How does this compare to something like ether or BTC? What is the long term value of holding the tokens?
Stratis allows developers to create applications in C# and Microsoft's .NET framework. C# is one of the most dominant languages in corporate and financial services development.The Stratis Full Node Framework is a based on Bitcoin Core and utilizes the proven and trusted architecture and consensus model of Bitcoin.
Stratis is not just a private chain solution or even just a C#/.NET development framework. Stratis is a full scale Blockchain Development Platform that simplifies and accelerates the development life-cycle for organizations that want to develop on the blockchain.
Our lead Stratis Bitcoin Framework developer is Nicolas Dorier, he developed NBitcoin (The base for our Full node framework) which is the only cross platform implementation of Bitcoin and the most complete implementation of Bitcoin in C#. He has also authored a book on Blockchain development. Nicolas also made minor contributions to revolutionary Bitcoin Improvement proposals, such as Segregated Witness (Segwit) and OP_CSV.
So our Full Node framework is going to be developed utilizing the consensus model and core architecture of Bitcoin, by a well proven and highly talented Bitcoin developer. As we have seen with some of the recent events, code can have bugs and building financial platforms on bleeding edge tech comes with risks. We are limiting these risk for businesses by building on proven technology, while also have our own corporate identity, for businesses to purchase services there has to be some level of accountability. Stratis will provide this with the Stratis foundation.
Stratis Consultancy is going to be one of the components of the Stratis ecosystem that will help to onboard organizations interested in Blockchains and distributed ledgers. By providing a full consultancy service businesses are far more likely to adopt our solutions, as we will be able to demonstrate our expertise and abilities. Simply developing innovative tech is not enough, you must be able to package and sell those services to businesses. Stratis will have a large team of marketers, sales and business development consultants, to help market and sell our products.
The standard private chains will require Stratis tokens to be 'locked' as part of the 2 way peg to private chains. Stratis tokens will also be the currency utilized to pay transaction fees to miners. When we migrate to POS Stratis tokens will be used to secure the Stratis chain and the private chains.The Blockchain-as-a-Service platform will be also be fueled by Stratis tokens, users will be able to deposit digital currencies or pay via paypal and Fiat to 'credit' their account with Stratis tokens to fuel their node.Our fiat gateway technology will also charge a fee in Stratis, but note there will most likely be a fee on the fiat side also. This will be one of the centralized components of the Stratis Platform, but its the only way to have Fiat gateways and be compliant with the various regulations involved.