<center>![iota (1).jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTEsRtXPkziLPbSXnEQRWyRBv9LWEKVZbMs1Hc2AmqiMc/iota%20(1).jpg)</center>

On January 1st, I announced that to kick off the year, I'd be posting about my crypto portfolio: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@davidpakman/welcome-to-2018-my-cryptocurrency-portfolio

I'll be posting about each currency I hold in the order I took positions in them. Here are the posts so far:

--Bitcoin (BTC): https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@davidpakman/my-crypto-portfolio-day-1-bitcoin
--Ethereum (ETH): https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@davidpakman/my-crypto-portfolio-coin-2-ethereum-eth
--Litecoin (LTC): https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@davidpakman/my-crypto-portfolio-coin-3-litecoin-ltc
--NEO & GAS: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@davidpakman/my-crypto-portfolio-coins-4-and-5-neo-and-gas

Today, I'll talk about the 6th crypto I acquired, IOTA, which by market cap is currently the 10th biggest coin:

<center>![iota.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNQn9CajWZXGrozFfXYiEEVmcBhp5JTxEc6btvPRsRfeG/iota.jpg)</center>

What originally drew me to IOTA was not, strictly speaking, the possibility of the token increasing in value over time -- although certainly that's an underlying reason for any investment -- but rather the partnership potential for IOTA, which we've seen come to fruition over the last couple of months.

With other coins, we often are told very general and overarching possible uses, which commonly are as broad as "stores of value" or "transaction currencies," but with IOTA, there's the more specific focus on being used for secure communications and transaction payments involving machines on the Internet of Things (which in and of itself is a topic worthy of its own post). In short, however, the Internet of Things is "network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data" (Source: Wikipedia).

Because IOTA doesn't use the traditional blockchain, but rather is built on DAG technology -- its own topic, once again -- the use cases for IOTA are quite expansive.

This underlying opportunity and use for IOTA has already let to collaborations with Microsoft, Fijutsu, and a number of other major companies.

Without attempting to dig into the technology in a way that exceeds my knowledge, the advantages of the structure of IOTA as I understand them include massive scalability at very little cost.

I am holding IOTA with a long term outlook, and it currently makes up between 5% and 6% of my crypto portfolio.

Are you in IOTA? Are you proactively NOT in IOTA? In either case, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments