Iota set to launch decentralized smart contract platform to expand Web3 ecosystem

The Assembly mainnet, which is expected to launch in 2022, has pledged to distribute 70% of its native ASMB token supply to an array of community participants.

Iota has announced the release of decentralized layer-one smart contract network Assembly, and accompanying ASMB token, in a bid to accelerate the expansion of smart contracts across a multitude of sectors, including decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

Assembly utilizes the Iota network's existing architecture, most notably the directed acyclic graph structure, to operate adjacently as an interoperable, self-sovereign bridge that reaps the benefits of scalability and robust security, among others.

Decentralized application, or DApp, developers have the ability to create their own smart contract chains and set individual parameters for low-cost execution fees, a function that also enables service providers to issue on-chain stablecoin assets to incentivize validators.

Alongside this, the platform is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), as well as supporting smart contract languages Solidity, Rust, Go and TypeScript, with more expected to be added in the near future.

In conversation with Cointelegraph, Dominik Schiener, co-founder and chairman of the Iota Foundation, revealed how Assembly aligns with Iota’s overarching vision to create a decentralized ecosystem, as well as how the project’s infrastructure could provide a perfect environment for project construction, stating:

“Assembly is fully configurable and can bridge across any smart contract chain running whatever type and flavor its builder desires. Every network built using the protocol will benefit from the shared security, interoperability and token infrastructure provided by the Assembly network.”

In October, the Iota Foundation launched beta smart contracts with EVM functionality in an effort to expand scalability, interoperability and drastically reduce transactional fees on the network.

The token’s distribution model allocates 40% of ASMB assets to a community decentralized autonomous organization, 20% granted to Iota stakers (as rewards distributed over the coming two years), a further 10% to early participants and ecosystem developers, leaving the final 20% to the Iota Foundation.

By adopting this community-centric governance model, Assembly is seeking to foster an environment for creators, developers and community advocates that facilitates the expansion of the Iota ecosystem into a panoply of Web3 sectors, including the Metaverse.

Amid the parabolic financial gains of metaverse tokens MANA and LAND, in addition to the heightening mainstream debate around the impact of emerging metaverse worlds, Schiener expressed the importance of establishing and maintaining open, transparent, self-governing metaverse models:

“Its underpinnings must be able to support and bridge any type of technical architecture its builders desire, uninhibited by gatekeepers, costly auctions, or rigid architectures limited to certain programming languages, virtual machines, or smart contract types.”

Iota launches beta smart contracts to foster interoperability

Coin Telegraph

The platform will enable developers to set individual parameters for execution fees, a feature expected to suppress the fee prices to near-zero.

The Iota Foundation has announced the release of its beta version smart contract functionality, with the objective to solve market challenges of scalability limitations and high transaction fees, as well as reportedly debuting components not witnessed thus far in the space.

Iota’s nonprofit foundation is focused on open-source research and development initiatives to drive adoption in the distributed ledger technology space, alongside its native platform, the Tangle.

The smart contract service will foster interoperability and standardization through the integration of Ethereum Virtual Machine; multi-capacity for developers to write program languages with Tiny Go, Rust, and Ethereum’s Solidity; as well as enabling developers to mark unique execution fees, among other features.

The latter is a prominent difference from the Ethereum blockchain and could drastically foster the reduction of fees across the network, as the pool of competitors seeking to validate the smart contract increases.

In March, the platform announced the release of its alpha Iota Smart Contracts Protocol, designed to encourage developers to build smart contracts in addition to decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) applications.

Dominik Schiener, co-founder and chairman of the Iota Foundation, told Cointelegraph that the addition of smart contract functionality will “add a vital component to the Iota ecosystem. They allow anyone to build composable and complex dApps using industry standard Ethereum tooling while relying on a feeless base layer and predictable, low execution fees.”

“IOTA Smart Contracts also enable the feeless transfer of assets across chains, which offers the IOTA ecosystem — and anyone else interested — unprecedented opportunities in terms of utility, composability, and scalability,” Schiener said.

Schiener claimed that Iota smart contracts are unique in that they offer low, predictable, transparent fees, adding: “Smart contract chains enjoy permissionless deployment, without setup fees, auctions, or gatekeepers of any kind. The smart contract execution fees are predictable, non-volatile, and entirely up to the chain owner to set."

“The possibility for chains to compete for the ‘work’ of executing a smart contract creates an additional incentive to push execution fees to their absolute minimum — including zero. Non-zero fees are payable in whatever form the chain owner demands, giving additional flexibility. In a nutshell, it is a DeFi operator’s ‘wet dream’.”

Dominik Schiener.