IOTA has seen a fairly weak period of trading during 2019 after the cryptocurrency drops by a total of 25% from the 2019 opening price to the current price of $0.2730 (as of November 2019). IOTA managed to increase by a total of 130% from the February 2019 low of $0.24 to the 2019 high of $0.55 seen in June. However, after reaching this level of resistance, IOTA rolled over and dropped by a steep 51% to the current trading level.
Despite this poor 2019 performance, IOTA still has a very promising future ahead of itself. The project has managed to position itself as the leading means of payment within the Internet-of-Things (IoT) ecosystem and will begin to thrive once the ecosystem develops further. IOTA is also taking very promising steps to become completely decentralized in 2020 as they begin the process to remove the IOTA coordinator which currently secures the IOTA network. Furthermore, the IOTA team has released a program that aims to spur development on the IOTA network and has also recently released the world's first and decentralized marketplace. There is also evidence that IOTA has been on a hiring spree lately which shows that the team may be accelerating after hiring 9 new members in a few months.
For the reasons highlighted above I strongly believe that IOTA will be able to increase by a total of 270% from the current trading price to reach my target of $1.00 at some point during 2020. This, in my opinion, is a pretty conservative estimate and if IOTA does manage to remove the coordinator then we may see IOTA surging much higher toward the $2.00 level.
In this article, I’ll firstly cover a range of topics that I believe will influence IOTA in reaching my $1 target during 2020 and then analyze IOTA on the long term daily charts to highlight some areas of resistance on the way toward the target.
IOTA Positioned To Surge As IoT Ecosystem Grows
IOTA is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that differs from the majoirty of cryptocurrencies as it replaces the traditional blockchain technology with a new mechanism known as Tangle. Tangle allows for a quantum-secure protocol that allows for zero fees, infinite scalability, fast transactions, and secure data transfer.
IOTA is scalable due to the fact that the network becomes faster as more network members are added to the network. The fact that IOTA does not use a blockchain means that there are no miners leading to zero transaction fees on the network. Furthermore, their Winternitz Signature cryptography technology allows for IOTA to be Quantum immune ensuring future-proof stability.
Founded in 2015 by David Sønstebø, IOTA was intended to become the main means of payments between machines that are hooked into the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. IOTA wants to become the standard payment mechanism used by machines in the machine-to-machine economy. To find out more about IOTA, check out this in-depth introduction to the project.
The growth for IOTA will come from the expansion of the Internet Of Things. The IoT market is currently in its infancy but it is expected to reach $267 billion by 2020 which extends to a further to $1.2 trillion by 2022 according to the IDC. If IOTA is positioned well to capture this market as it grows we will start to see the benefits over the next couple of years.
IOTA Introduce Their Decentralized Marketplace!
IOTA had recently announced that they have launched the world’s first autonomous and decentralized marketplace, known as the Industry Marketplace. The decentralized marketplace is aimed to greatly accelerate industrial automation and commercial machine interaction. It is designed to be a vendor-neutral platform that will help to automate the trade of physical and digital goods.
Industry Marketplace is aimed to serve Industry 4.0 which is slated to be the next generation of industrial automation. Industry 4.0 is an ecosystem in which I4.0 devices will have the ability to contain proactive decision and optimization algorithms to enable goal-oriented behaviors. This will create independent economic agents that cooperate according to market economy principles.
Holger Köther, Director of Partnerships of the IOTA Foundation said the following;
“The Industry Marketplace paves the way for secure automated trade in the manufacturing sector,”
Source: Iota Blog
IOTA Not Staying Centralized For Much Longer!
Centralization is a big no-no within the cryptocurrency community and the majoirty of us HATE it! IOTA has been highly centralized since its inception as every single transaction is run through a “coordinator” which maintains and secures the entire IOTA network. This has prevented a large proportion of the industry from investing within IOTA as they fear the centralization. However, things are all about to change with Coordicide - the process of decentralizing IOTA full by taking off their “training wheels” to remove the Coordinator and let the community maintain the network.
The removal of the Coordinator is a strong sign of maturity for IOTA and is now the number one priority for the IOTA FOundations’ Research & Development teams. As this is a huge undertaking, the process to remove the Coordinator is broken down into phases in which a Coordicide testnet will eventually be released as the first Release Candidate for an entirely new coordinator-free network. As the team is creating an entirely new node software, this testnet will help the team ascertain at which point they will be confident enough to remove the coordinator and trust the new node software which will be helped through a bounty bug program to find weaknesses in the market
The team at IOTA has taken steps further towards Coordicide after releasing its Fast Probabilistic Consensus simulator for futher testing on the road to removing the coordinator.
Partnership Paradise - IOTA In Bed With Top Level Car Manufacturers.
When it comes to partnerships, IOTA is ranked highly with the level of caliber that they pull in.
