Achain is a public blockchain platform that enables developers of all levels to issue tokens and create smart contracts, decentralized applications, and blockchain systems. Achain is committed to building a global blockchain network for information exchange and value transactions. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, Achain utilizes a modified version of DPoS — RDPoS (Result-delegated Proof of Stake) to establish node consensus. Shortly, DPoS suggests that all coin holders vote for the validator nodes that will produce the next blocks. On the project website, only info about CEO Tony Cui is listed. Cui has a few significant accomplishments, including winning the Future Star award from the Zhongguancun Alliance and being listed in the 30 under 30 on CYZONE, a famous venture capital magazine. On LinkedIn, 51 people are listed as employees at Achain. Most of the team is based in Beijing. Achain also has a few key industry partners. It has even co-organized a “Blockchain Technology Open Course” with Tsinghua University, which is widely recognized as one of the world’s top universities. The roadmap for Achain development is fairly detailed. However, most goals listed are development-oriented rather than marketing or design. Still, it’s important to note that focusing on making the protocol interoperable and building a technology that is more accessible to mainstream adoption could also be considered a marketing-oriented part of this project. There are three major phases with projected completion dates listed. These include Singularity (completed Q1), Galaxy (ongoing), and Cosmos (complete at the end of Q4). One thing to note is that dates for these phases are not consistent between the homepage and the whitepaper. This could be simply due to a scenario in which phase names remain the same while new goals and timeline dates within those phases continue to change. In January 2019, the project will update the website to reflect roadmap goals for the new year. Looking at the current landscape of blockchain projects, Achain certainly offers the possibility of much-needed technical innovations. The ability to easily create an Achain fork, as well as, the protocol’s unique RDPoS consensus algorithm make this a promising project. It will be interesting to see how Achain builds upon its accomplishments, and how the project team continues to develop a long-term strategy for improving the protocol’s technical capabilities and increasing participation in its ecosystem.
SONM is a global operating system that is also a decentralized worldwide fog supercomputer. With SONM, users have access to general-purpose computing services of a cloud-like nature, including IaaS and PaaS, all of which have fog computing as the backend. Hosts around the world can contribute computing power as part of the SONM marketplace. The leaders of SONM are co-founder Sergey Ponomarev and CTO Igor Lebedev. SONM uses the agile development framework with a self-organizing cross-functional team. The Product Management Board defines the market needs to confirm that products meet business requirements. These include Node (Core), Smart Contracts, Wallet (Client), and Distributed Entity and Integration. Each of these teams has multiple developers, including a lead. Other teams include the Product & Analytics and QA teams.SONM always makes customer satisfaction its top priority. SONM studies the rental resource market to figure out exactly what customers need, delivering the advantages like scalability already mentioned. Additionally, customers will benefit from the Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform that supports all types of hardware resources, making it possible to find the exact resource you need. With SONM, consumers can instantly release and grow resources within the computing fog. In addition, security is always maintained regarding the supplier’s reputation. For added security, SONM is working toward hardware-enforced security, as well. Finally, consumers benefit from high market liquidity in purchasing resources and the ability to scale out their application. SONM’s ICO was held on June 15, 2017 and successfully raised $42,000,000. Paolo Tasca, a digital economist and blockchain expert, joined the SONM Advisory Board. Tasca is the Executive Director of the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London, as well as a blockchain consultant to the United Nations and EU Parliament, and the co-editor of “Banking Beyond Banks and Money: A Guide to Banking Services in the Twenty-First Century.”'