A decentralized IOA 2.0 has been awaited for years. Development work now appears to be well advanced. Optimists are hoping for a test run of IOTA 2.0 in 2024 at the Shimmer side project (SMR).
A fundamental problem for IOTA is that the network still cannot manage without a central authority. Although the central coordinator was replaced by a committee last fall, this committee is controlled by the IOTA Foundation. This shortcoming of non-decentralization is to be solved by IOTA 2.0, which has been under development since 2016 at the latest under the project name “Coordicide”. ID.IOTA has analyzed the progress on X and summarizes it:
– According to this, IOTA Core as the node software for network points is ready to such an extent that a public testnet for “Coordicide” could be set up.
– However, an IOTA 2.0 also needs a wallet, an explorer, a software kit for developers (SDK), a virtual machine and other components in order to be fully operational.
– The developers apparently want to provide a complete package before inviting public tests with IOTA 2.0. IOTA.ID believes there is a good chance that work on this will be completed in the summer.
– The IOTA Foundation itself announced in December 2023 that a testnet would be available in Q1 2024 and that IOTA 2.0 would then be integrated into the Shimmer side project (SMR).
– Realistically, IOTA 2.0 may be possible for Shimmer this year – but experience with missed schedules, such as with the IOTA EVM, teaches us to remain very skeptical.
As an IOTA side project, Shimmer (SMR) is supposed to be the stage for technological innovations in the ecosystem, but has fallen into a continuous downward spiral and is currently trading lower than ever before in its history. Whether this can be a suitable environment for the large-scale IOTA 2.0 project is an open question.
Conclusion: IOTA and decentralization – a dream come true?
“Breakthroughs” in the development work on IOTA 2.0 have been reported time and again, but there have been no tangible results. At least the documentation of the development work, to which ID.IOTA mainly refers, allows the interpretation that public test runs for “Coordicide” are within reach this time. However, the foundation has squandered a lot of trust and IOTA’s price curve has stagnated, while Shimmer’s has crashed completely. To be honest: in this situation, even an IOTA 2.0 is not guaranteed to attract attention outside the die-hard community.
Leave a Reply