Hi my Steemit friends, first off, I will like to wish all my American friends south of the border a Happy Independence day and I hope that you all enjoyed a great July 4th Independence day celebration today (well technically it is the day after...but you know what I am mean!)
So Happy Independence day!
We celebrated ours on July 1st here in Canada and it was an awesome time. I took my 2 daughters (5 and 1 years old) to our local park where there was festivities including a great fireworks show,
Independence day celebrations are not the reason for this post however, they set a great stage for my post topic today as we are kinda in the "Wild Wild West" of crypto-currency now and it seems that everyday there is a new kid in town. Most of these new kids in town are pump and dump schemes and we all can recognize the scam when we see it... at least I hope.
But every once in a while there is one of those new kids in town that demands attention. That was what happened when Ethereum showed up, when STEEM showed up, when Ripple showed up, when DASH showed up and now I believe there is a new kid that is worthy of that attention.
So the new kid in town that I discovered somewhat by accident is IOTA.
Now this is a cryptocurrency like no other because it is the first fee-less crypto-currency. Indeed I am sure everyone here is familiar with the concept of the blockchain and the fact that people who keep nodes running support a crypto-currency network and one of the ways that these node operators get compensated is the fees that the network charges for doing transactions like transfers. Albeit minimal compared to the fees that you pay on something like the VISA network, crypto-currency network still charge fees...at least until IOTA showed up.
From my understanding, the reason and the way that IOTA is able to do this is that they invented a whole new decentralized ledger system that they call TANGLE.
From my understanding, TANGLE is not a blockchain but rather a distributed ledger that says that in order to make a transaction then the new transaction will have to verify 2 previous transactions and so one and so forth. So each new transaction verifies 2 transactions before it. Another peculiar thing different from most cryptocurrencies is that there is no mining and all the supply of the coins were created at the genesis block and the supply is fixed. Making the wallets light weight as there is no need to store massive blockchain ledgers and there is no mining.
I found this great YouYube video that I think does a great job at explaining the technology behind it:
After doing some more research, I think that this is definitely a crypto-currency to watch. I decided though that the offering price is really a great price compared to the options out there and I decided that I will invest a small 0.10BTC coin into it because I like the fee-less feature and also the fact that they seem to have solved the "Quantum Computing" problem that the Bitcoin network and most crypto-currencies potentially have. I also like the integration into the "Internet of Things"; and I think that is even where the name of the coin derives.
I created an account on Bitfinex and currently IOTA is trading in MIOTA or Mega IOTAs. I am looking to get about 600 MIOTAs which is 600 000 000 IOTAs. The number seems ridiculous I know, but when I consider the fact that it is geared towards micro transactions and potentially if it is adopted as a viable alternative to blockchain technology then early adopters will be well compensated.
My actual trade allowed me to get 662.254 MIOTAs; because the price went down a bit.
Here is how IOTA is doing in general (on Coinmarketcap.com)
To conclude, I will like to say that even though there are hundreds of crypto-currencies that are available (STEEM being my favorite of course); being a trader and investor and realizing that crypto-currency is here is to stay. I am always on the lookout for great innovations in the space. I believe that STEEM offers such an innovation and that is why we are all on the platform. I also think that IOTA is showing quite a bit of promise. Especially because all the coins are already generated and so it reduces the possibility of dumping in my opinion and also as the value of the whole eco-system changes you can assess true value.
I will keep you posted as to how the story of IOTA progresses and how my investment in it is also progressing.
If you will like to get more info, I think you should go to the source: https://iota.org/
For more on the Quantum Computing problem, check out this great article by Sterlin Lujan on Bitcoin.com
https://news.bitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-at-risk-as-google-and-ibm-aim-for-50-qubit-quantum-computers/
Please upvote if you like this post. Comment, ask questions and interact. And also if there is someone out there who has had more exposure to IOTA and will like to share their experience. Please feel free to do so too.
Thank you for your time. MUCH LOVE!
NB:
As a side note, I have been using this Tool that I learnt from Tony Robbins from his "Money-Master the Game" book that I have found quite useful and helpful in the last 3 months and it has been leading me to higher discoveries and a better appreciation of life:
The tool is a series of questions that you ask and meditate upon each day:
- What 2 things am I happy about in my life right now and how does that make me me feel?
- What 2 things am I excited about in my life right now and how does that make me feel?
- What 2 things am I grateful for in my life right now and how does that make me feel?
- What 2 things am I proud of in my life right now and how does that make me feel?
Finally 5. Which 2 or more people do I love in my life right now and how do they make me feel?
These questions meditated on daily will literally change your life. NAMASTE!