Technical Analysis of the Tangle in the IOTA-Environment
Abstract
Distributed Ledger Technology has become popular with the creation of the Bitcoin Blockchain in 2007. However, when considering its applicability for the Internet of Things, issues like scalability, transaction fees, offline accessibility, and quantum security have not been resolved. The IOTA Foundation has developed and published an alternative to Blockchain which claims to resolve these issues: the Tangle.
As its major part, this thesis first examines the ingredients of the Tangle and the theoretical aspects of the Peer-to-Peer protocol. Then it compares Tangle and Blockchain along the following characteristics: data structure, scalability, immutability, fee structure, offline capability, privacy, and energy consumption. Furthermore, it gives an overview over the IOTA Foundation and examines some specificities of its Tangle-implementation.
The analysis is based on literature and online research as well as two expert interviews with members of the IOTA Foundation. It allows for a better technical understanding and assessment of the Tangle-technology.