The Vision - The substratum project was founded by Justin Tabb CEO and his team based in the USA, with the fundamental goal of allowing global citizens the ability to access the free and open internet from anywhere in the world. His personal description and vision of the project is to provide a technological solution to global censorship, instead of relying on Governments and other centralized authorities to address this with laws and bureaucracy.

Substratum Node – The core solution that propelled this project forward was outlined in the original whitepaper as “Substratum Node” – a software solution that would allow users to share the networking resources of their computers in order to provide the fabric of a new borderless global network. By sharing computer bandwidth to route Substratum network traffic, people in censored countries could gain access to websites that are normally blocked by firewalls or IP restrictions. This is accomplished by the algorithms developed by the developer team led by a man by the name of Dan Wiebe, that disguise data packets – the process is coined “clandestine routing”. It is my understanding that this is a more advanced and future-proofed solution compared to Tor, VPNs and Onion routing, because the data packets being sent and received are ‘masqueraded’ to appear like other normal TCP data packets. So, any ISPs, firewall and other tracking systems in theory cannot distinguish between them. Also, all traffic can be done clandestinely and works at the system level, whereas other solutions are purely browser-based.

Amazingly, through during the development process of Substratum Node it was discovered that the solution would apply not only to websites hosted on the Substratum Network, but also to the greater World Wide Web. This expanded the original vision of the project to encompass a greater solution in the crypto-space.

Why would somebody want to use Substratum? Well firstly, it will be an easy and efficient solution for any user. Simply download the official software off of the https://www.substratum.net website, install it, turn it on and enjoy the freedoms of surfing across the Substratum Network. So opposed to using a VPN, it would not cost to use Substratum Node if you decide to allow your computer to be a part of the network routing traffic by running a node as described above. In fact, the earning mechanism is intended to allow you to earn $SUB tokens for contributing to the overall neighborhood of nodes that make up the network. You can further increase your earning potential by holding larger amounts of the $SUB token as you will be served more network traffic the more you tokens that you hold. Also, the payout rate in $SUB tokens will vary depending on where you’re located in the world and a higher amount of tokens will be rewarded for running a node and contributing to the network. For example, in countries that have strict laws in place prohibiting the use of networks such as TOR, VPN and the SUB network i.e China, Iran and Russia will be awarded more for their participation as opposed to somebody that is running a node in the US or Europe.

CryptoPay – A payment platform that will allow online merchants and businesses to transact with customers using any cryptocurrency or fiat. Furthermore, the merchant will have the option to receive payments resolved into any fiat or cryptocurrency they wish on the receiving end of the transaction.

Utility - The utility and function of a token is often discussed in the Crypto-space, as the market is still maturing and technical users want to see a real world application of projects. The Substratum network has multiple real-world solutions, but the main 3 use-cases for the $SUB token are that it exists to fuel the decentralized network, as an incentive for users to run a node on their computers and that it is used to pay for the hosting fee for websites that choose to be hosted exclusively on the decentralized network (this means that people that don’t choose to run a node will still be able to view sites that are hosted on the network) and since typical web traffic will also be monetized SUB token holders will also earn for serving those web request as well and these SUB tokens are passed on to the ‘Node Operators’ who are routing traffic over nodes across the world. Additionally, it has been explained that if a user is running a SUB node, then they will always at least break even with their SUB token balances with normal internet use, even if they are themselves browsing the decentralized web or masking their web traffic.

Amplify Exchange – Recently, Justin Tabb the projects Founder and CEO announced that Substratum will be holding a separate ICO for the development of a truly decentralized exchange they call #Amplify and it will have its own native token with a separate ticker labeled $AMPX. This decision has been met with criticism and has confused some of the community members. There has yet to be many details released about why they are creating a new token and some are growing concerned. That being said, I personally feel that the team deserves the chance to explain their choice in greater detail before I jump to any cynical conclusions about their intentions of choosing to run another ICO with a separate token. I for one, see the potential of what a “DEX” built on top of the substratum platform potentially brings to the table and the synergies between all 3 products. I will give them time to announce further details about the new project in the weeks to come. They have said multiple times since the announcement that they will be addressing these “issues” and the community’s concerns. In conclusion, I personally feel that this project has massive potential and that we should give the team the time needed to put to rest any speculations or concerns you may have at this stage and I personally trust their intention to do so.