IOTA Foundation Announces the Details of Its Qubic Protocol

Blockchain Technology 1 min, 48 sec READ

by Nick Tsakanikas

IOTA Foundation revealed the details of Qubic protocol. Kept in secrecy for a long time, it seems like its capabilities will exceed expectations.

The much-anticipated details of the Qubic protocol were released on the IOTA Foundation’s webpage on June 3. Qubic, which stands for quorum-based computation, aims to turn the IOTA Tangle into a world supercomputer with permissionless, multiprocessing capabilities. By utilizing unused computational capacity from around the world, Qubic will enable the construction of oracle machines, outsourced computations, and smart contracts.

What is Qubic?

In short, a Qubic is any quorum-based computation that occurs under the Qubic protocol. While the variety of potential applications is limitless, the IOTA Foundation has outlined only a few examples. The oracle machines will be able to read and transmit data from the real world, such as temperature data, stock market data, or election results. It will thereafter apply them to quorum-based computational tasks, which will guarantee a high level of certainty of accuracy. Additionally, every user will be able to outsource computational or energy-intensive tasks, that will be distributed to more external devices and will return faster results. All users will be able to benefit from the system and Qubic operators will be compensated in IOTA tokens for their contribution.

IOTA Smart Contracts

The Qubic protocol also includes smart contracts. The quorum-based computation will open up new possibilities on top of the existing traditional contractual forms on other blockchains. Using Qubic, a smart contract can be turned into an oracle itself by retrieving data from multiple oracles and propagating the information back to the Tangle network. Consequently, the smart contract becomes an external source data, to be picked up by another Qubic. Finally, Qubic aims to enhance network security by exploiting the spare computational capacity of obsolete mining hardware and home PCs.

In a tweet, the IOTA foundation said with excitement that Qubic will be the most significant contribution to the IOTA project. It may still be months or years before its completion, however, its announcement paves the way for major developments in the future and could lead to IOTA’s price appreciation in the open market.