Most Popular

1074 questions
54
votes
2 answers

Why does IOTA use a ternary number system?

What are the benefits of the ternary number system over the more traditional binary number system? Are there drawbacks to ternary with respect to binary, aside from the obvious of less adoption?
dreid
  • 1,102
  • 9
  • 16
38
votes
2 answers

What are the prerequisites for shutting down the IOTA coordinator?

What conditions need to be met for the central coordinator to be shut down? Is there a number of transactions per second, a number of full IRI nodes or an update to the algorithm necessary?
brenzi
  • 823
  • 5
  • 7
32
votes
1 answer

How does the system sustain regular low-effort "splitting attacks"?

The whitepaper focuses mainly on attacks in which an attacker tries to double-spend. So the section about the splitting attack examines the case that an attacker tries to effectively create two forks of the tangle and spend tokens in both…
lex82
  • 1,087
  • 7
  • 18
30
votes
5 answers

What is the total supply of IOTA?

In Bitcoin the total supply is capped at 21 million BTC. In Ethereum things are slightly looser. (I don't know what their total supply will be.) What's the case for IOTA? Is there a cap, and if so, what is the amount?
Richard Horrocks
  • 1,185
  • 8
  • 22
28
votes
1 answer

What does the IOTA coordinator actually do?

We know that there is a coordinator, which helps to secure the network in order to prevent attacks in early stages of adoption. What does it do exactly, how does it work?
stpoa
  • 397
  • 3
  • 5
28
votes
9 answers

How to generate a seed safely?

I am sceptical about online generators. How could I generate a IOTA seed safely offline? Does it need to be on a specific format?
Mahus
  • 501
  • 3
  • 8
26
votes
1 answer

Estimation of network traffic for a Full Node

Background Full nodes allow to get an complete view on the state of the Tangle (after a snapshot) in order to verify transactions, and to append new transactions to the Tangle. Therefore, full nodes have two major tasks: Receiving and propagating…
Lanu Moe
  • 439
  • 3
  • 7
25
votes
2 answers

How do subtangles work?

I've read that IOTA would only be truly infinitely scaleable with subtangles because a full node can only process ~1000 transactions per second. What are subtangles? When will they emerge? What potential problems would arise with them?
Zauz
  • 4,454
  • 15
  • 42
25
votes
1 answer

Is it possible to send pictures to the Tangle? What is the data limit per transaction?

As we all know, it is easily possible to convert ASCII to trytes. See this converter in the IOTA github: Converter If I now want to convert a whole picture like one of the Iota logo to trytes, how is this possible? Is it possible at all? Here is the…
Tobi MZ
  • 1,607
  • 1
  • 12
  • 31
24
votes
1 answer

What happens to a MAM (Masked Authenticated Message) Stream during a Snapshot?

The Masked Authenticated Messaging Introduction doesn't talk about snapshotting as it relates to MAM data streams, so I am trying to work out in my head what happens during a snapshot. It's a forward only set of linked messages. If all of the…
theoretical
  • 393
  • 1
  • 6
23
votes
1 answer

What can an attacker with 34% of total hash power do?

At the moment the coordinator protects the network from 34% attacks. What exactly can and can't such an attacker do when the coordinator is shut down?
Ian Metten
  • 651
  • 4
  • 15
22
votes
3 answers

What is an IOTA "bundle"?

The IOTASear.ch tangle explorer allows searching for addresses, transactions and bundles. While the meaning of addresses and transactions seem clear to me, I am not aware of the purpose of bundles. What exactly is a bundle?
q9f
  • 543
  • 3
  • 11
21
votes
3 answers

Consensus - what convergence properties does the tangle have when multiple conflicting transactions are built upon by different parts of the network

In traditional blockchains consensus is maintained by proof of work such that the valid chain containing the most cumulative work is agreed to be the consensus chain. IOTA lacks blocks and transactions are appended to the tangle (approximately)…
nate
  • 408
  • 2
  • 10
19
votes
2 answers

Without the Coordinator, how will the network decide which double-spend succeeds?

Since each double spend, from its perspective, is a valid transaction, they are equally likely to be selected as tips. How will multiple parties agree for certain which one has confirmed, in a timely and deterministic fashion?
takra
  • 435
  • 2
  • 9
19
votes
2 answers

How can I safely store my IOTA seed?

I currently store my seed in a plain text file, backed up on a USB drive, which is a security risk. What is the safest way to store my seed since there is no IOTA hardware wallet available yet?
fijter
  • 1,099
  • 10
  • 16
1
2 3
71 72