Status is a project I’ve been excited to see launch on the main net since I first heard about it while living in Seoul. I believe I first read about Status on Reddit as a new social media and messaging app which would run on the Ethereum network. When I saw it was available for early adopters to download it and play around I jumped at the opportunity and was immediately delighted to see people I knew in the network. I was so excited actually that I sent an entire Ether to the wallet associated with my account, which I didn’t know, was on the test-net. Whoops! It was my own mistake and there was nothing that could be done to reverse it. The guys at Status were really helpful and generous when I mentioned it to them and even offered to get me my one Ether back. I just chocked it up to experience and let it be.
They were hiring for a job last summer as well. I believe I saw it posted on Ethlance or something like that – a place where only Ethereum related jobs were being posted. At the time, the team behind Status was located in Singapore and while I thought Singapore might have been one of the better places in the world to be located for a job related to Ethereum, I didn’t see the logistics of moving there as possible at the time. However, I am glad to see that they’ve been diligently working to bring this project to fruition on the Ethereum main-net.Here are the main reasons why I am looking forward to this project coming live so much and plan to support them in their token sale (ICO), but also more importantly be a patron of the app.
Relatable Technology
Status as it stands is largely a messaging app which would resemble much of what you’d expect from other services such as WhatsApp, Line, KakaoTalk and others of the like. However the underlying tech which makes Status distributed and powerful is Ethereum and while many people may never realize that they are using a blockchain, they will be given an opportunity to use truly unique apps and services not available through other applications.
Community Driven
Status is open source and allows for just about any Ethereum based Dapp to be plugged into its ecosystem and interacted with through the platform. They recently launched a hackathon where over $25,000 USD was awarded to people who wished to build Dapps able to interact with the Status ecosystem. These Dapps range from decentralized Ether games, to job search tools, to payment systems, self-sovereign identity, to crytpocurrency exchanges and more.
Practical Focus
Some Ethereum projects are very interesting in their pure technological or societal promise, though neither might be achieved in the near-term future. This is why many of these businesses raise so much money in their ICO’s – they need enough runway to plan long-term in their development. However far flung ideas built on Ethereum are no good to anyone if no one ever uses them. Status is geared towards being an everyday tool to interact with the community and services around you based on Ethereum. So many aspects of Facebook are all consuming and they own all of the data you share with them. With Status as an open-source platform, you own your data and can choose how you want to interact with it.
More Than Investment Worthy, But Usage Worthy
I can say that even if I wasn’t planning to take part in this token sale, I would absolutely continue to use the app, test it out and offer feedback however possible. These are the kinds of projects that will help drive Ethereum and blockchain as a whole further. This will also help bring the community together more and won’t reinforce communities built on centralized networks such as Reddit, Facebook and places otherwise subjected to censorship. Another hopeful and separate platform for this same decentralized future is Akasha, which is also in Alpha.There is an Alpha version of the app on Android and you can request access for the iPhone version as well on their homepage – both of which I suggest you check out and offer feedback on!