IOTA and their Secret Project JINN: What we know so far

JINN is arguably the most exciting project to come out of the IOTA distributed ledger. While IOTA presents itself as a software protocol, there are some pretty great hardware components that could make for a breakthrough for the company. JINN presents an exciting step for IOTA – bringing revolutionary microprocessors based on trinary calculation methods to the blockchain. So, the processor knows the states of 0 and 1, and -1. When it comes to IOTA and their secret project JINN, here’s what we know so far. 

What is IOTA?

Firstly, let’s take a quick look at what IOTA actually is. According to IOTA.org, IOTA is, “the first open-source distributed ledger that is being built to power the future of the Internet of Things with feeless microtransactions and data integrity for machines.”

IOTA is a distributed ledger, but not a blockchain. It consists of streams of individual transactions tangled together, rather than grouped in blocks and stored in sequential chains. 

What do we know about JINN? 

When it comes to IOTA and their secret project JINN, here’s what we know so far: 

JINN is supposed to form the basis for any device to confirm the two transactions (required by the Tangle), without having to switch a computer on. So, any mobile phone, car, or basically any other piece of tech, could send transactions via the Tangle. JINN will provide the technical basis for Qubic. 

JINN isn’t a new thing. In fact, it was first announced in the NXT forum in 2014. NXT was invented by Sergey Ivanchenglo, the co-founder of IOTA, who also helped develop JINN. Initially, Ivanchenglo said that he needs a solution based on trinary computation to build Qubic – which sparked the inspiration for JINN.

JINN has largely been kept under wraps from the beginning. We initially saw some prototyping of hardware emerging in the news in 2015, but allegedly there were some setbacks following that. David Sonstebo, IOTA’s co-founder said: 

“Having out in the open discussions about all of these things is unheard of in the start-up industry, and that is for plenty of reasons: it affects hiring process, venture capitalist evaluations, legalities, competitive edge and so on. So in an effort to avoid shooting ourselves in our foot, we will take the appropriate measures to prevent this.”

Then, in October 2015, he stated that IOTA “is needed to make JINN’s vision a reality” and hinted at the project’s future: 

“For anyone still wondering why it’s “taking so long”: it’s really not. We’re trying to redo computing itself here, it’s not an easy task. Even big companies spend years developing their new iterations, JINN is no iteration, it’s a brand new paradigm, so patience is important.”

What will JINN do? 

Information about JINN is sparse, but there are rumors. JINN is likely the step needed for IOTA to become the base layer for the Internet of Things. However, IOTA would need to have a strong partner to manufacture the processors. Allegedly, this partner could be Bosch. Bosch, a German corporation, invested in the IOTA foundation in December 2017 through it’s venture capital arm, Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC). Bosch also bought an unverified number of IOTA tokens to invest in the IOTA foundation. 

However, this is still a rumor and nothing has been confirmed as of the time of writing. If you’re looking to trade IOTA, check it out on eToro – the world’s leading social trading platform. 

Where next for IOTA? 

When we look at IOTA and their secret project JINN, here’s what we know so far: 

• JINN was initially thought of in 2014. 
• It may be used as the basis for Qubic. 
• It is still in development. 

Ultimately, we don’t know much – but when it is finally released it’ll likely be monumental for IOTA – and for the industry as a whole.