You can read more concerns about IOTA and ternary in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15980675
IOTA rebutted MIT here: https://blog.iota.org/official-iota-foundation-response-to-t...
IOTA rebutted MIT here: https://blog.iota.org/official-iota-foundation-response-to-t...
They start by implying that the MIT Media Lab isn't really MIT (what the fuck) as an ad-hominem way to dodge their criticism. Later they whine "But Zcash rolled their own crypto, why can't we?!" which shows they really don't even understand the context of what they're doing.