IOTA is a great project to invest in but first you need to know some things about it:
* **It is not based on Blockchain**
* **It has no miners**
* **It has no fees**
Tangle is the revolutionary idea that IOTA brings to the table when it comes to how transactions are deployed in the network - Before you create a new transaction, you have to verify with your device, 2 random transactions that are waiting for confirmation in the network.
The beautiful thing about this is that the network is so lightweight that you can use any device to verify those 2 random selected transactions - Computer, laptop, phone, car and even your fridge.
This makes it possible for the main goal of IOTA - The internet of Things - Imagine your fridge having his own identity and wallet that would make him eligible to send a transaction into the network when it runs out of milk so you could enjoy it fresh the next morning.
It also solves the scalability problem in blockchain whereas more people are using the network the more congested it gets - Thats not the case with Tangle because as more machines and devices are using it the faster the entire network becomes because of the 2 transaction confirmations every node has to make.
IOTA is in the beta testings because of its security breaches where they state that a device with the power of 34 % of the network hash power could easily tamper with its data - **Thats when they introduced the Coordinator** - Every minute the Coordinator makes a normal transaction with its signature on it, and we call these **Milestones**.
Every transaction (including Milestones) verifies two other transactions. When you want to know if a transaction is verified, you find the newest Milestone and you see if it indirectly verifies your transaction (i.e it verifies your transaction, or if verifies a transaction that verifies your transaction, or if it verifies a transaction that verifies a transaction that verifies your transaction, etc).
The reason that the Milestones exist is because if you just picked any random transaction, there's the possibility that the node you're connected to is malicious and is trying to trick you into verifying its transactions.
The people who operate nodes can't fake the signatures on Milestones, so you know you can trust the Milestones to be legit.
They are planning to use the Coordinator until the network matures and it would be almost impossible for someone to have the 34% hashing power of the network to atack it.
IOTA is getting more and more attention as being the main actor in the Internet of Things bringing security and scalability to the machines.