# IOTA (IOTA): D-Score 45/100 — Moderately Decentralized

**BlockIndex D-Score: 45/100 (Moderately Decentralized).** IOTA (IOTA) is a Layer 1 cryptocurrency using DPoS consensus. IOTA: Feeless DAG-based Layer-1 DLT with Move smart contracts, EVM compatibility and enterprise interoperability.

_Source: https://blockindex.ai/coin/iota · Data by BlockIndex.AI · Updated 2026-06-19_

## D-Score breakdown (0-100, higher means more decentralized)
| Component | Score |
| --- | --- |
| Overall D-Score | 45 |
| Node distribution | 10 |
| Initial distribution | 0 |
| Governance | 16 |
| Age and history | 14 |
| Autonomy | 5 |

## Key facts
- Layer: Layer 1
- Consensus: DPoS (Other)
- Launch: ICO (2015)
- Founder: David Sønstebø, Sergey Ivancheglo, Dominik Schiener, Serguei Popov
- VC funded: Yes
- Max supply: N/A
- Circulating: 4,493,028,650

## Market data (as of 2026-06-19)
- Price: $0.05
- Market cap: $205.77M
- 24h volume: $8.43M
- 24h change: -2.86% · 7d change: -1.19%

## About
IOTA is a long-running distributed ledger technology (DLT) project that departs from traditional blockchain architectures by operating on a Directed Acyclic Graph called the Tangle. Conceived from the Jinn project in 2014 and publicly launched via a crowdsale in 2015, IOTA’s mainnet went live in July 2016. The project was created to enable feeless, high-throughput value and data transfer optimized for Internet-of-Things (IoT) scenarios and real-world asset use cases. Over its history IOTA has evolved from an experimental DAG experiment into a production-focused Layer-1 DLT ecosystem with a legally established steward, the IOTA Foundation, headquartered in Berlin since November 2017.

Technically, IOTA distinguishes itself through its object-centric ledger model and multi-VM strategy. The mainnet supports Move-based smart contracts running on a MoveVM while offering a Layer-2 EVM environment for Solidity compatibility and dApp migration. The protocol employs lightweight proof-of-work for spam protection at the transaction level rather than traditional mining; the roadmap described under the IOTA Rebased and Starfish initiatives migrates the consensus toward a Delegated Proof‑of‑Stake (dPoS) validator committee model with reputation scoring. In 2025 the protocol progressed through multiple releases (protocol versions 13–17) and architectural changes such as committee size increases, ingestion limit APIs, and BigInt-compatible supply types. The network’s design emphasizes parallel transaction processing, low-latency confirmations, and the ability to scale through sharding (Starfish) and omnichain bridges.

IOTA’s practical use cases center on IoT telemetry, real-world asset tokenization, identity and credential frameworks, and enterprise integrations. The project supports IOTA Identity and notarization features, and in 2025 furthered interoperability with integrations to LayerZero and Stargate, connecting IOTA to 150+ chains and enabling omnichain fungible token flows. Institutional custody and key-management integrations (notably BitGo and Turnkey) expanded access to regulated and enterprise actors. Ecosystem programs such as the IOTA Business Innovation Program (May 15, 2025) and pilot initiatives (including ADAPT trade infrastructure for Africa) illustrate active efforts to drive real-world adoption, while ongoing testnet/devnet deployments of Starfish and IOTA Names demonstrate steady developer activity.

Tokenomics and monetary policy have been evolving alongside protocol changes. IOTA’s token is native to its DAG-based mainnet rather than an ERC‑20 or other smart‑contract token, and circulating supply figures reported across sources center around ~4.19B–4.2B IOTA with total supply figures varying by source. The project’s economic design is shifting under IOTA Rebased toward fee-based transaction models, fee‑burning options, and delegated validator reward mechanisms. Traditional premine or block‑reward dev funds are not described in the provided materials; no explicit premine percentage or public initial percentage (PIP) was found in the extracted data. Staking and validator‑participation mechanisms are part of the evolving stack, supported through official clients such as Firefly and the validator onboarding tooling.

Governance is foundation‑led with community participation and staged upgrade processes coordinated by the IOTA Foundation. While the Foundation remains the legal steward and coordinates validator onboarding and major protocol releases, a move to a larger validator committee and reputation scoring is intended to increase decentralization. Governance in practice today combines foundation stewardship, developer governance input, and community tools; no explicit on‑chain DAO governance mechanism was described in the provided summaries. Security history includes notable incidents (the 2017 Curl vulnerability, 2018 seed generator compromises, and the 2020 Trinity Wallet breach) that shaped a long program of audits and protocol hardening. The project’s 2025 activity—protocol releases, audits, omnichain integrations, and custody support—signals an emphasis on enterprise readiness and interoperability while continuing to manage legacy security risk and upgrade complexity.

## Links
- Website: https://www.iota.org/
- Whitepaper: N/A
- GitHub: https://github.com/iotaledger/firefly/releases

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About the D-Score: BlockIndex.AI rates decentralization from 0 to 100 across node distribution, initial distribution, governance, age and history, and autonomy. Methodology: https://blockindex.ai/dscore