IOTA is Using Quantum Resistant Signature Scheme

By Chetna Phour

The open source distributed ledger, IOTA is in news because of making design choice which is fundamentally different from other distributed ledgers.

One of these choices is quantum resistant signature scheme. The scheme does not allow spending multiple times from the same address, without putting the funds on that address at risk. Those who are new to IOTA, the address system might be confusing for them. In traditional blockchain based systems such as Bitcoin, your wallet address can be reused but in IOTA the address is used just once for outgoing transactions. It means, there is no restriction to the number of transactions an address can receive. But when the funds from that address are used to make a transaction, the address cannot be used anymore. The reason behind this is when you make an outgoing transaction a part of the private key of that specific address is revealed. With the help of this revealed address, someone can hack the full private key and can gain access to your address and funds.  When you make more outgoing transactions with the same address it becomes easy for hackers to access your private key. Here, one thing is important that if someone has the access of your private key it does not mean that the address of your seed or the private key of the other address associated with your seed can be revealed.

In short, it is safe to receive any number of transactions on a given address until an outgoing transaction is made. After making an outgoing transaction, this address should not be reused.

IOTA is the first open source distributed ledger which is built to power the future of the Internet of Things (IoT) with fee-less micro-transactions and data integrity for machines. IOTA is looking forward to building the backbone of the next industrial revolution where machines exchange value and information without the intervention of humans.

According to the critics, it would be better if IOTA has the option of at least one reusable address like traditional bank accounts which can safely be used for many things such as payments.