|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener is betting on real-world infrastructure adoption as the key to his blockchain’s comeback after a decade-long journey from crypto’s fourth-largest project to quiet rebuilding. The IOTA token has gained 31% over the past year, outperforming Bitcoin and Ethereum with a 25% surge in the last month alone.
Schiener’s strategy centers on trade digitization and institutional adoption rather than chasing DeFi trends or meme coin speculation. The project recently launched its upgraded Rebased mainnet with staking rewards, positioning itself for what Schiener calls a “real yield ecosystem.”
Pivoting from Original Vision to Market Reality
IOTA abandoned years of research into its original Internet of Things vision to adopt Sui’s Move programming language and accelerate market delivery. The decision required tokenholder approval and marked a significant strategic shift.
“We were building a protocol with a different market in mind,” Schiener explained, referencing the 2017 crypto landscape. “It was a very difficult decision, but ultimately, we really decided that we have to be pragmatic here and be fast to update the mainnet.”
The pivot reflects broader industry maturation since IOTA’s ICO raised “1300 bitcoins” in 2015. Schiener noted how the space evolved from “publishing crazy ideas and concepts on Bitcointalk” to becoming “very professionalized.”
Real-World Infrastructure Strategy
Unlike projects that pivoted to NFTs or memecoins, IOTA doubled down on practical applications. The company operates trade digitization infrastructure in Kenya since 2019, with expansion planned across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Current use cases include digitizing trade data, issuing digital identities for exporters, and tokenizing commodities like rare earth minerals. Schiener positions this as IOTA’s competitive advantage over other layer-1 blockchains.
“Where we differentiate with IOTA and where we really want to build up a moat is everything related to real world adoption,” he said. “We have a lot more credibility and a lot more trust in the market.”
US Market Expansion Plans
IOTA plans aggressive US market entry through pilot programs shipping goods between America and other countries. The company is exploring partnerships with institutional financial players and considering tokenizing US funds.
Schiener emphasized capital efficiency over simply attracting total value locked (TVL). “Our objective is obviously to keep that cost to a minimum and to make sure that there’s real interest in participating in that real yield.”
The strategy includes avoiding venture capital funding, with IOTA giving “100% of the token supply to the community” instead of raising from investors.
Also Read: IOTA Tokenomics: The Engine Behind a Scalable Web3 Ecosystem
After ten years of building, Schiener remains focused on making IOTA “one of the handful of layer ones to become a standard, to be this infrastructure on which the world is being digitized.” With real-world adoption cases that “no other layer one has in this market,” he’s confident the token price will reflect IOTA’s utility sooner than later.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is for general purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The author’s views are personal and may not reflect the views of Chain Affairs. Before making any investment decisions, you should always conduct your own research. Chain Affairs is not responsible for any financial losses
I’m the cryptocurrency guy who loves breaking down blockchain complexity into bite-sized nuggets anyone can digest. After spending 5+ years analyzing this space, I’ve got a knack for disentangling crypto conundrums and financial markets.
