IOTA is a distributed ledger technology built on a proprietary directed acyclic graph (DAG) called the Tangle, which you can picture as a multi-dimensional blockchain. Tangle is IOTA’s version of a blockchain network protocol. Tangle is alternative to Smart Contracts; Smart Contracts are built on the Blockchain; and the Tangle is built on a directed acyclic graph (DAG). Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is the general term for what is commonly referred to as blockchain. Blockchain is one type of DLT and IOTA’s directed acyclic graph (DAG) is another specific type of DLT. IOTA (MIOTA) token is the internal cryptocurrency of IOTA designed for zero-fee value transfer. It is governed by the non-commercial IOTA Foundation. MIOTA means mega-IOTA. One MIOTA is equal to one million IOTAs. MIOTA is used as the unit of trade to keep the numbers manageable. On most crypto exchanges, one MIOTA is the unit that is being bought or sold.

The IOTA Foundation is a global charitable non-profit organization that develops the IOTA protocol and this foundation’s aim is to build a standardized protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT). Scalability and fee-less transactions remain the guiding principles behind most of the developments of IOTA.

The IOTA Foundation was originally co-founded in 2015 by the following 4 people:

Dominik Schiener - He is the Co-Founder of IOTA and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at IOTA Foundation. He is also the Investor and Co-Chairman of Xayn. Prior to this, he co-founded Finhaus Ltd and Bithaus GmbH. He was also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fileyy.

Serguei Popov - He is the Co-Founder and Supervisory Board Member of IOTA. He is also a Senior Researcher at University of Porto. He is a Research Mathematician working in the field of Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes.

David Sønstebø - He is the Co-Founder of IOTA. He resigned from IOTA Foundation in December 2020. He is a serial Entrepreneur and he is involved in Internet-of-Things, Distributed Ledger/Blockchain/Tangle Technologies, Smart Cities, Digital Identity, eGovernance and Innovative Hardware Design.

Sergey Ivancheglo - He is the Co-Founder of IOTA. He left the IOTA Foundation in February 2020. He is a trained Electrical Engineer and Software Developer, Founder and Creator of Nxt, and Co-Founder of Jinn Labs.