IOTA team launch Assembly network for smart contracts

The team behind the time-tested IOTA project have revealed a network called Assembly (ASMB) that is aiming to shake up the smart contract space in 2022.

Utilising advanced sharding techniques imbedded into the IOTA blockchain – known as directed acyclic graphs – that effectively side-step the work of processing unimportant data components, the network will be able to scale horizontally without diminishing structural composure.

The idea behind Assembly is a simple one – create a validator marketplace environment that enables smart contract chains to compete through their properties and fee schedule offerings.

But it is also about making sure that environment is extended to the bottom billion – and feeless smart contract functionality is critical to that, explained Dominik Schiener – co-founder and chairman of the IOTA Foundation.

“Assembly is a key component of our mission to build the decentralised economy,” he said.

“It is a perfect illustration of democratic, inclusive, interoperable technology that harnesses the power of the decentralised, permissionless, and feeless Tangle to deliver unmatched performance and to move a whole ecosystem forward.

“With a spirit of inclusion, cooperation, and empowerment, we are transforming one more facet of digital life and inviting as many people as possible to join us.”

Validators at the heart of IOTA’s Assembly

Validators on Assembly are incentivised through reward structures, but these are unique in their own right with plans announced for fixed-fee payments in stablecoins and a role for validators to play in creative token distributions.

It will be possible to individually define fixed fees as low as $0 – opening the door to feeless execution of smart contracts – something that could be a powerful persuaded as it eliminates barriers to entry for the bottom billion and could help drive true mass adoption.

In a snipe at Ethereum’s market share, Assembly has launched full EVM-compatibility to enable all Solidarity smart contracts the functionality of instant porting onto the ASMB chain.

Read more: IOTA launches Shimmer pre-production environment for developers