IOTA had announced the integration of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for Q1 2024. But instead, a soft launch is now taking place that could drag on for a long time. Are IOTA’s expectations too high again?
IOTA Foundation CEO Dominik Schiener has been trying for months to spread a sense of optimism. The opening of an IOTA office in Abu Dhabi at the end of last year was intended to send a signal, as was the activation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). But once again, the big IOTA plans have come to a standstill. This is because the EVM project has missed its announced launch date. In November, the IOTA Foundation promised via X that the EVM would go live in Q1 2024, opening doors to decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming and dapps.
The second quarter has now begun and the latest status report on the IOTA EVM sounds sobering. Phylo from the IOTA Foundation lists around half a dozen details that still need to be completed in terms of EVM, including a modern wallet, index providers and oracle services. Although the IOTA EVM is already live, it is neither open to normal users nor fully functional. It is hoped that people will realize that the launch of an EVM with a functioning ecosystem and usable apps is not something that happens in a few days. “That’s why we call it a soft launch,” is the IOTA Foundation’s current choice of words.
However, observers are wondering why the IOTA Foundation had high expectations for EVM and then canceled the schedule. EVM is a widely used standard module in the crypto industry and is already live in more than 150 projects. IOTA had already launched the EVM in 2023 with the side project Shimmer (SMR), but met with little response. In terms of technology and content, IOTA already had experience plus more than four months of preparation time. It has not yet been decided when the EVM will become a reality at IOTA. An accompanying marketing campaign is planned, the launch of which has not yet been scheduled.
Conclusion: IOTA without momentum – can EVM solve problems?
One challenge for IOTA is obviously to inspire external projects that feed the EVM with ideas and applications. The aim is to prevent a false start for the IOTA EVM, but patience is wearing thin. This is because the history of IOTA is repeatedly accompanied by promises that cannot be kept. For example, the prominent personnel reinforcement that Schiener had announced for the IOTA Foundation has also not materialized for months. With such external communication, the foundation under Schiener is damaging trust and not doing itself any favors.
Leave a Reply