IOTA, Pantos and TU Wien Announce Opening of Christian Doppler Laboratory for DLT Research

We are proud to announce that the IOTA Foundation is joining the new Christian Doppler LaboratoryBlockchain Technologies for the Internet of Things (CDL-BOT), as an industrial partner. A research group housed at the Institute for Information Systems Engineering at TU Wien will provide cutting-edge research on DLT interoperability, the intersection of DLT with the Internet of Things and developer support offerings.

Today, November 26th 2020, Federal Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs in Austria, Dr Margarethe Schramböck officially opened the laboratory in a digital ceremony joined by our Co-founder and Co-chair of the IOTA Board of Directors, Dominik Schiener. Joint research in a network of leading universities, public research bodies, and private sector partnerships are key to the mission of the IOTA Foundation in developing open source technologies and infrastructure for a trusted Internet of Things.  

The CDL-BOT is a long-term research project expected to run for seven years, employing several postdoctoral and doctoral students under the supervision of Prof. Stefan Schulte. For the IOTA Foundation, the setup of this project is uniquely geared not only to expand research on the IOTA Tangle and its applications in the Internet of Things itself but also to look beyond the IOTA protocol in order to further the European DLT ecosystem. This requires novel mechanisms to enable DLT interoperability ranging from cross-blockchain token transfers or atomic swaps to cross-blockchain smart contract invocation and interaction, as well as providing client-side blockchain interoperability through developer support.  

Prof. Stefan Schulte, who is leading the newly established lab remarked:“With the rising number of potential application areas for DLT-based payments and data exchange in the Internet of Things, new DLTs have to be integrated, and interoperability between different DLTs becomes necessary. I am looking forward to doing joint research with the IOTA Foundation and Pantos in order to find novel solutions to this highly topical topic.”

The Christian Doppler Laboratory is funded by the state-backed Christian Doppler Gesellschaft, an Austrian pioneer in facilitating successful cooperation between science and the private sector. The cooperation will contribute to the development of products and processes at the IOTA Foundation and Pantos, a subsidiary of Bitpanda. With a track record of 25 years, CD Laboratories have proven their efficiency in stimulating novel collaborations that benefit science, society and the private sector simultaneously.

Eric Demuth, Co-Founder and CEO of Bitpanda said:“To bring the industry to the next level, the interoperability of blockchains as well as the integrity of data should be a top priority. We believe that our partnership with the Christian Doppler Gesellschaft, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs as well as the IOTA Foundation enables us to stay at the forefront of interoperability development in order to solve one of the biggest complexities in this young but steadily maturing industry.”

For the IOTA Foundation, the Christian Doppler Laboratory is another step in strengthening academic research about the Tangle and doing so in partnership with leading European private sector initiatives, ensuring the relevance of such activities across industries. As the DLT industry evolves, furthering the interoperability of digital assets and allowing them to connect across organizations and processes is a critical challenge that can be uniquely addressed by merging the expertise of Pantos and IOTA with leading voices from academia.

Dominik Schiener, Co-founder and Co-chair of the Board of Directors, IOTA Foundation, commented on the initiative: “We are honored to be part of this long-term research project and are grateful to the Christian Doppler Gesellschaft and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Digital and Economic Affairs for acknowledging and supporting the enormous potential of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology towards building a more transparent, trusted and connected economy. Together with the world-leading academic institution TU Wien and Pantos as a cutting-edge technology provider, we will jointly focus on the interoperable transfer of digital assets and trusted Internet of Things while expanding our footprint in Austria specifically.”

About the TU Wien: TU Wien was founded in 1815 as Imperial-Royal Polytechnical Institute. It was the first University of Technology within present-day German-speaking Europe. Today, the university finds high international and domestic recognition in teaching as well as in research and is a highly esteemed partner of innovation-oriented enterprises. CDL-BOT is established at TU Wien’s Faculty of Informatics, which is one of the leading faculties of Computer Science and Information Systems in Europe. Among other research topics, the Faculty of Informatics also hosts a number of leading researchers in the field of DLTs and blockchains — both with regard to fundamental and applied research. Results from this research have recently been awarded the Best Paper Award at the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Blockchain.  

About Pantos: Pantos is a scientific research project, which aims to solve one of the key technical barriers in the crypto and digital asset space: interoperability between blockchains. The Pantos project’s goal is to offer a unifying solution for the fragmented blockchain and cryptocurrency space.  

About Bitpanda: Bitpanda is a leading European neobroker on a mission to democratize the complex world of investing. Founded in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer, the company is a firm believer in transparency and making it as easy as possible for everyone to start investing. Bitpanda removes complicated financial barriers by harnessing the innovative power of digitized assets and blockchain technology. With low fees, 24/7 trading, and real-time settlement, Bitpanda empowers users to shape their financial futures — on their own terms.  

About IOTA Foundation: IOTA is a global non-profit foundation supporting the research and development of new distributed ledger technologies (DLT), including the IOTA Tangle. The IOTA Tangle solves the fundamental shortcomings of blockchain: scalability, environmental sustainability and cost. IOTA is an open-source protocol connecting the human economy with the machine economy by facilitating novel Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interactions, including secure data transfer and feeless micropayments.  

To learn more visit www.iota.org, the IOTA Foundation YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter.