This File-Sharing Dapp Shows How Blockstack and Ethereum Are Different

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

The Blockstack file-sharing dapp Envelop, which works a little like WeTransfer but with encrypted storage via the blockchain platform, just launched a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

Now desktop Blockstack users can simply upload files to the extension and drop them in emails or direct messages even if the file is normally too big.

"With Blockstack, there's the knowledge of where your files are stored at any given time," Envelop co-founder Sérgio David dos Santos told CoinDesk.

He added that users can't lose access to the file, stored via Blockstack's distributed system, plus no one can share or access the file without the owner's knowledge, including Blockstack itself.

While ethereum companies generally viewed each app as an independent product, groups building on the Blockstack platform have gone a different route.

To date, Blockstack has raised roughly $75 million through a combination of venture capital and several token sales from 2017 to 2019, first to accredited investors then following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Reg A+ crowdfunding exemption.

Blockstack CEO Muneeb Ali told CoinDesk the App Mining incentives program has paid $900,000 worth of bitcoin to more than a dozen projects since it started in November 2018.

For many Blockstack projects, those small figures are not problematic.

Like Dmail and many other Blockstack projects, these are established companies that aren't looking to monetize their side projects, or raise venture capital for them, in the near future.

It also remains to be seen how valuable the App Mining program's support will be when the program switches in November from paying in bitcoin to Blockstack's native token, STX. Blockstack CEO Ali said he expects international exchanges to start listing STX in October, before the switch.

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