The Nectar DevNet is an improvement of the Pollen Testnet, introduced in June 2020.
The Iota Foundation has launched the Nectar DevNet, marking another step forward on the road to Iota 2.0.
The Iota developer unveiled the Nectar DevNet on Wednesday in a blog post, which is part of the work leading up to the release of Iota 2.0 in late 2021.
The Nectar DevNet is an augmentation of the Pollen Testnet, releases in June 2020, and comes after the Chrysalis upgrade. The Iota 2.0 DevNet lays the groundwork for the Tangle network’s transition to a feeless, permissionless, and fully decentralized state.
One of the primary components of the Nectar DevNet, according to the release, is the lack of a centralized coordinator. The traditional Coordinator system will replace by a decentralized Coordicide in Iota 2.0.
An attack against Iota’s native wallet Trinity in February 2020 resulted in a month-long network downtime to prevent further damage.
After the Trinity wallet hack, Iota has moved on with its plans for full decentralization and an incentivized Coordicide. The Iota Foundation said that Nectar will use network consensus validation, with honest nodes rewarded with mana.
According to William Sanders, head of research at the Iota Foundation, the incentive to join comes from the desire to use the network. Tangle users that want to run DApps, spend tokens, or safeguard data have an incentive to accumulate mana. Mana isn’t a token because it can’t be traded; its value is determined by network access demand.
Tokenization
Tokenization is another significant feature of the Nectar Iota 2.0 DevNet, in addition to feeless transactions and total decentralization. It allows users to create digital assets such as utility currencies and nonfungible tokens on the Iota network.
Nectar also has a modular architecture that allows developers to focus on isolated parts for bug fixes and updates.
In response to the Nectar DevNet release, IOTA 2.0 research prototype co-founder Dominik Schiener called it a game-changer. Schiener says the IOTA team is excited to hear feedback on Nectar’s potential ahead of the main Coordicide release.
IOTA published an Alpha version of its smart contract technology in March, allowing for trustless cross-chain transfers. Indeed, in the blockchain ecosystem, cross-chain interoperability is becoming a primary focus.
The inherent security and fee-free transfers of tokenized assets on IOTA, together with their smart contract technology, will provide formidable building blocks for DApp developers, according to Schiener.
