CROWDFUNDING NEWS – The Ubbey NEXT is being touted as the World’s First Decentralized Modular Data Storage Cube. It is designed to be used by the average everyday user as well as experts. It provides a safe and secure way to store your data without the monthly fees that are associated with conventional cloud data storage services and also offers advanced data encryption. The stackable design includes a total of 4 types of stackable modules; The Ubbey N is the base module that comes with 1 TB capacity, and can be used with most of Ubbey App’s features; the Ubbey E that allows you to expand your base module’s storage up to 4TB per module and allows you to stack up to 3 modules of this type; the Ubbey T is a WiFi module that allows you to connect wirelessly to your router; the Ubbey X represents other types of modules. For example, you can add an IP camera module that would allow you to remotely monitor your home or office.
In addition, this modular design gives you true data ownership and AI-powered p2p sharing capabilities. All modules connect magnetically, and it is very easy to stack different modules on a base module to create a personalized Ubbey NEXT. “The unused storage can either be used for mining or trading with other users. This is also a p2p storage sharing network.”
The Ubbey NEXT Kickstarter campaign will be launching in May 2019. Click here for more product and crowdfunding information.
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Wow.
What a great find Julian.
I used to be a judge on a number of regional and international (Berkley Big Idea, Microsoft Imagine Cup) innovation competitions and I find this idea does not quite pass the sniff test. They are showing you one thing while pushing another. All the images are of some stackable hardware. The hardware sounds awesome though why you would want to put an ip camera on the one piece of hardware you least want to be moved is beyond me. If the camera was designed to wirelessly connect with the rest of the stack, and you could buy several easy to mount cameras, that would be a great idea.
They also pitch a revolution in p2p platforms. They are developing the next torrent. Awesome. Trust fox to call them the next Dropbox. But I recall in pitching circles the Dropbox pitch is up there with the first demo of a computer mouse. It revolutionised the pitching game with simplicity.
I wish ubbey could go back and really think about what they want to do. Separate the two offerings or make one the value addition of the other.
A stackable 1tb wireless device with the option to buy 1tb increments in storage sounds awesome. I wonder how they configured the firmware to dynamically grow in size while abstracting away this process. I would love one of those to replace my spinning rust I call a nas. By the way, is the storage ssd? I don’t recall.
Dynamically growing the storage wouldn’t be that hard: Use ZFS or something similar internally, and present the abstracted filesystem externally. Or just present each drive separately.
The main thing is: I’ve seen this before – it’s been tried. It’s a neat gimmick for a show floor, but it doesn’t work well enough to be useful. If you stack drives to add space, what happens if you remove one from the stack? I really doubt it’s ‘everything keeps working’, and if it’s not, why are you making it easy to remove the stacked drives? A standard wired connection is easier, cheaper, more secure, and less likely to cause support calls in this use-case.
In general this tends to play out as a set of proprietary drive modules that you can stack (but not unstack) and use as a standard drive. In nearly all cases a normal USB/FireWire drive is a better solution.
Hi James,
Thanks so much for your input and comments.
If I get a unit to review, I will give you a detailed assessment and answer any questions. 🙂