![]() However, all props to Grolimund who has been on a four year journey from developing what became Wuala ago at the ETH Zurich to something that could end up being a reliable and secure cloud storage backed by millions of devices. It also looks like they either didn’t go for the VC deals they were rumoured to be in discussion about, or that those talks never came to fruition. The deal marks a high point for Wuala co-founder and CEO Dominik Grolimund, but rather confirms the usual course of European startups in exiting as early as they can rather than scaling their startups to a point that they become world-beaters. They are calling it a merger, but Wuala is clearly a lot smaller than LaCie. One has an application, the other has storage hardware. Maybe to swap music.Wuala, the Zurich-based peer-to-peer-storage startup owned by Caleido AG, has been taken over by LaCie, the French manufacturer of external storage devices in a deal which frankly makes a lot of sense. *steph-note: a bit skeptical about this, though parts do indeed sound interesting. *steph-note: so this is really not extra storage.* What makes it so different from a prettily dressed up FTP client, besides the fact that the underlying technology is different? From a user point of view? Encryption, and sharing with friends/groups. Should keep a local version of all the files you share. What’s the point of having great encryption, secure passwords, if people give secret answers to secret questions which aren’t so secret?* *steph-note: ouch! this sounds unacceptable to me… no possibility to reset it? Secret question: I hate them, because they are usually very weak. Problem with this strong emphasis on privacy is when people start using the service to trade kiddie porn.* Dominik says one of the solutions to this could be to limit the size of groups.Ĭareful! if you lose the password, you lose your files. *steph-note: “illegal” music and TV series sharing system of choice, if there is more storage. Wuala doesn’t see what is private or shared (regarding content). Privacy: in Switzerland, there are “anti-spying” laws which would protect Wuala from having to surrender data to the CIA etc., for example. *steph-note: alternate business model would be to make people pay to have more actual “storage”.* Question: what is the business model? Ads in the client. *steph-note: I see this as an interesting alternative to dropsend and the like.* ![]() *steph-note: not sure I’d call this “online storage” as I find it a little misleading (gives the impression you get extra storage space outside your local drives) - this is really **file sharing**, Pownce-like but without the timeline.* For example, Dominik’s mum is going to use this to share photographs with him, because she’s not comfortable putting them on Flickr as it’s “on the internet”. Use: mainly to share a few files with other people. I always ask if there are “()” or complain about their non-existence (Facebook).* **Not even Wuala people can see your files.** ![]() Your password never leaves your computer. All the files are encrypted on your computer. “We think it’s a great application.” Drag’n drop. ***steph-note: so basically, this is a service that allows you to convert local disk space into online storage - it doesn’t give you significant extra storage.** You need to be online for at least 4 hours a day to do that. You get 1GB free, and get more by trading unused disk space. Free because uses resources provided by participating computers.Ģ. What’s new about it? Different technology.
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