my IOTA for EOS last night just to get that OUT of Bitfinex before they run with everyones money.
Cant wait for IOTA to be on more exchanges.
Yeah the IOTA up to 15%
Thank you. Iota is quite intriguing indeed, no fees, micro transactions shaped for IoT... Can become huge.
Also I really like that you posted a sum up of your video content so that we can read it!
Although I think this all part of the internet of things new world order and I hope it crashes and burns, right now I'm picking it to rise and would like to do a short term investment to make some profits to invest in non new world order cryptos later (like I've been doing with Goldman Sachs Bitcoin, and I'm starting to feel like Elliot in Mr Robot) - but how on earth do you buy it?
Here's a link that shows the exchanges that support MIOTA: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iota/#markets
Many thanks, I'll have another try - I think your post may have just put the price up!
Thanks
Nice
I have given you the apology. Please give me the feedback https://steemit.com/@monirol-islam
viewed, voted, commented, and re-steemed ...
anyone follows me i'll follow back within a few days
I like the idea of more users --> faster transactions, as opposed to more users --> slower transactions. Until now I have just accepted Satoshis idea of proof of work (inspired by hashcash?), but today I read through the original Bitcoin whitepaper to find answers, but it still left me wondering if there wasn't a better option out there. I'm excitet to see what will become of Iota. Upvote!
Brilliant exciting put up, thank you I needed to examine extra approximately IOTA and that is def a start!
nice post, but over my head haha
Useful writing. Thanks for sharing information.
But what's a reliable wallet? Please don't tell me it's another app!
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Hi, I saw your video on youtube the other day..and straight away shared it on my blog which is steemit too.. sorry for that doing it without your informing 1st. Any way you are amazing Thanks
Thank you. I have always been worried about the issue of true decentralization and was aware of the centralization occurring with the mining pools of Bitcoin with the risk of even exchange manipulation. Right in it's first decade development of digital currencies reading your post is a bright light in what to me was already the beginning of the end. Salute IOTA!
Good explanation
Thanks for sharing!
@avellana
You've created a crypto monster! Instead of getting out and about and exploring the world with just me and my camera I'm about to read my first white paper! Must.....switch......off........must........explore........real.........world! Do you think I can download the white paper onto my Kindle?
best post