Storj is an open-source platform that leverages the blockchain to provide end-to-end encrypted cloud storage services. Instead of maintaining its own data centres, Storj platform relies on a peer-to-peer network of individuals or entities sharing their storage spaces. The Storj project is owned and developed by Storj Labs Inc. Storj intends to facilitate a faster, cheaper, and secure file storage solution than traditional cloud storage platforms. To achieve its goal, Storj deploys several innovative technologies and methods to make sure that users are able to store and retrieve data in a fastest possible way while not compromising the security and integrity of data. Storj Labs Inc was founded in 2014 by Shawn Wilkinson with co-founders John Quinn. The company is headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. Shawn was previously appointed as CEO, but in March 2018, he stepped down from the post to serve as CSO of the company. Shawn was replaced by Ben Golub (Ex-CEO of Docker) who currently serves as the Executive Chairman & Interim CEO. Co-founder John Quinn has been appointed as the Chief Revenue Officer. The company launched its initial coin offering (ICO) of the new tokens on May 19, 2017. At the end of the token sale on May 25, 2017, the company had raised about $30 million. Storj Labs allowed SJCX holders to exchange their tokens with the new ones in a 1:1 ratio through a token conversion campaign which lasted till October 2017. Storj Labs pre-mined its entire supply of tokens at the inception; no new tokens can be created via STORJ mining. Nevertheless, users can obtain STORJ tokens by becoming a farmer in the network. Another obvious way to acquire STORJ is through trading on a cryptocurrency exchange. Up until now, cloud storage companies have dictated the terms of service to their users, and as a result, there has been little to no competition within this digital sector. However, with the introduction of Storj, all of that may change.' Check out CoinBureau for the full review on OmiseGo.
The Raiden Network is an off-chain scaling solution, enabling near-instant, low-fee and scalable payments. It’s complementary to the Ethereum blockchain and works with any ERC20 compatible token. The Raiden project is work in progress. Its goal is to research state channel technology, define protocols and develop reference implementations. The introduction of payment channels, specifically the type first described by the Lightning Whitepaper (which introduced the Lightning Network), seeks to fix the scalability and congestion issues that currently plague blockchain technology. While the Lightning Network operates on the Bitcoin blockchain, Raiden introduces a comparable solution for the Ethereum network. There are several key features of the Raiden Network Token. Expedited transfer confirmations (<1 second ). Current transfers on the Ethereum blockchain can take a few seconds to minutes. Private transfers that are not viewable on the global ledger. Solve scalability issues so that Ethereum can create mass adoption, allowing Ethereum to become the peer-to-peer, global payments infrastructure with electronic cash that it was initially designed for. Low fee transactions. Micropayment capability that works in union with any ERC-20 token. The Raiden Network project is being developed by Germany’s Brainbot Technologies AG, a software company devoted to blockchain protocol development. Founded in the year 2000 by Heiko Hees, it currently has between 11 to 50 employees in offices among Berlin, Mainz, and Copenhagen. Also the founder of PediaPress, Hees has been a core developer of Ethereum since March 2014. Being a core developer for Ethereum, it is evident on how the founder sees the flaws in the current its present protocol with ways to improve it. Interestingly enough, the website does not include RDN as one of their main blockchain developments, which could be attributed to the difficulty of highlighting a wide variety of projects they are currently undertaking on one page. However, there are no updates on the status of the Raiden Network Project on either Twitter nor Medium since December 1st, 2017. Raiden can be used for a wide variety of applications and purposes such as Micropayments For Content Distribution, Decentralized M2M Markets, API Access and Fast Decentralized Exchanges.'