The IOTA network is moving forwards with the development of its multi-asset ecosystem. The foundation will soon launch a staging network – the Shimmer network – to test its new staking feature for IOTA tokens. Interestingly, other tokens minted on the blockchain will be sent to stakers – not IOTA itself.
IOTA announced its new staking test net in a blog post earlier this week. The staking feature is designed to foster fair token distribution for new digital assets. It capitalizes on the token distribution process, which has already taken place for IOTA itself, which the company deems as “fair.”
IOTA nicknamed this new distribution method “rolling airdrops.”
“With the introduction of staking to IOTA, we want to make fair token launches accessible to the entire community and give innovators the opportunity to incentivize a large and passionate community,“ reads the announcement.
Like Bitcoin, IOTA has an absolutely fixed token supply. This means that stakers cannot be rewarded through newly minted IOTA tokens and must instead be compensated through “new crypto networks or applications.” For example, stakers on the Shimmer network can stake IOTA and be rewarded in Shimmer tokens.
Staking can be performed through a simple transaction using the Firefly wallet. Meanwhile, every IOTA node continuously calculates how staking rewards should be distributed, based on which addresses are staking and how much.
The post concludes by stating that the entire Shimmer token supply will be distributed to IOTA stakeholders. Staking will be announced on Shimmer’s Twitter account 24 hours in advance of its activation.
Throughout 2018, IOTA appeared to fade into irrelevance as the token’s price collapsed following the 2017 bull run. However, it began mounting a comeback this year with a string of major projects and updates. This was followed by a slight resurgence of its price, which is now showing signs of life.
One of the latest features added to the network was that of zero-fee smart contracts. This gives IOTA a major advantage over competing chains, alongside its near limitless scalability.
On a more micro-scale, IOTA’s price is up by nearly 20%, while the rest of the market bleeds out. It trades above $1.4, which could be attributed to the aforementioned announcement. IOTA’s market cap is close to $4 billion, which places it among the top 50 largest crypto assets by that metric.