UNOPS, a service and technical advisory arm to the United Nations, and cryptocurrency project IOTA have announced a partnership that seeks to help UNOPS benefit from IOTA’s open-source distributed ledger and Tangle technology to improve processes and cut down on middle-men. Yoshiyuki Yamamoto, UNOPS Special Advisor on Blockchain Technology, said:”We share a vision where machines, devices, sensors and people connect and communicate to each other — it’s the world of ‘Industry 4.0.’ Harnessing technology that allows for these processes to work simultaneously, without the need for intermediaries, will help expedite our mission as an organization.”Part of UNOPS’ interest in IOTA is the open technology that drives the blockchain, which eases communications and supply chain bottlenecks. As a global organization empowering the UN’s humanitarian projects, UNOPS adheres to strict accountability standards, which IOTA’s transparent ledger can complement. UNOPS delivered $1.8 billion in projects in 2017 and operates in 80 countries. Their mission states:”UNOPS helps the UN and its partners provide peace and security, humanitarian and development solutions. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve peace and sustainable development… Our services cover infrastructure, project management, procurement, financial management and human resources.”IOTA implements Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), also known as Tangle, which operate as a mesh network. The protocol is less resource-intensive and scales better than traditional protocols because it does not rely on every node having a full copy of the blockchain. Instead, the Tangle protocol offloads this work to the entire network of nodes which depend on each other to verify transactions. IOTA has been gaining key partnerships. IOTA’s Internet of Things protocol has attracted enterprises interested in making their business processes more efficient. As CCN reported on May 20, this new partnership comes after the University College London announced that it was cutting ties with IOTA due to legal threats the IOTA Foundation made to white hat security researchers who disclosed vulnerabilities about the project. The IOTA price (MIOTA) has steadily declined in recent days, trending with the overall market. In the last 24 hours, it has dropped 2.65 percent to $1.50, but has gained 2.84 percent against BTC during the same time frame. IOTA currently ranks as the 10th-most valuable cryptocurrency, with a circulating market cap of $4.2 billion