IOTA is a distributed ledger with one big difference: it isn't actually a blockchain. Instead, its proprietary technology is known as Tangle, a system of nodes that confirm transactions. The foundation behind this platform says this offers far greater speeds than conventional blockchains and an ideal footprint for the ever-expanding Internet of Things ecosystem.
Because there's no blockchain, there are no miners, and because there are no miners, there are no fees. Many established networks see costs balloon when congestion intensifies, but IOTA aims to provide limitless throughput at minimal expense. In time, IOTA's goal is to become the de facto platform for executing transactions between IoT devices. Given how estimates suggest there could be 20.4 billion such devices out there by 2024, this could end up being big business. The team behind IOTA believe that the potential use cases don't end here. They believe their distributed ledger could deliver digital identities to all, result in car insurance policies that are based on actual usage, pave the way for cutting-edge smart cities, deliver seamless global trade and prove the authenticity of products.

Originally known as Jinn, a crowdsale for the project was held in September 2014, and the network officially launched in 2016. IOTA has four co-founders, and their names are Sergey Ivancheglo, Serguei Popov, David Sønstebø and Dominik Schiener. According to the IOTA Foundation, the initiative has rapidly grown since then and team members are now based across more than 25 countries. Sønstebø and Schiener are collectively co-chairmen of the board of directors, while Popov is a board member and the foundation's director of research.

Well, as we alluded to a little earlier, the fact that it's effectively a blockchainless blockchain is rather unusual to say the least. Tangle's more technical name is the Directed Acyclic Graph and as Sønstebø explained in a blog post back in 2015, this technology aims to retain blockchain's ability to execute secure transactions. The only difference is that it does away with the notion of blocks. He also wrote: "IOTA should not be considered an alternative coin (altcoin) to existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, rather it is an extension of the growing blockchain ecosystem. It's meant to work in synergy with these other platforms to form cohesion and symbiotic relationships".

IOTA is designed to provide one solution that no other crypto does: efficient, secure, lightweight, real-time micro-transactions without fees. New transactions are validated by approving two previous transactions from another node and this is a novel approach because it means that the network's size and speed will be directly related to how many people are using the platform. And whereas some cryptocurrencies are run as a business, the IOTA Foundation says it is firmly not for profit adding that it has the sole goal of making the network as prosperous as possible. Finally, IOTA has distinguished itself from many other crypto rivals by establishing high-profile partnerships with the carmaker Volkswagen, and helping the city of Taipei to pursue smart projects.