“Qubic is dead; Smart Contracts are the future,” says IOTA’s Sønstebø

The IOTA Foundation recently presented a rebranding strategy, which involved outsourcing IOTA’s smart contracts from Qubic. Qubic was one of IOTA’s most-awaited projects. According to the firm, the Qubic project would have helped add smart contracts, oracles and outsourced calculations to IOTA.

After the rebranding strategy, the IOTA community got confused and a discussion on whether IOTA had abandoned Qubic ensued. One IOTA enthusiast asked what Qubic purpose was and why the foundation was developing it.

Replying to these questions, IOTA’s co-founder David Sønstebø unsettled the community further.

He said,

“JacQ that’s a good enough summary of where the Qubic project was headed, but now we are pivoting to focus on IOTA Smart Contracts which are less exotic and easier to bring adoption to.”

The failure of JINN had a ripple effect that affected Qubic

Realizing that his answer had brought about more confusion, he set up an “Ask Me Anything” session via Reddit to cover the topic comprehensively. He explained the differences between Qubic and IOTA’s smart contracts and also talked about Qubic’s failed version.

Sønstebø noted that the failure of JINN resulted in a public dispute that saw Sergey Ivanchelgo, the former founder of IOTA, leave the foundation. As a result, it did not make sense to invest further resources in Qubic. Instead, Sønstebø said that the firm deemed it fit to focus on the broad adaptation of IOTA technology.

In the AMA session, he clarified that,

“IOTA Foundation has no plans to continue developing Qubic, no. If it happens that someone picks up on the work we have done and deliver, we will certainly look into collaborating, but at the moment it’s not a priority. It will start with the PoC and blog post on Monday. Everything IF has built of Qubic will be opened for curious CS enthusiasts.”

Smart Contracts hold more promise

According to Sønstebø, outsourced calculations, oracles, and conditional transactions/ smart contracts are still part of the Foundation’s roadmap. He added that unlike Qubic, IOTA’s smart contracts would be timely and immediately applicable to “real world” issues.

On top of this, Sønstebø said that the IOTA Foundation is currently focused on leaving the pilot phase of the IOTA Tangle and incorporate the technology in products. He noted that while smart contracts are an essential part of this move, the firm would only add basic functionalities for now. This is because most use cases of smart contracts do not yet require complex Turing Complete functionality, according to him.

Do you think IOTA’s decision to ditch Qubic will have an impact on the price performance of its coin? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.