Aiming for Simple

The new IOTA nodes (Hornet and Bee) and the Chrysalis protocol upgrade promise a significant step-change in the utility of the IOTA network. This will make it easier and cheaper to run nodes, and to transact on the network. So this is perhaps a good time to also think about how easy it is to discover and use all the functionality that the IOTA protocol affords.

Feedback from our community and partners, particularly those less experienced, suggests that we may have sacrificed discoverability for the sake of branding. Today, we begin to address this. Our guiding principles are as follows:

IOTA is the main brand.
IOTA product names should aim to reflect the actual function of the product.
If the product is human-facing, such as a wallet, then a memorable human-friendly name is desirable. The name, however, should ideally be followed by the function. eg Trinity Wallet.
If the product is developer-facing, the name should give as much information as possible about the function.
Products should adhere to the norms of expected behaviour. For example, API and library behaviour should closely match other products outside the IOTA ecosystem.

The aim of the above is to reduce the cognitive burden on new players in the ecosystem. You should not need to understand all the idiosyncrasies of IOTA, in order to use the network, either as a developer or an end-user.

The first products to be renamed will be:

IOTA Streams. Previously known as MAM (Masked Authenticated Messaging), this is a multi-functional layer 2 protocol, which can be used for different types of data transmission (eg streaming data). The protocol has been rewritten from the ground up to allow a lot more flexibility, functionality and ease of use. More on this very soon.
IOTA Smart Contracts. Previously a sub-domain of the Qubic project, this will now be elevated to a flagship project to give it the deserved visibility. Smart contract functionality is one of the most requested features on IOTA.
IOTA Access. This is a lightweight and highly flexible access-control framework and language for resource-constrained settings, such as embedded devices, allowing reliable and secure human-machine interactions.

We are also undertaking a review of our client libraries and APIs, to better match our guiding principles, especially with regards to naming, ease of use and expected behaviour.

If you have any questions, suggestions or other feedback, please join us on the #general channel of the IOTA Discord.