IOTA Foundation, a non-profit building the digital infrastructure to enable the machine economy and IoT, is today completing the most extensive network upgrade in its history, titled Chrysalis. This moves IOTA out of the experimental phase and into an enterprise-ready ecosystem ready for real-world use-cases.
The Chrysalis upgrade touches on all aspects of IOTA, including wallets, libraries, software implementations, and security protocols, laying the foundation for the upcoming Coordicide upgrade. Chrysalis represents a completely overhauled IOTA toolset, opening the door for the development of any number of enterprise- and consumer-level applications that will leverage the power of the IOTA Tangle.
This network upgrade is also the achievement of an important milestone that has been on the IOTA Foundation’s roadmap toward full system maturity. This upgrade is the second and final phase of the Chrysalis upgrade, the first of which transpired in September of 2020. The final landmark on the foundation’s roadmap will be Coordicide, estimated for the end of 2021.
Many of the changes required for Coordicide have already been achieved now with the Chrysalis upgrade, which means that any enterprise applications that are implemented between now and Coordicide will undergo only minor – if any, adjustments to the fully matured Coordicide network.
IOTA Chrysalis reduces validation requirements on the Tangle and allows for faster conflict handling and improved transaction speed. These improvements will enable enterprises in any industry to implement IOTA more efficiently and with a lighter, more flexible, and modular architecture. The complete network update of the IOTA protocol will allow for a more seamless transition as it moves through future updates, as the protocol will remain stable and enterprise-ready.
From Chrysalis Phase 2 onward, every update of IOTA aims to be seamless for any production-level uses, including the update to Coordicide.
Highlights from the Chrysalis upgrade include the following:
- Enterprise-ready – Integration with IOTA is now mostly – plug & play, a completely new network that is able to scale to the demands of production-level clients. IOTA’s Chrysalis update brings an enterprise-ready product to market.
- Standardization – IOTA Chrysalis modules are now based on industry standards, utilizing the most widely researched, highly vetted, and well-established standards to provide easy integration for the industry.
- Improved usability – Whether it’s the sleek new interface of the Firefly Wallet or the standardized software bindings for most programming languages, IOTA Chrysalis represents a complete revision of user interfaces.
“We now have an enterprise-ready platform that will please both industry and consumer users with its enhanced functionally, industry-standard upgrades, and energy efficiencies. Our engineers have worked diligently to build the foundation for Coordicide and beyond.”
– Dominik Schiener, Co-Founder and Chairman of the IOTA Foundation
The launch of Chrysalis will take place on Wednesday, April 28th. There will be a one-week, token migration phase that takes place before that, from April 21st to April 28th. Token holders and service providers can migrate their tokens during the migration phase or after the launch of Chrysalis.
Ultimately there is no practical difference between these two options and you can choose to migrate when you want. It is however recommended that exchanges migrate ahead of the network launch to avoid any interruptions to their service.