Before I store my files in a cloud storage like iCloud, I always ask myself first “Am I going to be embarrassed or vulnerable if my files are stolen and leaked?”. In fact, Yahoo, Uber and eBay have all been victims of hacks that compromised the data of millions of users. Here I would like to quote a phrase said by the CEO of Cryptyk:
" For every $1 spent on cloud storage, $4 is spent on cyber-security to protect that storage from hackers. What is even worse is that for every $5 spent on cyber-security over $25 is still lost to hackers. — — Dr. Adam Weigold "
I am excited that this project, Cryptyk is trying to solve the cybersecurity problems of cloud storage using their Hybrid Blockchain Technology. Cryptyk aims to provide the most secure cloud storage service to business and enterprise. What is really interesting is that their technology is not trying to prevent breaches from happening, it will be super difficult. Instead, their technologies can ensure that the data stolen is rendered useless to the hackers.
So how does the Hybrid Blockchain Technology work? Cryptyk’s solution comprises two complementary decentralized platforms.
1. VAULT: a decentralized multi-cloud storage with encryption. When you upload your files to VAULT, each file is first encrypted, split into 5 different portions (shards), encrypted again, and then stored separately on 5 different cloud storages by different providers. You can imagine the level of security of this way of storing files. A hacker will have to hack into the system of major cloud providers, decipher the encrypted shards and reconstitute the original files.
2. SENTRY: a blockchain auditing platform. The VAULT can prevent hackers from the “outside”, but it will be useless if an employee goes rogue. Using the immutability of blockchain, SENTRY can monitor all user access and track all file-sharing activities. Furthermore, SENTRY is an open-source platform that can be integrated into third-party software products.
For a more comprehensive view regarding the technology, you guys can have a look at their whitepaper. They also have an information memorandum, which is not as detailed as the whitepaper, but it is enough to have a global understanding of the whole project.
Team
There are 8 members and 12 advisors listed on their website.The CEO, Dr. Adam Weigold is a serial entrepreneur who has created 6 startups (1 IPO, 2 public acquisitions). The CTO, Raghunadha Kotha, is a white-hat hacker and he previously was the Head of Information Security at Silicon Valley Bank. They also have Jen Peng, who was the former Executive Director of Morgan Stanley Hong Kong.
At the side of advisors, they have Ian Scarffe who is one of the Top 10 Blockchain Expert on ICObench. There are also some very interesting things for speculation here. Gabriel Avila is one of the investors of Cryptyk and he is the technical account manager at Amazon Web Services. Not to mention Lina Parness, the Director of Global Partners and Alliances at Logitech, and Kristin Kelly who is in charge of the IBM Partner Development. Cryptyk has certainly a very strong team and we can believe that they will be able to develop the most secure decentralized cloud-storage platform.
Partnership
Besides IBM, Cryptyk has also partnered with Ambisafe. Ambisafe will help Cryptyk to create and manage their CTK tokens. Design SHIFT is the first company to bring a banking level of hardware security. Both of them share the same vision and they are working together to provide the best hardware and software solution to the world. The last partnership is with Founders Federal Credit Union, whose CTO is one of the advisors of Cryptyk. Founders will be offered free tokens to trial the prototype platform.
Competition
In the market today, on one hand we have the traditional centralized cloud storage like Amazon Web Services, which offer some security to the data but they charge very high price. On the other hand, we have blockchain-based decentralized file storage like Sia, Storj, Filecoin or Hyperledger. The cost is lower, but the level of security decrease at the same time. Since Cryptyk will have less nodes compared to its competitors, you can access your files 100 times faster! We can say that Cryptyk will have the best of both sides, a cheap, fast and highly secure decentralized cloud storage is not a dream.Token
Cryptyk token (CTK) is ERC-20 utility token, which will be the “fuel” to power Cryptyk platform. Companies will have to pay in CTKs in order to use the services provided by Cryptyk. On the other hand, CTKs will be rewarded to open-source developers who develop APIs for third-party software integration. It is clear the the value of the CTK will grow when more companies adopt Cryptyk’s solution.
ICO
The pre-sale has started on 8th February and it will end on 23rd March. You can enjoy 20% discount if you invest now, however the minimum investment is 25000 USD at this phase. Friends from US/ Canada, be noted that your CTKs will be locked for 1 year if you invest during the pre-sale. The public sale will start on 28th March and run for a month, with a 10% bonus during the first 2 days and 5% bonus during the first week. The minimum investment will be 1000 USD.Soft cap: 3M
Hard cap: 25M
Total supply: 750M
Available for token sale: 250M (33.3%)
Token price: 0.10 USD during pre-sale, 0.125 USD during public sale
Market cap: Around 30M
Summary
I like Cryptyk a lot and I think that it is one of the most promising project now. I can see the growth of CTKs once the platform is ready in Q1 2019 and Cryptyk starts to generate revenues.+ Cryptyk is solving a very serious problem of cloud-storage security
+ Cloud storage and cloud security market are valued at 30B and 120B respectively
+ Hybrid blockchain technology is resistant to all major security threats to the cloud
+ Strong team and advisors
+ Partnerships already announced including IBM
+ Awards: 2017 winner of the Australian Cyber-Security eChallenge, Top 10 Enterprise Security Startups for 2018
+ A fully tested prototype platform is already existed and approved by 40 hackers and 40 customers
+ Vesting period of 4 years for team members and 2 years for advisors and angel investors
- Only 33.3% of the total tokens are for sale
- The minimum investment is a little bit too high
