When I first heard of Substratum, I immediately searched for any relevant posts about it here on Steemit and - to my surprise - found very little.

What is Substratum?

According to the description on their own website www.substratum.net Substratum is an open-source network that allows anyone to allocate spare computing resources to make the internet a free and fair place for the entire world.
This sounded quite good and had me dig a bit deeper.

Substratum is developing an open-source foundation for the decentralized web, providing free, unrestricted and uncensored access to content for a new Web 3.0.

The Substratum Network is a worldwide collection of nodes that uses industry-leading cryptography to deliver secure content anywhere, without the need for VPNs or TOR.

So what does this mean?

1. HOST SERVES CONTENT
   New sites/apps are added to the decentralized web.

2. NODES TRANSMIT DATA
   Users running nodes forward requested information.

3. WEB VISITORS SEE CONTENT
   Websites display in any browser, just like normal.

Basically, you could allocate storage space on your computer to the company, which in its turn will then be used by whomever uses their services and get paid to do so.
This can be an extra computer you have sitting there or any computer space really. So instead of having an older computer in the room collecting dust, you can now put it to use and create a passive income.

Substratum and net neutrality

With the development of a foundation for a decentralized web, the issues with net-neutrality will have no effect on its users. Of course, there are always concerns, like the use of the internet for criminal activities, but when I listened to the team speak on youtube, I discovered they will have some rules and regulations in place that keep things like that off the net.

What is great about Substratum?

First of all, I love the idea of a decentralized web. Who doesn’t?
But Substratum takes it one step further. They decentralize DNS as well. So far, I haven't seen other companies that are able to do this.

Websites hosted with Substratum, will have lower costs than they would otherwise - making it very interesting for smaller and large companies alike. Think about the potential this has!

Furthermore, instead of having to buy Substratum coins in order to be able to run a Masternode, we now have the possibility to run a node for free and earn cryptocurrency by renting out our computer space. This alone is a pretty nice feature since buying enough coins for a masternode elsewhere could cost anywhere between a few $100’s to $20,000 or even more!
I believe this is a great incentive for those who are not very experienced in trading yet or those who have small budgets.

And last but not least: It's easy to use. It's making it accessible to most people, not just techies.

Investing in Substratum

First of all, I'd like to point out that I am not a financial adviser, so I am not advising you to invest money in Substratum coins (SUB). Do your own due diligence before you trade anything.

In November, when I first read about Substratum, I decided to invest a small amount of money in it.
I bought these coins for less than 0.14 cents each. After I studied the website and the Substratum Network videos on Youtube a bit more, I decided to buy more at twice that price (0.30). And I'm glad I did, because the price for them is a little over $1.10- at the moment and was even $1.20 earlier this week. Making it nearly a 1000% increase, that's HUGE! So I believe that I've done well. A lot of people would probably have sold at this stage, but I believe this coin has the potential of going much higher in the coming year so I am in it for the long run. Substratum has a total supply of 352,000,000 SUB and a market cap of $241,700,803.

Substratum Beta Tester

If you're interested in joining the team of beta testers, you can sign up here:
http://substratum.net/beta-form/
The form asks to fill out a preference, either to join the testing group for SubstratumNode, SubstratumHost or CryptoPay
but somehow you have to tick all three boxes to sign up for this.
If you like to keep updated on the work the Substratum team is putting in, I'd advise you to check out their YouTube channel for their videos and sign up for their newsletter on their website.

Conclusion:

All in all, this company and coin have major potential. They're the first of its kind and as Steemians, we've all seen the impact of that and know that the future will be even brighter. Even if it takes a year or two for their coin to rise to Steem/SBD heights, it would be an exponential growth.
Just like Steem/SBD, it's a coin that can be bought, traded and earned - and without initial investment.
Chances are, that will make it popular.
There are a few more companies who are either doing similar things already or going to start soon, but none like Substratum. Therefore I believe Substratum has great potential to become the best.