Bio
Co-Founder & Chair of IOTA Foundation
Dominik Schiener is a German entrepreneur and co-founder of the IOTA distributed ledger project, currently serving as Co-Founder and Chair (Chairman) of the IOTA Foundation. Since the separation from fellow co-founder David Sønstebø in December 2020, Schiener has led the IOTA Foundation as its primary executive and public face, steering the organization through significant technical and strategic transitions including the evolution from the original Tangle architecture toward IOTA Rebased.
Schiener co-founded IOTA in 2015 alongside David Sønstebø, Sergey Ivancheglo, and Serguei Popov, with the goal of building a feeless distributed ledger optimized for machine-to-machine value transfer in the Internet of Things economy. In 2026, his work focuses on IOTA's new smart-contract-capable architecture, digital trade infrastructure, and tokenized real-world asset (RWA) applications.
IOTA's Technical Evolution
IOTA began with the Tangle — a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) architecture requiring each transaction to validate two prior transactions, enabling feeless transfers. Over time, the protocol underwent significant architectural revision: IOTA Stardust (2023) introduced programmable tokens and NFTs. IOTA Rebased (2025) represents the most significant architectural shift, introducing a Move VM-based smart contract environment, a new consensus mechanism with staking and validators, and standard programmability. The modern IOTA network is substantially different from the original Tangle implementation Schiener co-designed in 2015.
Current 2026 Work
As of August 2026, Schiener's primary focus as Chair of the IOTA Foundation includes:
- IOTA Rebased Architecture: Overseeing the Move VM-based L1 deployment and its staking/governance model post-2025 transition.
- Trade Worldwide Information Network (TWIN): Driving IOTA's digital trade infrastructure initiative aimed at tokenizing trade documents and enabling institutional supply chain finance applications.
- Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization: Positioning IOTA as infrastructure for tokenized trade assets and institutional DLT applications.
- Interoperability: Pursuing cross-chain integrations with LayerZero and other bridge protocols — current pilot/live status should be verified from IOTA official sources.
Key Contributions
- IOTA Co-Founding: Co-founded IOTA in 2015 with the Tangle DAG design for feeless IoT-scale value transfer.
- IOTA Foundation Leadership: Led the Foundation since 2020, guiding it through multiple protocol generations and governance transitions.
- IOTA Rebased Architecture: Championed the 2025 transition to a Move VM-based smart contract environment and validator staking.
- TWIN Trade Infrastructure: Led the development of IOTA's digital trade and supply chain tokenization initiative.
- DAG-Based DLT Research: Contributed to the theoretical and applied design of DAG-based ledger alternatives to blockchain.
Career Timeline
Co-founded IOTA with Sønstebø, Ivancheglo, and Popov; introduced the Tangle DAG architecture.
IOTA Foundation established as a German non-profit; Schiener served as co-chair alongside Sønstebø.
IOTA Foundation separated from David Sønstebø; Schiener assumed primary leadership of the Foundation.
Led IOTA Stardust upgrade; introduced programmable tokens, NFTs, and output-based UTXO model.
IOTA Rebased launched — Move VM, validator staking, and new consensus architecture.
Continues as Chair of IOTA Foundation; advancing TWIN, RWA tokenization, and interoperability.
Sources & Verification
Information last checked: August 2026
Profile at a glance
- Country
- Germany
- Status
- Active
