'Founded by OS expert Rong Chen, Elastos is building the blockchain industry’s most comprehensive and interoperable open source platform. Using a hybrid consensus that combines the secure hashpower of Bitcoin and the democratic ideals of Delegated-Proof-of-Stake, the SmartWeb of Elastos is a suite of software for an entirely decentralized internet. Elastos employs not only blockchain technology, but a peer-to-peer network for communication, decentralized data storage services, and a decentralized ID (DID) system for all digital assets. With sidechains like Ethereum, Elastos is not merely the foundation for securing truly decentralized applications that can scale, it is the foundation for true data ownership. elastOS, the flagship product of the Elastos Smartweb, brings the entire decentralized ecosystem into a single App, currently available for Android and in development for both iOS and desktop. Elastos is also actively searching for both new and existing dApp projects through its Cyber Republic initiative. Cyber Republic possesses a community-governed grant fund designed to help startups and existing businesses explore blockchain. You can read more about Cyber Republic at https://www.cyberrepublic.org.
Sia is a decentralized cloud storage platform similar in concept to Dropbox and other centralized storage provider where instead of renting storage space from a centralized entity, clients rent storage space from other peers. The only difference is Sia uses blockchain to facilitate transactions Nodes provide storage to clients using the Sia blockchain as contracts. Before storing the data, the data is encrypted into many pieces and uploaded to different hosts. Siacoin is created by David Vorick and Luke Champine of Nebulous Inc. As the traditional storage platforms are higher in cost, more expensive and data is not well protected. Siacoin promises to offer secured storage transactions with smart contracts which is more affordable and reliable. Moreover, it is completely open source which means many individuals have contributed to Siacoin’s software hence there will be an active community building innovative applications on top if the Sia API. In 2018, Siacoin aims to introduce file sharing and be the go-to cloud storage platform for companies. Their goal is divided into 3 time frames which are short-term, medium-term and long-term development. Short-term development focuses on file sharing between Sia users. This allows Sia users to share files in the platform without having to take it off the cloud while increasing network utilization. Medium-term development’s goal is to enhance partnerships. This means reaching out to large companies like Netflix and Dropbox to hopefully be able to be their storage and distribution framework. Lastly, long-term development aims to expand its horizon to share files with non-Sia users and support mobile wallets.