In the fourth quarter of 2023, the IOTA ecosystem experienced significant advancements and achievements. The IOTA Foundation and its individual teams reached major milestones while the broader ecosystem continued to utilize existing and newly introduced tools. The Foundation’s Q4 report highlighted progress towards IOTA 2.0 and outlined plans for the first quarter of the following year.
One notable achievement was the launch of ShimmerEVM, which occurred in the last week of Q3 but had a substantial impact in Q4. Since its launch, the community has shown support for ShimmerEVM, leading to an increase in transaction volume and user numbers. In its first month, ShimmerEVM became one of the top five growing EVM chains in terms of total volume locked.
The release of Firefly IOTA 2.0.0 in Q4 marked a significant step towards the Firefly Wallet. This release included support for the Mainnet Stardust upgrade and incorporated features such as NFTs, native tokens, and developer tools.
On the core protocol research front, the ecosystem made significant progress in Q4. The Incentives Working Group finalized the Tokenomics Whitepaper and released the Mana Calculator, allowing users to simulate Mana generation, delegation, and staking scenarios. The Congestion Control Working Group fine-tuned the Mana Cost parameters and optimized validation block rules. Additionally, the Parameter Taskforce merged with the Tangle Dynamics Research Working Group to work on consensus-related aspects.
Other notable developments included adapting ISC to the IOTA 2.0 upgrade and integrating Move VM and RISC Zero.
In terms of regulatory affairs, the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation became the first to register in the UAE under the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), taking advantage of the country’s new regulatory regime. With $160 million in funding, the Foundation aims to expand IOTA’s ecosystem in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Overall, the fourth quarter of 2023 was a period of significant progress and achievements for the IOTA ecosystem, setting the stage for further growth and development in the coming months.