In 2017, IOTA was one of the hottest cryptocurrencies on the market. It promised to revolutionize the way we interact with connected devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, relying on two innovative technologies: a distributed ledger called Tangle and cryptocurrency known as MIOTA.

IOTA began life as a hardware project whose goal was to design low-cost general-purpose processors. Its founders wanted to create a platform that would be better suited than Bitcoin to handle transactions between connected devices. To solve Bitcoin’s scalability and performance issues they developed Tangle, a system of nodes, which allow each new transaction to confirm two previous transactions.

In the Tangle system, each node is responsible for confirming its own transactions, which are kept in a directed acyclic graph (DAG). There is no need for miners or blocks, and each transaction is directly linked to past transactions. This helps create a faster, cheaper and more secure system of transactions.

At the time, many experts believed that IOTA had the potential to solve some of the blockchain industry’s toughest scalability problems. However, subsequent security issues, along with market volatility, caused the cryptocurrency’s value to crash.

In 2020, IOTA announced a new strategy for improving the security of its cryptocurrency. It also unveiled a new version of its light wallet that allowed users to process transactions and securely store their funds. With these changes, IOTA's market capitalization began to recover.

Today, IOTA is seen as a cryptocurrency with promising potential. Its scalability issues have been addressed and its security is much improved. In addition, it has a strong community of developers and enthusiasts who continue to work on the project.

The potential applications of IOTA are numerous. Its public ledger could be used to register product data, track assets, enable machine-to-machine payments and more. Furthermore, it could potentially be used to manage vast systems in smart cities.

Overall, IOTA is a unique cryptocurrency that has the potential to revolutionize the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. Its capabilities and infrastructure make it suitable for various applications and deployments.