MicroHash is First Live IOTA Blockchain Smart Contract Based on Qubic and TOQEN

After the completion of the development process, the IOTA foundation recently launched the network’s first smart contract. The smart contract, known as MicroHash, is deployed on a qApp called TOQEN.

TOQEN is built on the IOTA blockchain’s quorum consensus framework, which is known as Qubic Lite. The smart contract is deployed on the TOQEN protocol because it cannot use the IOTA infrastructure directly even though it is built on the IOTA core protocol.

As mentioned above, MicroHash is the first smart contract on the IOTA Tangle.

IOTA Tangle is the network’s directed acyclic graph (DAG) based transaction settlement and data integrity layer that deals with the Internet-of-Things. This smart contract is built on the fourth layer of the intricate smart contact mechanism of the IOTA blockchain. The four layers on which MicroHash is deployed are:

• 1^st layer: IOTA – deals with data integrity, transmission and persistence
• 2^nd layer: Qubic Lite – this is the blockchain’s quorum consensus framework.
• 3^rd layer: TOQEN – this is a qApp on Qubic Lite that simulates a token blockchain.
• 4^th layer: MicroHash – smart contract, built on the TOQEN protocol.

The IOTA foundation developed Qubic as a protocol that specifies the network’s solutions for smart contracts. Although the development team is yet to issue full technical details regarding Qubic, many believe that it will feature an implementation concept for decentralized computing. For now, smart contracts cannot be deployed directly on top of IOTA because this would require the adjustment of the IOTA core protocol. Instead, they are built on top of several layers, such as in the case of MicroHash, which was built on four layers.

Initially, the IOTA blockchain was not mean to accommodate smart contracts. For this reason, smart contracts are normally deployed as an additional layer on top of the IOTA core protocol. The layers were introduced recently in preparation for the launch of the first smart contact, MicroHash.

Qubic is a protocol that stipulates IOTA’s solution for quorum-based computations such as smart contracts, oracle machines and outsourced computations. This protocol facilitates general-purpose, trustless, cloud-based, fog-based, and multiprocessing capabilities on the IOTA Tangle. In the long run, Qubic will enable people to use idle computer processing power for their computational needs as they provide security on the IOTA blockchain.

On the other hand, TOQEN is a third layer digital currency token at enables smart contracts on the IOTA Tangle. As noted earlier, the native IOTA token does not support smart contracts, a factor that influenced the creation of TOQEN. Fundamentally, the TOQEN protocol is a side-chain whose native cryptocurrency token is TQN. In the related press statement, IOTA mentioned that the introduction of the TOQEN network eased the process of initiating smart contracts.

The launch of MicroHash is expected to the beginning of the deployment of several similar contracts on the IOTA Tangle. Soon, the IOTA blockchain will prove to a fierce competitor to the Ethereum network, the leading smart contact platform in the world. To avoid such a scenario, it is imperative for the Ethereum blockchain to solve its scalability challenges.