Xunlei Launches Blockchain Platform Amid Ongoing 'ICO' Lawsuits

Xunlei, the NASDAQ-listed cloud network provider, has launched its proprietary blockchain platform, despite ongoing class actions over an alleged initial coin offering.

At a press event in Beijing on Friday, the company announced its open blockchain platform dubbed ThunderChain, which is designed to enable developers to build decentralization applications.

Based on the practical Byzantine fault tolerance consensus mechanism, Xunlei makes the significant claim for ThunderChain that it provides processing capacity in the millions of transactions per second.

Xunlei explains that the platform combines its proprietary blockchain with its existing capacity in cloud-based content delivery hosted on a peer-to-peer distributed network.

While branding ThunderChain as a new product launch, Xunlei told CoinDesk that it is built upon an existing blockchain platform that it has been using to generate its custom token, LinkToken, since October 2017.

At the time, users could obtain LinkTokens by purchasing Xunlei's then-new cloud storage device - called the OneThing Cloud - to share their spare broadband bandwidth.

As a result, Xunlei investors formed two class action lawsuits against the firm, alleging it knowingly conducting an unlawful and disguised ICO. However, in response to CoinDesk and comments seen on various media outlets, Xunlei has, on several occasions, firmly denied the accusations.

"We have been very straight on our business practices - we do not sell tokens," Chen Lei, CEO of Xunlei and a defendant in the two lawsuits, told the South China Morning Post earlier this month.

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