It has been quite a while since I posted an ICO review. In that time we have seen the market for ICO launched projects rise and fall along with the general trend for cryptocurrency as a whole. Some coins have seen enormous gains, other have crashed completely. Scams have been exposed, people have made enough money to never work again in their lives while others have lost their life saving. However life goes on, and cryptocurrency continues onward into the future.

In this steemit post we will discuss a very interesting project that I feel has been some what overlooked in favor of other, frankly worse, projects that have launched an ICO. That project is Substratum. Substratum wishes to develop a decentralized, censorship resistant, open-source internet or Web 3.0. Anyone able to allocate spare computing resources can run a node on the network and earn via the levels of traffic they route. This will be achieved by utilizing the Ethereum blockchain to facilitate micro-transactions on a per request basis. On top of all of this will be the CryptoPay payment gateway that will allow users to exchange fiat and crypto value through their browser.

Mission

From the Substratum whitepaper:

"Substratum is creating an open-source foundation for a decentralized web which will provide unrestricted access to content and sharing of information for users across the globe."

The ambition is to create a new foundational layer (substrate) upon which websites will be hosted and connected to potential visitors, all while providing the user friendly front ends that 99% of internet users are comfortable navigating.

In the white paper the Substratum team points to the increasing centralization that the internet we use today has experienced. As use skyrocketed, hubs began to develop that allowed the flow of traffic to reached young and fledging internet sites. As more and more users flocked this issue became exasperated. The problem is that these centralized points have made it easier for information to be censored and data to be breached and stolen.

Another key issue is privacy. One's use of the internet is pretty much open to any and all potential eavesdroppers unless preventative steps are taken before hand. Substratum wishes to change that completely by using a completely new routing system that covers your connection through the various nodes, thus eliminating the threat of ISP interference and hacking as well as being resistant to corporate or governmental surveillance and restrictions.

The hope is to completely rebuild the architecture of the internet into a completely new system, detached from the old one in most regards. They plan to establish the SubstratumDNS protocol which will include AI and will manage DNS requests along with the geolocation of the requestor and link that with the closest available SubstratumNode able to fulfill said request. An advanced node UI will allow operators to control the amount of dedicated computing power permitted to the node.

Team

Justin Tabb, co founder of Substratum, provides interesting insight into the pressing dilemma of internet privacy:

"One day, Americans might wake up and realize they don’t like big brother watching over their shoulder and having corporations track everything they do. And when that happens, Substratum will be there."

Justin Tabb: Co-founder and CEO of Substratum. Experienced and knowledgeable, he founded the web development company OverridePro that provides digital solutions to numerous large companies including Hewlett Packard, Apple, and Facebook.

Abram Cookson: Co-founder and CIO, Cookson brings nearly 2 decades of experience in software development to the project. He has worked closely with both small business and fortune 500 companies alike.

B.J Allmon: Co-founder and COO, B.J Allmon has worked in fields like product engineering for over 20 years. He is also an author and speaker.

Besides these big figures the rest of the team is certainly not short of competence. Chief Technology Officer Steve Swing has three decades of expertise, ranging from software development to independent consultancy. Other team members and contributors possess skills that emphasize the very complex task at hand. When it comes to completely overhauling what we understand is as the internet, a competent and wise team is certainly a requirement that must be met.

ICO

The ICO took place in August of 2017. The team was able to raise 13.8 million USD in the distribution of the ERC-20 standard token (ticker: SUB) in very short order. Initial token value was between 3 and 5 cents per token. It later saw a price explosion in December, reaching over 3 dollars per token before settling down at it's current price around 86 cents. SUB is currently listed on a few major exchanges including Binance and HitBTC.

While price prediction is not the most important topic when it comes to this project, if they are successful in achieving the goals of the roadmap and can achieve wide adoption then Substratum could see very large percentage gains in the future.

Community

Nearly every one of these projects that bootstrap from the ground up via crowdsourcing have very strong core fans that support the project through ups and downs. There is currently an active reddit for Substratum, as well as Telegram and Slack channels. Some however have critized the need for more communication from the team and for that communication to come on a more consistent basis. Others claim their concerns are leading to them being banned from the Telegram chat as FUDsters. Whatever the case is Substratum needs to get it's ducks in a row with regards to communication, because in the fast paced world of crypto that can mean life or death for any project.

However with the recent wave of investment that flooded into crypto came many an inexperienced and short sighted trader, ones who tend to lack the understanding over what exactly they are investing into. FUD has plagued the Substratum community, which is to be expected of any project at this point. However, a major rumour that Justin Tabb was moving funds from the Substratum wallet proved unsubstantiated.

Future

The roadmap was updated recently, pushing the beta launch back until late 2017/early 2018. Another update is slated to be released in the near future that will likely push it back further to mid 2018. People tend to be wary of projects that do not yet have a working product upon the launch of the ICO, and especially ones where the product could be years out. However when one is talking about rebuilding the internet, the proper steps need to be taken, ensuring that the system works properly and works securely. This must be done in combination with sourcing early adopters of a scale that could potentially launch the product into the mainstream.

Overall I believe Substratum could be a good long term prospect. However it is up to the individual to do their due-diligence and research whatever investment they seek to procure. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. And remember that this is not investment advice, only a detailed analysis.

And maybe one day in the future you will be able to read my articles on a Substratum powered internet ;)