Their partnership with Volkwagen started when its Cheif Digital Officier, Johann Jungwirth, joined the IOTA supervisory board in 2018 to begin their flourishing partnership.
You see, Volkswagen is planning ahead in their e-mobility sector as it expands by $50 billion over the next few years for battery cell innovation. Furthermore, they are intending to increase their focus on autonomous driving, pWLAN (to identify potential traffic hazards), and Artificial Intelligence systems. The company has all of this data tracking capability but has nobody to transfer the data with.
The partnership with IOTA is focused on building a common protocol for the IoT communications between vehicles so data collected from cars can be transferred between manufacturers.
IOTAs drive to flourish within the automobile industry is taken further with their Jaguar Land Rover Partnership, as they team together to integrate a Smart Wallet into their vehicles. The wallet will use IOTA’s Tangle for data and value transfer. It has already been equipped on some research vehicles including the F-Pace.
The smart wallet will allow users to exchange information such as data, messages and small files. This will help to contribute to Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision which aims to avoid accidents, congestion and reduce emissions in the future. Furthermore, users can also earn money by sending their collected data back to Jaguar and make micropayments for services through the wallet.
Other notable partnerships include agreements with Cisco, Samsung, Innogy, The Government of Thailand and Land Rover. For an extensive list of all IOTA partnerships, take a look here.
IOTA has also partnered with Nova to create the Nova IOTA Cofoundery program. This program is designed to provide support for tech entrepreneurs and startups that utilize IOTA’s DLT. The project will invest in ideas and early-stage startups without the need for the founder to inject any capital. This will certainly help projects to decide to come and use IOTA over the competition.
IOTA Steady Development Continues
Overall, we can see that the team at IOTA is still busy working as they release new projects and continue to develop their protocol at the same time. Data from Santiment suggests that, although IOTA development may have slowed its pace, the team are still constantly at work with zero lapses in developmental work;
IOTA (IOTA) Price Analysis
LONG TERM - DAILY CHART
What Has Been Going On?
Taking a look at the daily chart above, we can clearly see IOTA rising in the first half o the year as it made its way up toward the $0.55 level in June 2019. IOTA was unable to break above this resistance which is provided by a short term bearish .786 Fibonacci Retracement level (drawn in red). After reaching this level of resistance, IOTA rolled over and started to fall.
IOTA continued to fall much further lower as the year progressed until strong support was found at the $0.23 level during August 2019. The cryptocurrency has rebounded from here but has failed to maintain any ground above the $0.30 level. IOTA currently faces immediate resistance at the 100-days EMA at around $0.28.
Are We Bullish Or Bearish (as of November 2019)?
As of November 2019, we are currently trading within a neutral condition as the market trades within a short term symmetrical triangle pattern. For this market to be considered bullish we would need to see IOTA rise nad break above the resistance at the $0.30 level. For this market to be considered as bearish we would need to see IOTA fall and break beneath the support at $0.25.
If IOTA was to fall beneath $0.25, we can expect immediate support at $0.2350, $0.23, and $0.2230. If IOTA was to fall beneath the support at $0.2230, this could greatly affect my 2020 prediction as IOTA would be creating fresh multi-year lows.
Where Is The Resistance On The Way Up TO $1.00?
If the bulls start to push higher, immediate resistance is located at the 100-days EMA at $0.28 and then at $0.30. If the buyers can bring the market above $0.30, resistance is located at $0.312 (100-days EMA), and $0.33. Following this, resistance can be found at $0.35, $0.37, and $0.40.
Above $0.40, short term resistance lies at $0.42, $0.25, and $0.4755 (short term bearish .618 Fib Retracement). Higher resistance then lies at $).50 and $0.55 (short term bearish .786 Fibonacci Retracement level).
A break above $0.55 would create fresh highs for 2019 and immediate resistance can then be expected at $0.60 which is provided by a long term bearish .382 Fibonacci Retracement level. Following this, resistance can be found at $0.640, $0.68, $0.72 (.5 Fib Retracement), and $0.74. Above this, resistance lies at $0.80, and $0.84 which is resistance provided by the long term .618 Fibonacci Retracement level.
If the bulls can continue to clear resistance at $0.90 and $0.95, they will be free to make an attempt at my 2020 target of $1.00.
Conclusion
IOTA will certainly see a strong few years of growth ahead of itself if it can continue to position itself as the leading means of payment in the IoT ecosystem. The project is likely to see a further boost in 2020 due to the fact that IOTA will become entirely decentralized as it completes the process of removing the Coordinator.
For the reasons discussed above, IOTA has a very strong potential to be able to surge by 270% from the current price to reach my 2020 target of $1.00. To reach this target, IOTA will firstly need to overcome strong resistance at $0.30, $0.47, and $0.55. Above this, resistance lies at $0.60, $0.72, and $0.84. If the IOTA bulls can clear these areas, they will be free to make an attempt at $1.00.
