Was ist IOTA eigentlich? Hier in unter 100 Worten.
John wants to make a transaction. He is given the ones from Tom and Kevin awaiting verification (“tips”), who submitted their rent payments just before him and which now need to be checked (to avoid issues like “double spending”). John has his computer verify both transactions, with the effort going into it (his “proof of work”) entitling him to have his own transaction be added to the IOTA network for the next user after him to validate it. A clerk (the “coordinator”) reviews the verified transactions one final time and shares his confirmation with the network (a “milestone transaction”).
The above explanation is of course simplified and IOTA has a host of features that deserve a more extensive explanation. One key aspect is that strictly speaking it is not a Blockchain solution due to the coordinator serving as a central control feature, which goes against the idea of Blockchain as “distributed ledger technology” (DLT). IOTA proponents however maintain that while it does have a single point of failure, the benefits its solution brings compared to Bitcoin (namely enhanced scalability and lower transaction costs) are duly justified. The incentive alignment of all participants in the IOTA tangle stands out in this respect: Unlike with Bitcoin for example, where miners and transacting users have opposite incentives (users wanting fast transactions and low fees, but miners wanting the opposite), IOTA does not have such a conflict of interest.
