IOTA investors have been dissatisfied with the current wallet solution for a while. Almost every update results in a few day suspension of the network and a long wait to see if the fund will be transferred.
However, there might be a solution ready. And it looks beyond IOTA itself.
CarrIOTA is a personal IoT Bank that lets you manage all IoT appliances that are in the user’s possession. While the name might be misleading, CarrIOTA will deal with much more than just storing IOTA.
However, since IOTA is the primary currency used for IoT and M2M payments, it will be the dominant currency of the platform.
While the definition has not been finalised yet, the platform will work as a bank – a customer is both an owner and a user, who can use an online payment processor like PayPal.
Here are some crucial aspects of CarrIOTA:
- It won’t function as a traditional cryptocurrency wallet
- It acts as a manager for various for the IoT appliances
- It will distribute the crypto payments between the IoT appliances
Why Do We Need CarrIOTA?
In case you’re wondering where the name comes from – CarrIOTA has been designed by a developer Roman Semko who often referred to 100 mIOTAs as ‘carriota’.
The core idea behind CarrIOTA is to create a cryptocurrency manager that goes beyond a well-known cryptocurrency wallet. Instead, it acts as a carrier and complete manager of entities, wallets and the flow of value between them.
Here are several reasons behind launching CarrIOTA:
Dissatisfaction with the current official IOTA wallet
IOTA is an entirely new technology that had become more popular than anticipated. At the moment, the team is more focused on polishing the software, rather than a general look of IOTA and its wallet.
However, all of these have severely affected the IOTA customer experience journey. Not to mention the transaction speed that was beyond the expectations.
Managing multiple wallets
One of the most significant issues that IOTA is facing is the discrepancy between what it was designed for and its current capabilities.
IOTA functions as a primary payment method for the IoT industry. To put it in layman terms – if your fridge runs out of milk, it will send you a notification which you can approve. But it will you be your fridge that orders, and pays, for the milk itself.
Now, these payments will have to be processed by something, and the currency will have to be stored somewhere. If everything were going to stay as it is, a user would need multiple wallets for managing all appliances, and each one of them would require an 81-character long seed.
With CarrIOTA, users will have access to all of their wallets in one application. All that is needed is one login, and all wallets will be gathered there.
The wallet should have limited access
The central question that arises from having all wallets in one is the security. Since they’re all collected together, there’s also only one password needed to access them all.
But with CarrIOTA, users can be separated from wallets. Hence, if you’re sharing a household and you also want everyone to have access to the wallets, you can limit everyone’s access.
One user could be a superuser and have access to all seeds and wallets. While others will have restricted access to specific wallets.
Easier access
One of the most troublesome aspects of cryptocurrency wallets is the fact that they cannot be as easily accessed as traditional bank accounts of PayPal.
CarrIOTA solves this problem by a simple username and password combination which will grant limited access to a wallet. Users will be able to check their funds, and perhaps make small transactions, while keeping the wallet secure.
Automatic Transactions
A lot of is lacking when comparing cryptocurrency wallets to traditional bank accounts or PayPal. Since blockchain, IOTA and IoT are supposed to make our lives easier, so should the payment system.
CarrIOTA can divide transactions into two recurring groups:
- Standing Orders – operations that get executed periodically (bills, rent etc.)
- Direct Debits – transactions that are completed upon a third party request (online shopping)
IOTA Conversion
Those who have already invested in IOTA know the process is somewhat complicated and lengthy.
CarrIOTA, on the other hand, wants to introduce a direct conversion between IOTA and fiat currency. And all of that with as much as a mouse click directly from a wallet.
The control and security of seeds
Nobody apart from the sole owner of the wallet will have access to the stored seeds. The system and all its perks are in the absolute control of a user.
How Does CarrIOTA Work
CarrioIOTA will primarily work as an application operating on hardware and managing wallets. It can be run either as a stand-alone app on a personal computer or as a 24/7 service on a home server (accessible by a browser).
Those entities that don’t have access to the manager will operate on an API layer (run on IOTA Tangle). One of those could be previously mentioned direct debits.
The most important thing is that it’s a user that decides how and from where the manager should be accessed. Whether it’s a computer, local network, or a secret URL – it’s you who’s in control.
Currently, there are only plans on developing a native mobile app, but the manager will be accessible through a browser.
As it stands, the service runs on any Linux computer. There are already experiments to make it work on a SBC, such as Raspberry Pi. Those could be plugged into a home-based router with the CarrIOTA USD Card.
Final Thoughts
There is a multitude of inventions coming out every day in the crypto-world. However, CarrIOTA is definitely one of the most exciting additions that have been released recently.
While the name is not the best, it’s just a suggestion and subject to alteration in the future.
CarrIOTA is not only about to revolutionise the IoT industry but cryptocurrency wallets as well. Let’s hope that CarrIOTA, the personal IOTA bank, will teach others a lesson that cryptocurrency can indeed make everyone’s life easier.
And if you haven’t invested in IOTA yet – do it via Bitfinex before the price goes up.
