I am very wary of such projects claiming to "replace" blockchain. Blockchain is such a massive break through in computer science and economics, its a giant leap forward. IOTA being the one I most concerned about. What benefit would one gain over a fast, scalable, low cost, 100% consensus blockchain? Ethereum is launching a project called uRaiden in next few weeks that can do near free low cost transaction off chain for IOT and other micro payment use cases.