- The IOTA Foundation and Shimmer network have made significant developments in their research, engineering, and governance activities.
- Progress updates were provided on the development of IOTA 2.0, including the stabilization of GoShimmer software and the implementation of new congestion control mechanisms.
IOTA and Shimmer have been making significant progress in their respective areas, as evidenced by the latest progress report. The report highlights the achievements of both projects in various fields, including research, engineering, governance, community, regulatory affairs, social impact, and sustainability.
Shimmer Updates
One of the most significant developments on the Shimmer side is the successful operation of the network for six months without any bugs or issues. This is a testament to the robustness of the network and a milestone for the project’s growth and development. In addition, $SMR was listed on Bitpanda in March, furthering the project’s growth.
On the IOTA Foundation side, the report highlights the significant amount of work that went into the launch of the ShimmerEVM testnet and its tooling and infrastructure. The Core Node Team added significant improvements to the GoShimmer node software, which is the current research implementation for IOTA 2.0 (“Coordicide”). These include critical bug fixes and a core component refactor aimed at increasing code portability and reducing dependencies to streamline porting the protocol into the production-grade Hornet node software.
IOTA Foundation Updates
The report also highlights the research department’s work on IOTA 2.0’s tokenomics, mana, congestion control, consensus, and finalization. The team concluded the first iteration of these areas and prepared three papers for publication at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (IEEE ICBC 2023), with publication planned for May. The Smart Contract researchers also conducted ongoing analyses and identification of challenges to programmability support on IOTA.
Another area of significant progress for IOTA is the implementation of a single notion of Mana, allowing users to spend the Mana they have accumulated within the transaction, making it easier to manage and use. The Congestion Control research group also conducted extensive simulations using a new tool called TangleSim to evaluate congestion control algorithms based on Mana burning, with a paper detailing the results accepted by IEEE ICBC with publication planned for May.
In terms of engineering, the Rust Libraries team addressed all feature requests and bug reports to support the recent Firefly Shimmer releases, including NFTs and Governance. Additionally, the team initiated the development of a new Wiki section focused on helping beginners with their learning journey.
On the governance front, the Governance team worked with the Firefly Team, enabling the Shimmer community to vote on the first four Shimmer Governance proposals. Also, the team supported the community in creating a DAO for the Shimmer Community Treasury, which resulted in them selecting the Marshall Islands as a legal base for the DAO. The team also helped develop a governance framework, with all processes being documented in the Wiki.
The report also highlights the work of the Regulatory Affairs team, which launched Let’s Talk about Regulation, a series of monthly events on Discord where regulatory experts share their knowledge on topics such as the Markets in Crypto-Asset (MiCA) Regulation, NFTs, GDPR, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), taxonomy, and compliance.
The webinars aim to initiate policy discussions on how regulation in the EU should evolve concerning digital assets, NFTs, and DeFi. The team is also closely monitoring relevant bills in the European Institutions, such as AMLR, Data Act, and the AI Act, to ensure that the industry’s voice is being heard during these discussions.
In terms of social impact and sustainability, the report highlights the collaboration with the Social Impact and Sustainability Working Group of the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA). This included a report mapping blockchain projects in Latin America to the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting at least one project per SDG using relevant KPIs.