In 2017, we saw the meteoric rise of several platform coins.
Why is so much money flowing into platform coins?
The crypto market is insanely speculative at the moment, and platform coins are multipurpose by nature. This means people will be able to build apps and services on top of these platforms to cater to different markets. Thus, there’s a higher chance for a platform to go mainstream.
This is why I believe Substratum will be THE platform coin of 2018.
Take a look at the Top 50 coins on CoinMarketCap, and you can see a lot of platform coins – Ethereum, Cardano, NEM, NEO, QTUM, Lisk, Waves, etc. The list goes on and on.
The strength in a decentralized network is… decentralization. In order for that to happen, more nodes need to go online. In order for more nodes to go online, more people need to set up nodes. In order for people to set up nodes, they need to be incentivized.
That’s the problem.
Crypto fanboys love setting up nodes, and they seem to think the majority of the world’s population shares this mindset. That could not be further from the truth. The average person is NEVER going to set up an Ethereum or NEO node to contribute to the network. It doesn’t matter if you try to explain running a NEO node and staking NEO can earn you GAS dividends. The truth is running a node does not contribute to most peoples’ lives in an immediately tangible way. The average person expects technology to have an easily understandable and positive effect on his or her life.
This is why I believe Substratum has the best chance of going mainstream.
Humans have a few basic needs, and two of them are communication and entertainment. Throughout history, our forms of communication have changed drastically, but the underlying principle has not. We crave connection with and affection from others of our kind.
In today’s world, these two principles have been severely limited. The Internet is now the most common and convenient form of communication, yet it’s severely limited for so many people around the world. In countries like China, Russia, Indonesia, and Thailand, people are constantly using VPNs to get access to what they want. Unfortunately, VPNs can be easily identified and blocked. The Chinese government is even looking to have telecom companies block all VPN traffic in 2018. It’s time for a better technology to emerge, and Substratum is the answer.
Like I said earlier, most platform coins give zero incentive to the average user for setting up a node. They have nothing immediately tangible to gain. “Contributing to network decentralization” means NOTHING to them.
However, when you tell someone in China they’ll be able to use Substratum to watch cat videos on YouTube without having to worry about switching VPN providers all the time. Well, that’s honestly life changing, and that’s how the network effect starts.
Now, think about all the more important use cases for Substratum in addition to getting access to cat videos 24/7. Using Substratum, people will be able to bypass censorship in their search for the truth. They’ll be able to communicate with who they want, whenever they want. They’ll be able to get access to a free Internet, and all the knowledge that comes with it.
Substratum is a solution to two of our most basic needs – unfiltered communication and entertainment. Once the network effect takes over, developers will start building apps and services on top of Substratum. Decentralized web hosts, “VPN” services, and truly anonymous messaging platforms are only the beginning.
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