How is the IOTA cryptocurrency network useful for devices in the IoT?

Question

I found out about IOTA, which is apparently a big solution for IoT https://iota.org

But the info about feels a bit abstract to me. I'd like to know what are some specific actual real world use cases of how it can be useful?

Answer 1

I'd like to know what are some specific actual real world use cases

As per IOTA FAQ

What are the main use cases of IOTA?

IOTA's main features (in its current form) are feeless micropayments and secure data transfer and data anchoring.

The primary focus area is obviously the Internet of Things, especially in areas such as Smart Cities, Infrastructure and Smart Grid, Supply Chain, Transportation and Mobility. Apart from that, IOTA can also function as the backbone for any peer to peer transactional settlement needs, such as web payments or even remittances.

An Example I can think of: A car parked at a re-chargeable parking slot can pay fee for the usage of the re-charging facility to the utility company using this service.

Answer 2

I'd like to know what are some specific actual real world use cases

Visit "Implementing first Industry 4.0 Use Cases with IOTA DAG Tangle — Machine Tagging for Digital Twins" to read about an actual use case by Innogy SE (energy company based in Germany, a subsidiary of the German energy company RWE).

To quote briefly from the article:

In this blogpost my preferred industry 4.0 use case will be described as a first example where the IOTA protocol can be applied in practice today: IOTA for tagging of physical machines in a digital twin architecture (proof-of-concept). This use case combines some very important decentral technologies such as IPFS, IPLD and BigchainDB for file storage and database layer with the DAG (directed acyclic graph) tangle as well.

[...]

A practicable first application of a digital twin with IOTA is CarPass for vehicles telematics data. The CarPass solution securely captures telematics data (e.g. mileage, trips, environmental, maintenance data) and stores them immutable in the digital twin for private passenger, fleet or commercial vehicles.