FileNation, but what about the basics?
I am David Redondo, I am tremendously excited about FileNation and I am very proud to be part of the founding team.
At FileNation we love writing and we want to keep publishing stuff on Medium and we hope to get people to read it and tell us how cool we are or we are not. Personally, I want to give a more… Hmm, what is the word that does not make me sound stupid or pretentious… Basic! A more basic view on what is going on with us. With that out of the way, let me tell you a little story.
During the 4YFN, part of the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, the FileNation team went for a walk around (more to come on that). We went to the BS startup stand, which was, by the way, very well situated within the building. In there we talked with Yolanda the BS startup director. She was very busy, as usual, but she found some time for us. Since we met her, she has been super nice and helpful and has introduced us to very interesting people, like if it was nothing. Just as an example, she introduced us to the King of Spain, His Majesty… I am kidding. But, she introduced us to John Hoffman the Big Daddy of the MWC and Carlos Grau the Big Kahuna of the MWC Spain, not bad huh :)
Because all of that, we have internally decided to nominate Yolanda as our “Fairy Godmother” or “Hada madrina” like we say in Spanish. We hope she accepts.
As we were leaving the BS startup area, my friend and colleague Joan introduced us to a friend and the girlfriend of this one. We were talking about blockchain and stuff. Well, they were talking, I was kind of shy.
At some point the girlfriend, who seemed shy as well asked me: “What are they talking about? I am not a technical person and this is very confusing”.
Personally, I think it is as important for “experts” to understand our project, as it is for “non-experts”, so I was excited to have the opportunity to explain our project to her. I have to say I have been practicing with my family and girlfriend, so I felt prepared for the challenge!
This is kind of what I told her and I am including it in this post as I think it can be useful for someone else (please note that the rest of the FileNation team, reviewed and approved this message):
We are like a WeTransfer based on the blockchain, she looked at me like: why are you saying the same things those other guys are saying? I took mental note of that and continued.
The way it works with the traditional services is: whenever you want to send a file to someone, that file is stored in a big computer (server) owned by the company and if anyone wants to see your file, that person will be connected to that computer. She nodded. That makes the process inefficient, costly and unsafe, someone could hack that one computer and get your files. In addition, the files can only be out there for a certain period of time due to its costs. She nodded again and told me she had a problem with that before.
The way it works in FileNation is: when you share a file, that file is not stored in a single computer, but instead, it is like broken down into small pieces and shared across a network of people, those people cannot do anything with their piece, so it makes it very safe and efficient. Furthermore, those people could be close to you, so it would be faster than having to pull the file from a server in another country or continent even. She smiled for the first time, I felt energized and I said something that I have heard Alex say many times: “but that is just the beginning!”. She was surprised and worried at the same time. We want to take it further and not only make the traditional process better overall, we want to make the files that you send intelligent.
She looked at me disappointed, like saying: you could have quit while you were ahead. I did not give up and said: It is simple, really, imagine that the file that you send can only be open based on certain criteria, for example, if you die. This could be a good way of sharing your passwords with your loved ones. People do not like to think about death, she took it well and thought it was interesting even, warm-hearted lady.
The guys finished talking and they left, she promised she would try the service and reach us out in Drift if she had questions. She has not so far, but I do not take that as a sign that she did not understand, but as a sign that people are busy.
I hope this little story helps you understand a bit better the basics. You can live without understanding, just go ahead and use FileNation, but knowing the basics might help.
Please do not leave without clapping a bit, even if it is just lightly and/or to avoid breaking my heart.
If you have any questions reach us out on Twitter or email or comment below, we want to hear from you!
Hugs for everyone,
David
