IOTA: Moving into its programmable era From DAG pioneer back in 2015, to currently a programmable, multi-VM settlement layer → @mementoresearch covers @iota’s Rebase mainnet upgrade from changes to their tech stack to ecosystem and partnerships. IOTA has spent the last decade proving that a feeless, miner-free Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) can function at production scale, and after the recent tech upgrades it is now accelerating its roadmap with IOTA Rebased. This is a community-mandated shift (went through a vote) that integrates Move-based smart contracts directly on Iota’s L1 and replaces their old UTXO ledger with an object model approach (basic unit of storage) inspired by Sui.  Why “Rebased” Rather than wait for the research-heavy IOTA 2.0 protocol which would take awhile to materialize, the governance vote (98% approval) endorsed a practical pivot for the direction of Iota. This consisted of integrating a MoveVM at the L1 and adopting delegated proof-of-stake mode for a faster route to decentralised smart contracts and enable dApps to be built.  What Move Brings Treats every asset (token, NFTs and contracts) as an object with explicit ownership; a design that eliminates the global shared state which constrains the EVM, allows parallel execution of non-conflicting transactions (e.g. account to account) and removes exploits such as unlimited allowances or re-entrancy (problems that has plagued Solidity and EVM).   On IOTA Rebased the object-centric DAG runs Mysticeti BFT under a dPoS validator set of up to 150 nodes, delivering sub-second finality and throughput up to 50k TPS while enabling a 10-15% staking yield funded by a controlled 6% inflation schedule in which all fees are burned (offset inflation). Dual VM Advantage Because the existing IOTA EVM roll-up remains online, Solidity teams can port their dApps across the network without rewriting contracts, while the Move stack attracts a rapidly growing pool of developers. Electric Capital noted a 50% YoY increase to 1 700 monthly contributors across Sui and Aptos in 2024 making IOTA the only public network where the two communities (Move and EVM) can share the best of both worlds → same base ledger and liquidity. The upgrade reinforces IOTA’s ambition to become a high-throughput, multi-VM settlement layer whose tokenomics trend toward neutrality as network demand grows. Spotlight on a few (real world) partnerships that Iota has completed: • Trade & Logistics Information Pipeline in Kenya → reduced export-clearance times from 25 days to 1 day by anchoring customs data on IOTA • Realize (regulated in Abu Dhabi Global Market) issued RBILL, tokenised short-term US Treasuries directly on the Tangle • EU Blockchain PCP → bringing digital product passports and decentralised IP marketplaces into pilot phase These initiatives solidifies Iota’s thesis: regulatory posture (ADGM foundation, Shari’a compliance) + new found programmability are suited to asset tokenization and supply-chain finance → not just on-chain speculation which crypto is notoriously known for.  Ecosystem Flywheel and Funding Apart from the partnerships, Iota has signalled support for developers by initiating the following: • $10 million grants programme • A Tenity-run RWA accelerator • A 9 week APAC Moveathon ($150k in prizes) • Business Innovation Program offering up to €100k per project Conclusion IOTA is no longer simply that “IoT DAG Dino”; it is revamping itself as a programmable, object-centric chain that caters to voth Move and EVM communities, a largely unlocked token supply with transparent inflation-offset mechanics, and a pipeline of real-world partnerships especially on the RWA and credentials verticals. If the mainnet launch executes as planned and the enterprise pilots scale, IOTA will stand out as a leading L1 that combines academics, regulatory groundwork and a clear distribution of dev incentives with the technical throughput required for RWA + trade settlements.