IOTA Foundation Enters Base Layer Race With ‘2.0’ Testnet

IOTA is addressing the technical feature that nuked the blockchain-like network for nearly two weeks earlier this year.

• The IOTA Foundation announced Wednesday it is doing away with the “coordinator” that previously validated the blockchain’s transactions.
• The new “coordinator-less” network, billed as IOTA 2.0, is meant to rival other smart-contract platforms such as Ethereum, EOS, Tron and Cardano.
• IOTA’s MIOTA token currently ranks as the 24th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, according to CoinGecko data, besting zcash (ZEC), cosmos (ATOM) and basic attention token (BAT), among others.
• IOTA’s new “Pollen” testnet will serve as a research testbed for a new “fast probabilistic consensus” mechanism.
• The IOTA Foundation claims the new network will support decentralized applications (dapps) and smart contracts that can transact without incurring fees.