Imagine a blockchain-like protocol that promises to remove what is seen as the two biggest deficiencies in blockchain: inefficient mining and soaring transaction fees. IOTA is working on a fix.

What is the blockchain exactly? A big ponzi scheme or an opportunity and a new technology that we can all use to transform society? Depends on who you’re asking, but a good starting point is to disassociate crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin from blockchain, the underlying data structure and related protocols.

One thing to note for crypto-currencies is that they implement what is called Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). DLT is essentially a distributed database where records of transactions are kept. However the difference with traditional distributed databases that have been around for years is that DLTs are open networks in which nodes are not controlled by a single entity.

The way this typically works for blockchain-based DLTs is through what is called mining. Mining is a process through which transactions are verified, and also new coins are added to the coin deposit. In Bitcoin for example this is achieved by solving a cryptographic challenge which requires intense computational resources.

Read the full article on ZDNet