Cryptocurrency startup IOTA which was founded in 2015, has partnered with more than twenty companies to launch the first publicly accessible data marketplace for the Internet of Things (IoT).
The cryptocurrency aims to demonstrate a a concept for a tamper-proof data marketplace.
The marketplace is entirely powered by a distributed ledger, so data that has been uploaded to IOTA’s decentralized ledger are distributed to countless nodes in order to ensure immutability.
This allows stakeholders to share and monetize their data in a secure way.
At its initial state, IOTA that boasts a market cap of $2.95 billion, is the ninth biggest cryptocurrency by market share on Coin Market Cap.
What makes if different that other cryptocurrencies is that, IOTA uses a technique to distribute and decentralize its ledger.
Unlike standard blockchain technology, IOTA relies on a method it calls "Tangle". Contrary to blockchains, it uses Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) technology where consensus is no-longer decoupled but instead an intrinsic part of the system, leading to decentralized and self-regulating peer-to-peer network.
Using Machine Economy IOTA as the backbone. the Tangle ledger is able to settle transactions with zero fees so devices can "trade exact amounts of resources on-demand, as well as store data from sensors and dataloggers securely and verified on the ledger."
According to IOTA co-founders Dominik Schiener and David Sønstebø, besides free tansaction, Tangle is also lightweight and offers much better scaling opportunities.
"We are very excited to announce the launch of our data marketplace," said Sønstebø. "This will act as a catalyst for a whole new paradigm of research, artificial intelligence, and democratization of data."
