The cryptocurrency startup IOTA, which was a less known digital-currency firm till last month, is now ranking fifth among all cryptocurrencies with a market capital of $6.9 billion.
The reason behind such a massive hike is an ambitious project called Data Marketplace which IOTA said it introduced in collaboration with likes of Microsoft, Fujitsu, Accenture, and several other companies, on November 27.
“We are excited to partner with IOTA foundation and proud to be associated with its new data marketplace initiative. This next generation technology will accelerate the connected, intelligent world and go beyond blockchain that will foster innovation real world solutions, applications and pilots for our customers.”
─Omkar Naik, Solution Sales, Blockchain, Data and Azure, Microsoft.
IOTA was priced at a value of just $0.37, which rapidly climbed high and is now priced at a global average of $2.48, representing an increase of around 70% in just one week.
Data Marketplace, inspired by IoT, will break down the data silos that currently keep data limited within the control of a few entities, IOTA said. It is a Tangle-based solution which completely removes charges on transaction and data transmissions, and reduce payment obstacles.
The platform will also enable ordinary internet-users to sell their data by connecting their IoT devices to Digital Marketplace.
“Today we are working closely with a wide range of key technology providers in the blockchain space and we are happy to have the chance to participate in the IOTA Data Marketplace project. We want to have a deeper look in IOTA technology to grasp hands-on experience and provide our client the right understanding of IOTA and its potential business implications.” –Accenture Labs in Sophia Antipolis.
According to Statista, an online market research and statistics portal, there will be more than 75 billion connected devices that interact in different manners. It might give rise to “Machine Economy”, using which devices can trade almost everything including computation, storage, electricity, etc.
IOTA said that Data Marketplace will explore and highlight the potential of Machine Economy.
David Sonstebo, founder of IOTA, said data is the new oil, since it works as a catalyst to the economic engine of the future. He also compared data with wisdom and knowledge, explaining that just as our brains acquire wisdom through information from sensory organs, the same way AI requires data from sensors to derive new knowledge and information.
IOTA marketplace demo will run till January, and the company might release some blog posts and case studies to reveal how companies and individuals can benefit from this technology.
