IOTA plans to introduce smart contracts on its Layer 1 network this year, and the transition from testnet to the mainnet is expected to be swift. This move will enable the L1 network to support decentralized applications and tokenization, which is a key target market for the network, according to founder Dominik Schiener. IOTA has been working towards becoming a comprehensive network that can support various blockchain applications, including decentralized exchanges, NFTs, and tokenization. While most of these developments have been on the Shimmer staging network, the IOTA Layer 1 network could catch up by the end of this year, starting with the introduction of smart contracts.
Discussions on the IOTA developers forum suggest that the smart contracts could launch later this year. Initially, they would be launched in a testnet environment and then quickly transitioned to the main network. The introduction of smart contracts on a decentralized L1 network by the end of this year is seen as a bullish move by the community, with the potential for major real-world assets liquidity to drive the price of IOTA to new all-time highs.
According to the forum conversation, IOTA developers have been working on significant tech upgrades in private repositories. However, they are bound by non-disclosure agreements, preventing them from sharing details about these developments. The smart contracts upgrade might also include the introduction of MoveVM, a virtual machine designed to run smart contracts written in the Move programming language. MoveVM is known for its flexibility, security, and speed, with the ability to process up to 150,000 transactions per second on networks like Aptos.
Earlier this year, IOTA announced the integration of Supra Oracles for IOTA EVM to improve the data accuracy of its smart contracts. This integration is part of the ongoing advancements made by IOTA, with the launch of IOTA 2.0 on the testnet being the most significant development so far. The testnet allows developers, users, and the Foundation to experiment with the new decentralized framework and offers features like feeless transactions and permissionless voting. IOTA has already gained recognition as the best infrastructure for the Internet of Things ecosystem, with Tangle being praised as the top implementation of decentralized ledger technology for the rapidly growing sector.
Despite a 24% increase in trading volume and a general uptick in the market cap, IOTA’s price currently stands at $0.1097, experiencing a 2% dip in the past day.