Peer-to-peer (P2P) data sharing startup Streamr concluded its initial coin offering (ICO) on Monday, reaching its roughly $31 million hard cap nearly two weeks early.
The Streamr ICO, which was managed by Swiss crypto-asset broker Bitcoin Suisse, raised 30 million CHF, worth about $30.7 million, from more than 1,300 individuals and groups. Streamr intends to use these funds to support the development of its P2P data sharing protocol and technology stack.
The startup envisions an economy in which users can wrest back control of their data from corporations, giving them the freedom to buy and sell data as they choose. The native currency of the platform will be DATAcoin, a token distributed through the recently-completed crowdsale.
Risto Karjalainen, chief operating officer of Streamr, told CCN that the protocol offers a multitude of use cases. He is particularly excited about its ability to help “smart cities” operate efficiently:
“Particularly interesting use cases can be seen in smart cities. As a specific example, you could crowdsource a near real-time view of free parking slots across the city using a smartphone app. You’d be automatically compensated with DATAcoin for the useful data you contribute, and those who find the space will pay a small amount for the service. There’s less time wasted, less pollution, and information gets monetized.”
The platform will feature a visual programming environment designed to make it easy to create decentralized applications (Dapps) that utilize data streams from the Streamr network, and the DATAcoin token will be used to pay for subscriptions to these data services. The token will also be distributed to node operators and users who sell their data to the marketplace.
Streamr chief executive Henri Pihkala expressed gratitude for the tremendous support the project had received, enabling its crowdsale to reach its hard cap well ahead of its official end date.
“Our team is incredibly grateful and humbled by the outstanding results from our Crowd Contribution Period. The support, not only for our platform but for our mission, is truly inspirational and an unforgettable benchmark in the evolution of real-time infrastructure,” he said. “While our ambitious goal leaves us with a long journey ahead, this early success is a huge leap in making that dream a reality.”