IOTA – Why Developers Love to Hate It
The IOTA project has been getting a lot of attention lately for its focus on using cryptocurrency based technology in the Internet of Things (IoT). The concept of the Internet of Things is that machines can talk to each other. All devices in a smart home or smart city would be connected to the internet, and these devices could talk to each other.
IOTA, unlike other cryptocurrencies, does not use blockchain technology. Rather it uses something called tangle – which is being described as a blockchainless blockchain. According to many in the industry, it is the future of the blockchain.
According to IOTA founder David Sonstebo, IOTA is the first project that got rid of miners and went beyond the blockchain. By doing so, the project as eliminated the cost of any transaction fees. The project is now attracting some of the biggest names in the industry, such as Volkswagen and the entire city of Taipei in Taiwan.
Reasons Why Developers Hates IOTA
Despite its claims to cutting edge tech, IOTA’s detractors are many and the project is facing an uphill task in convincing the world of its viability. The IOTA system currently has a market value of almost $3 billion, so it is very important for them to show that they mean business.
Trouble for IOTA began in September last year when a team of investigators from MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative found vulnerabilities in the IOTA system. It seems IOTA used a homegrown hash function called P-curl to keep data secure within its system. According to the team, this is the bad mistake since only highly scrutinized and vetted hash functions should be used to keep data safe.
IOTA developers argued that this was done deliberately to prevent outsiders from being able to replicate their open-source software. Researchers counter-argued, stating that the very nature of “open-source” means that everything in that system is available for copying.
Another blow to the project has been that some IOTA users lost about $4 million of their IOTA tokens due to – according to some in the industry – the incompetence of the IOTA developers.
The IOTA wallet doesn’t support a seed generator that helps the wallet produce keys to keep the coins safe. The IOTA Foundation had given detailed instructions on how to generate randomness as well as the most secure websites to do so. However, some customers chose to opt for websites that were not listed by the Foundation as secure. One was a fraudulent website that stole funds from its customers.
Critics are blaming IOTA for not having a seed generator attached to its wallet.