IOTA Completes Major Consensus Upgrade, Mainnet Switches from Mysticeti to Starfish

According to official announcements, the blockchain infrastructure protocol project IOTA has completed a major consensus upgrade, migrating the IOTA mainnet from Mysticeti to Starfish. Cross-border trade systems operate across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes; thus, the infrastructure underpinning trade, logistics, and regulatory environments must remain reliable even under unpredictable real-world conditions. As an evolutionary iteration of the consensus engine Mysticeti, Starfish represents a novel prototype of distributed ledger technology that decouples the consensus process from validator synchronization. This design ensures network reliability and stability—even if certain validator nodes experience latency or disconnection—much like a starfish, which can regenerate lost limbs without dying. Starfish’s design goals extend beyond performance enhancement: it aims to reinforce IOTA’s position as a foundational platform for global trade and regulated systems. Starfish recognizes that global trade systems must remain available despite latency, volatility, and partial failures—and with Starfish, IOTA can continue advancing and recovering even amid unstable participation.