Why a real fresh start at IOTA also requires a change at the top management level

Part 2: Shattered visions of an egg-laying wool sow, short-lived collaborations and gambler mentality. Schiener was, is and remains a risk for IOTA.

Many announcements of the IOTA boss made me euphoric at the time.
But in the meantime we know: The following list was not so much a vision as an expression of big-man-ness:

• Means of payment for the world of machines / IoT / Digital twins.
  Backbone of the European digital infrastructure
• Set standards for what blockchains and DLTs should look like and provide the definition for smart contacts (Object Management Group OMG)
• INATBA engagement (Blockchain Initiative Europe).
• European digital currency on the tangle
• Digital Transformation through and with IOTA
• All or nothing, red or black: the market capitalization of the token is expected to rise to more than double the current bitcoin valuation ( “1 trillion or nothing”).
• Of course, the European payment system is not to be simplified and unified without IOTA technology (ISO20022).

Successes: Little to none.

Because everything has either been stomped in, or has become technically impossible due to the new network structure or lack of access to responsible switching points. Or the eternal delays have led to the departure of partners. Or, or.

The reasons for failure are countless, and this list reveals much more
Lack of plan and concept, a missing compass and a frightening gambler mentality.

In any case, in a fully and well-regulated market, Schiener would have long since been a case for the supervisory authorities and charged with market manipulation with all his careless, ill-considered statements.

To his credit, IOTA is still on the market at all and continues to try to find its place.

However, one would classify “survival” as a minimum entrepreneurial goal. The main credit, however, should go to the developers who did not give up, first and foremost Hans Moog and his impressive loyalty to IOTA and the community.

European project EBSI as the last highlight

Regarding the Digital Infrastructure in Europe (EBSI project) I still have (residual) hope that IOTA will play a role (however big or small), everyone has to realize at the latest when reading the agenda how far claim and reality diverge. In the end, it has to be seen what dimension the EBSI collaboration can reach. Please free yourself from the thought that even after Phase 2B, a political decision will be made that the European infrastructure will be built entirely on IOTA’s back.

Project ALVARIUM is already surrounded by the breath of death or has already been quietly buried

The industry showcase project ALVARIUM was born in 2019 and September 2021 IOTA joined the working group to create an industry standard for the Internet of Things with the focus on the trustworthiness of data. Ringing names like DELL and the LINUX Foundation as partners created a lot of excitement.

Results so far:

• 17 repositories on GitHub, last activity May 2022 (!)
• 6 Twitter messages
• The last tweet already one month after the announcement of the cooperation in September 2021.

It may be doubted that IOTA will ever set any standard here.

Schiener is unable to take advantage of opportunities and awards

Do you still remember this?

What actually happened after the TM Forum Award was given to IOTA in 2020 as a companion for Digital Transformation? A nice hook to make and expand connections.

Successes? Missing.

The Berliners also have and had good cards in other places and were unable to play them:

• Smart City projects
• Supply chains (How are the roses of Africa doing?).
• Jaguar Landrover. A car with an IOTA wallet.

Pride comes before a fall

Dominik Schiener wanted to raise himself and his DLT above the blockchains and create the “only true” DLT. Too bad the rest of the (blockchain) world didn’t care one bit about Schiener’s vision and instead created a multi-billion market with the Decentralized Financial Market (“DeFi”), which IOTA still can’t participate in today. Much too later, Schiener then also practiced humility and instead of the WE sought the US — that is, the common.

But the big players in the real world business have long since made their decision. Polygon in particular, as a scaling solution for Ethereum, is making a big splash here and can boast numerous global companies as users.

A new dawn after “The New Dawn”: Late humility, new plan: redefine “DeFi”

Now Schiener wants to run after and jump on the moving trains
After being left empty-handed once again, Schiener has rediscovered the — no joke — crypto market as his last hope.

Realword did not work. So then do like everyone else in DeFi after all….
But Schiener’s announcements are not without superlatives here either. Smart Contacts will become “Magic Smart Contacts” and of course IOTA will do nothing less than revolutionize DeFi.

The players, who have been waiting in the wings for months, would be happy about a minimal product and the EVM interface.

“The market”, however, remains unimpressed by Schiener’s capers to this day because the leadership at IOTA is simply unable to muster credibility and a sense of reality. In other words, “the market” simply doesn’t buy Schiener’s vision (anymore) and has been right about it for years.

Fatal choice: Schiener and IOTA can’t take advantage of Berlin as a capital city

Berlin is an important city. Center of power in Germany and thus also gateway to the European nation. Politically, the country is currently driven by the desire for digitization.

But at least since the Corona vaccination passport, where IOTA would have gladly contributed something, we know that Schiener and IOTA have not managed to use the geographical proximity to the parliament in proximity to decision makers and bodies such as ministries and working committees and explain to the political elite that IOTA can be the solution to so many problems.

Instead of convincing decision-makers, Schiener came to the conclusion that the choice of Berlin as the seat of the foundation was a mistake (what else). Digital patient records, digital twins in industry, digital government and much more. Actually a home game for IOTA. But could it somehow benefit from Berlin as a location? Apart from a few test projects, which are also getting on in years, you hear here too: NOTHING Yet the digital transformation in Germany and Europe can no longer be stopped. In short, they didn’t get their foot in the door.

The Dream of the IOTAnic Digital European Currency

Speaking of Europe. As if in passing, Schiener likes to fantasize about the digital EURO revolutionizing the world of payment processing with the help of the Tangle. However, we have never seen anything concrete about this, such as a feasibility study.

Let´s talk about the digital money: What is the token actually good for?

To this day, Dominik Schiener has not managed to explain what the token is ultimately used for, beside paying for NFTs and exchange tokens. I mean a clear definition in the (harmonic) interaction of IOTA and MANA as well as IOTA -Shimmer and — Assembly.

Wen Moon? Burst visions, coordinator and unfinished products in testing. Regaining lost ground will take years.

The fact is, after all these years, IOTA is still tinkering with the test network and still relies on the coordinator to make value transactions work. Almost all of the visions have been dashed. Instead, it now has to vie with other cryptos for DeFi funds. The former arrogance, IOTA is occupied by everyone and the rest of the cryptos will collapse when IOTA delivers, has given way to disillusionment. Instead, one hopes that there is still a place for IOTA in the large auditorium of DeFi providers. The excursion to Fantasia became an expensive experiment for the token holders: billions in market capitalization were squandered, the fall from the top 100 in the ranking is imminent.

Without Schiener there is hope

The market is pragmatic. The past can be buried if the future is promising. Schiener’s one-man show will not convince the markets in the long run, even if the developers at IOTA have done a good job and the network is making great progress. For a sustainable development of the price and rise to the top ranks, it needs multi-layered efforts and successes.

What the Foundation needs are not only ideas, but excellent connections in politics and economy and also culture (I will talk about this in part 3), a clear communication and position. Schiener has not managed this in the last 7 years and will not manage it in the next 7 years. He would have to clear the way, but Schiener sticks to his armchair as we only know it from autocratic politicians and climate glue. His track record, as shown, is devastating.

Others have been leading the way for a long time

Polygon, for example, and Ethereum anyway. The up players like Deutsche Telekom, JP Morgan or Disney have long since opted for others. Polygon is crystallizing as a big winner with its Ethereum scaling solution.

Media appearances backfire

A leader of such an important foundation with such ambitious goals should also be able to appear professionally in the media. But we only remember some extraneous shaming appearances on TV, for example on Markus Lanz, to whom he was allowed to explain how he became a millionaire, via a meaningless interview on CNN and silly AMA appearances that usually contain nothing concrete and raise more questions than they answer.

Oh yes, and he was in the EU Parliament once. Why, I forgot… doesn’t matter. Apparently it was not important enough.

So I will close with one last question:

Couldn’t a few dollars of the token sales have been invested in media training?

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Disclaimer:

All statements reflect only the personal opinion of the author. They are neither a direct nor indirect recommendation to buy or sell IOTAtoken. Investments in cryptos are highly risky and carry a total risk of loss. Only invest as much as you are willing and able to lose.