The Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized network protocol for sharing hypermedia in a distributed file system. IPFS can be used to link blockchain transactions This effectively timestamps and secures the content, without having to put the data on the chain itself. Filecoin, an IPFS-based decentralized storage cloud, is closely related with the IPFS protocol, and provides the incentive system.

TrueChain is developing a secure and scalable blockchain platform with a strong developer community. TrueChain hopes to improve upon current platforms with a hybrid consensus protocol called Minerva. This hybrid model will combine a consensus mechanism based on Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) with a FruitChain-based Proof-of-Work protocol. Fruitchain is designed to minimize the incentives of mining pools by decreasing the variance of mining rewards; making the network more decentralized.
TrueChain's architecture also hopes to improve transaction times and reduce fees, by including a sharding mechanism that is locked to Gas fees. The first use cases for their platform will be digital advertising solutions.
The company is backed by several large Chinese blockchain companies, including ZB.com; one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. digital advertising industry

APIS is developing a masternode mediation platform that will lower the barriers of entry for users wanting invest their coins on their own masternode of a network. A masternode is a type of node that has additional voting influence and block rewards, on a Proof-of-Stake network. Investors are able to place coins on a masternode and receive a stable interest from the block rewards; similar to interest that is given in a bank. APIS will allow users to invest in masternodes without having to deal with the technical requirements or stake a prohibitively large number of coins.
Their network is powered by the Ethereum-based APIS token.