Opacity CEO, Jason Coppola, on r/Altstreetbets — Ask me Anything Recap!
I’m Jason Coppola, CEO of Opacity. I’m building a crypto product that you can actually use today with friends and family — did I just blow your mind?! Ask Me Anything!
If google goes bankrupt tomorrow, I can still access and download my data to prevent loss. Do I always need a full backup of everything in your cloud such that in case it fails, I am not left with nothing?
I think a backup is good practice for any storage medium. I wouldn’t trust Google not to shut you out tomorrow due to some violation of their terms and then you’re screwed.
Did you know Amazon owns your ‘purchased’ Kindle books and people have lost access to them?
Also, we don’t have your account handle and if you lose it and your recovery keywords, your account is locked forever, just like an ETH wallet.
So, backup your access keys and backup your files, if it’s important. Never have a single point of failure. Don’t trust anyone with anything.
Could you tell something more about the release of the mobile app and what’s the realistic planned release date?
Realistically, we’re looking at early Q3 at this point since we’re focused on the 2.0 release right now.
The key features, aside from upload, download and sharing, will be syncing and a currency swap module for easy payments with OPCT.
Who exactly is hosting the storage servers?
We are currently hosted on AWS to bootstrap the system, but we will be establishing other storage nodes later this year to start offloading file chunks outside AWS.
Is the token value system designed in a way that would prevent this (user’s currently maxing out their storage plans, increasing cost for Opacity) from ever happening and ensure that the project receives adequate funding?
The peg and pricing can fluctuate to manage revenue and meet market demand, nothing is set it stone.
Finally, how confident are you that my data is safe with you for long periods of time? I have a lot of family photos etc. that I would love to store and forget about for 5–10 years, however as Opacity is not yet an established provider of cloud storage would I be putting my files at risk by doing this? Would you trust your own files to be stored there for the next 10 years if you were me?
I would love to say 5–10 years everything will be hunky dory, but reality is quite different. My plans include Opacity Forever™, but no one knows the future. Always have a backup plan!
Thank you for taking the time to do an ama and let the community get to know you a little better. I have huge hopes for Opacity and can’t wait to see how it develops.
What is the biggest issue you facing now and how do you plan on dealing with it?
After building the product, launching 2.0, increasing product awareness, increasing community and exposure…well, the biggest issue is the same as most cryptos — friction for people getting access to the crypto market and our product.
This isn’t easy and applies to all alts since there are on-ramps at exchanges where you can swap into BTC, ETH, but then need to transfer to another exchange, sell for the token, withdraw, and send for payment of the service — too many steps and fees along the way!
I’m working on adding an onsite app like Indacoin.com or http://sendwyre.com that can directly onboard customers and swap into OPCT. This will also be handled directly via a swap module in our mobile app probably connected to the Uniswap API. And we need to see ETH level 2 or 2.0 to reduce fees as well, or look into another chain as a last resort.
There are ideas out there to reduce the friction and fees, but this is a market-wide issue that many are dealing with.
What steps are you taking to ensure opacity comes out ahead of peers? Marketing, advertising etc.?
Build a better product that’s easy to use.
Of course, exposure is important, but that takes time. We already have a usable product while many competitors can’t say the same. They are too technical or too crypto focused to be consumer friendly.
What can really kickstart adoption of decentralised storage from current storage solutions? Of course crypto enthusiasts and keen followers of the project will use it, but how do we get common people to choose to move away from what they’re currently using to Opacity?
Crypto is like a foreign language to most people. It needs to be simple and easy for the masses.
Do you plan on hiring extra developers? If not, why not?
Yes! Some of the guys that were on for short term projects will be needed longer, and I will definitely hire for the decentralization effort as well. Plenty of work to go around, just juggling the budget, as usual!
Will it be possible to pay for multiple years?
No, not exactly. Both the token price and the prices offered for our plans can/will change. So, just like most typical SaaS subscription model, there needs to be an end date so we can stay in sync with the market.
Do you have any plans to move from the ETH network?
No plans, but it is plan B should fees not reduce within 6 months.
What are plans for marketing?
Do you have any partnerships in mind that could start exponential user growth? Maybe with Brave browser or some device manufacturer for preinstallation of desktop app?
Marketing will ramp up heavily with the 2.0 release and then mobile app.
By that point, I will be confident we can support most consumer needs and the money won’t be wasted on churn and lack of conversions.
