Substratum Network

Substratum Network emerged in 2017 with the ambitious goal of creating an open-source foundation for a decentralized web. The project was co-founded by Justin Tabb, who served as CEO, alongside B. J. Allmon and Abram Cookson. Tabb's background included managing development projects for high-profile clients like Apple and Facebook through his prior company, OverridePro. The company's vision was to build a global network of nodes, allowing users to rent out their spare computing resources for hosting content. This model aimed to deliver secure, unrestricted content without the need for VPNs or Tor.

The core of the business revolved around the Substratum (SUB) token, an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. The business model was designed to be a peer-to-peer marketplace. Individuals could run a Substratum Node on their computers, earning SUB tokens by serving web content to other users. Businesses and creators, in turn, would use SUB tokens to pay for hosting their websites and applications on this decentralized network. The company's proposed payment system, CryptoPay, was intended to facilitate transactions for goods and services using various cryptocurrencies, with SUB acting as a bridging currency. This structure was designed to challenge traditional hosting services by offering a pay-per-request model, which they estimated would be more cost-effective than monthly subscription fees from centralized providers.

Substratum's journey began with an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in August and September 2017, raising approximately $13.8 million. The project garnered attention by positioning itself as a solution to net neutrality concerns and state-sponsored censorship. However, the project's trajectory was fraught with challenges. The founders announced a second ICO for a new product, the Amplify Exchange (AMPX), which caused confusion and backlash within the community. Further controversy arose when CEO Justin Tabb admitted to day-trading a portion of the ICO funds. By September 2019, reports emerged that the company had depleted its ICO funds and was laying off staff. The project also faced public scrutiny regarding its claims and marketing practices, and the SUB token was eventually delisted from major exchanges like Binance.

Keywords: decentralized web, peer-to-peer hosting, Substratum (SUB), Justin Tabb, decentralized DNS, CryptoPay, ICO, blockchain hosting, open-source network, censorship resistance, net neutrality, decentralized applications, peer-to-peer internet, node hosting, cryptocurrency payments, web 3.0 foundation, Ethereum ERC-20, secure content delivery, microtransactions