Investigating the Top 50 Cryptocurrencies, Part 32/50: Stratis

Stratis is a blockchain-as-a-service platform that aims to help companies to more easily build/use private blockchain-based applications.

_{source: stratisplatform.com}

Today most blockchain projects are in the theoretical stage - people mostly hold tokens out of interest in future value, both technological and financial, as opposed to using them for immediate utility.

Not a lot of people are actually using cryptocurrency for day-to-day spending… Even I don’t spend money through my bitcoin debit card these days, it’s too expensive to move bitcoin around for me to bother with it.

One day companies will use blockchains for a wide variety of tasks and functions. It’s hard to imagine this right now, as a result of the current non-functional blockchain environment… but it is going to happen.

Stratis is a blockchain that enables companies to build their own decentralized applications. We need to use some imagination to think about the possibilities of this project.

This article will give you a deeper understanding of the Stratis blockchain, both regarding its current utility and its future prospects.

About This Series + Disclaimer

This post is part of a new series where I investigate each of the top 50 coins by marketcap (based on coinmarketcap.com's rankings on October 11, 2017). My goal is to help steem’s userbase become the most knowledgable blockchain community in the world.

Disclaimer: I am not an investment expert and will not be providing investment advice. I will teach you about the top 50 coins, and you can do what you want with that info.

Stratis: A Centralized Company Offering Decentralized Services

One thing to be clear about: Stratis is centralized. This is a company that wants to help your business develop customized blockchain solutions - think of it as BaaS (Blockchain-as-a-service), where Stratis offers a fully-featured ready-to-use blockchain to work with.

It’s a lot like the concept behind Amazon Web Services and other cloud companies. They offer centralized servers that anybody can rent out.

Stratis is the same, but they offer decentralized computer power, not centralized. Hence the “Blockchain-as-a-Service”, as opposed to “Software-as-a-Service.” This will all be simple to understand in 5 years, but right now it’s mostly theoretical, aimed at the future, thus it’s harder to grok.

So when you go to the Stratis home page and see marketing like this:

You can understand what this is - a centralized company with a decentralized blockchain attached.

Anybody Can Use the Stratis Blockchain

You don’t need permission from the Stratis company to access the blockchain. It’s a lot like Ethereum in the sense that you can execute smart contracts and basically do anything you want on Stratis.

It’s just that Stratis (the company) offers help and is the easiest/most qualified team to get you started on their blockchain. They have the ability to speed up the development process for you.

Either way, Stratis offers a lot of the cutting edge features that a smart contract platform should offer. A lot of the ultra-specific tech stuff goes over my head, but what I do understand is this:

• You can use sidechains to get more isolation for your business’s operations (at the extreme, you can have a private blockchain that only briefly ‘checks in’ with the main Stratis chain to verify the blockchain integrity)

• Stratis applications utilize C# on the .Net framework, this is convenient for some developers.

• Easy Deployment: You can launch your “bespoke blockchain” via Stratis without running full nodes or managing the main blockchain of Stratis.

In other words: Let’s say that you want to develop something technological and useful for your business. The idea requires a functional blockchain, like bitcoin, but you don’t want to build your own blockchain. You’d rather somebody else do that so you can just build your own application.

Stratis is a way to do that. They are a BaaS provider for any business that needs access to a blockchain platform.

I’m still wrapping my head around these ideas… for some people, they might be basic common sense. But I suspect a lot of people are like me, still slowly grasping what blockchain applications really do. I’m happy to say that in this case, the idea of Stratis makes sense to me.

Token Distribution

Smith & Crown has the very simple details for this token’s distribution:

_{source: Smith & Crown}

and CoinSutra.com offers some more specifics:

Stratis uses a Proof of Stake system and I believe that system fees are paid out to stakeholders, so there’s no actual inflation of the token supply but you can earn 0.5 to 1% interest per year by leaving your tokens staked.

The Team

The official Stratis website offers some good profiles of their team. Here are a few of the core members:

Chris Trew, CEO & Founder

Chris is a developer and consultant who has worked in IT and finance for more than a decade. Along with founding Stratis, he has helped to build The Viral Exchange, a social platform with blockchain features.

Policarpo Guerrero, Director of Operations

Policarpo’s previous experience with operations comes from his work directing MSCorp, an internationally-focused mobile development company. His role at Stratis focuses on marketing, business development, and organization.

Krushang Patel, Head of Communications

Krushang’s experience prior to Stratis includes 15 years of work in retail and international import/export business. He has been involved in the bitcoin space ever since late 2013.

Market History

pump pump pump lol I’m not going to even try to comment on the cryptocurrency markets this week. Hide your kids, hide your wife, there’s no telling what the next few weeks (or days, or seconds) will hold.

I do have one real comment to make: Even before the bitcoin rush of the last few days, it is worth noting that this token has experienced extreme volatility over the last 3 months. What does that indicate? Seems a bit weird for a near-top-20 token.

Final Thoughts

Stratis is a new breed of blockchain company. In order to pull off its goals, it doesn’t need to change the world. All it needs to do is build up a small base of clients and do good work for them.

Build a clientele, raise rates over time if it’s possible, and rake in some profits. Why not?

I don’t buy the bravado of the CEO for one second when he says he’s aiming to be a top 3 market cap token - not gonna happen. Or, at least, I think your token should be valuable for more than four months before you make those kinds of claims.

Basically Stratis is a reasonable blockchain, but I don’t see much of a reason to think about it unless you are a company that wants to build blockchain apps. If you do, Stratis may be a platform to consider. Otherwise, this project is irrelevant to your day-to-day life.

What do you think about Stratis?