Could there be some partnership with some NAS manufacturer where it would be really easy to set up storage node while installing new NAS? For example with Synology NAS.
Yes, NAS would definitely be one avenue of partnership. Our backlog includes a plan for a CLI which help us plug into these types of markets that can access a remote storage layer.
How do you plan on attracting enough storage providers for full decentralisation?
The new whitepaper discusses the payment model. Storage Nodes will get 70% of the payment to support the network, but they will also need to post collateral/stake as insurance that they won’t disappear with user files.
Read all about how we want to achieve a decentralized storage platform, reward distribution and more!
Announcement Video with Jason Coppola, CEO of Opacity Storage
Download the whitepaper:
I have been using opacity for some time now to back-up my files. It is great and easy to use.
Great to hear you’re using us regularly!
Can you share some information on how many users opacity currently has and what growth rates you have experienced in the past?
We just passed 3000 accounts and growing!
How do you plan to keep growing the number of users?
Hopefully, this AMA helps some people join and we will be building mobile which I think will also be a big attraction to a large user base.
With privacy at the forefront of the company ethos, and data confidentiality being almost primarily the control in facilitating it, can you provide detail on what measures are being taken to secure user data, and assurance that those controls are effective not only in design but operation?
All files that are uploaded are encrypted on the client, sliced into chunks, and stored encrypted. No one within Opacity (or outside) can see the contents of any file.
Is there a way that the stored information can vanish/get lost, a worse case scenario ? Also is the information stored permanently deletable by the user who stored it?
A worst case scenario is data corruption of the account metadata. If that happens, we can’t connect the account handle to the file structure. This has happened and there’s no recovery without extensive backup/restoration. We focused on better resiliency in 2.0 to address this and we don’t expect it to be a problem now.
If you delete a file, it’s gonzo.
Is there any plans to partner with law enforcement or healthcare companies where they have to follow strict privacy rules?
Do you have any future plans to create something like sharepoint or onbase / document management systems, but with opacity?
This level of adoption will take a long time. Law, health, and business management systems all have expectations for system support and capabilities that we will need to develop, including collaboration, multi-user support, and other specialty features.
Will there be built in tools that allow you to edit or sign document in opacity then be able to share them, without having to download them and use say adobe?
You nailed it!
One of the apps I’m planning is a Docusign type module directly in the app for signing and sharing docs with others.
Are you planning on having tiers for data storage and retrieval? Is there someway that I would be able to store for longer periods but say, I’m limited to only one or two retrievals whitout paying extra?
Yes, our new whitepaper discusses those user centric requirements and how pricing will be flexible to meet those demands. A user will be able to say, I want x level of redundancy and y speeds with immediate access availability and then have a contract issued with the costs presented to accept it.
I use few platforms already for sharing work files and I’m definitely curious about Opacity.
Are my clients able to access shared files as easily as let’s say Box or Wetransfer?
Yes. Here, read our whitepaper: https://opacitystora.ge/GalaxyWhitepaperV1
And see my AMA proof photo (click show preview on the shared page): https://opacitystora.ge/oZlt0p
Uploaded on Opacity and shared with ease.
Building a decentralized network is a huge effort and competitors like SIA or STORJ took many years to do so. Now doing the decentralization afterwards, do you learn from their mistakes and the development will be quicker?
That’s the idea! We’ve definitely learned from their mistakes and the tech is more mature so we can hopefully move it along more quickly. The timeline will be more about network adoption by nodes which is about incentivizing them to run the platform.
If you made it so far, here comes the less Serious Section 😉
Hello Jason, can I borrow $7?
Sorry, I only lend out in increments of $7.68.
That works for me!
Glad you are doing an AMA with us! Where do you see opacity in 5 years?
Elon will have us installed on all Starlink satellites and the SpaceX modules that are sent to Mars. Opacity is the official Martian currency.
What’s your favorite breakfast and what do you put first — cereals or a milk?
What kind of monster would use milk first? All the cereal will pile up and spill out. I had pancakes and sausages today, yummy!
About Opacity
Founded in 2018, Opacity Storage is dedicated to online data privacy and security. Online data breaches continue to be a major consumer risk. Opacity is reducing this risk by removing the need to provide personal payment data and by decentralizing files stored online. For more information, visit opacity.io and follow @Opacity_Storage on Twitter.
Join Opacity
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