Bitcasa - to good to be true?

Ok I know this thread is long, but please give it a read. I have a feeling this will be a very powerful file trading cloud service.

I want to discuss the power of Bitcasa and what I believe will be a service that will end up being to good to be true and eventually might get shut down.

So I have been playing with Bitcasa for the past week and have been brainstorming some mind blowing ideas for how powerful this service will become, mainly for sharing files between everyone on the net.

What is Bitcasa? Bitcasa is a cloud service that gives you 10GB for free, or unlimited space for $10 a month. Why is it so powerful? You can share any link to your files with any other Bitcasa user, even if they have the free account. So what does this mean? This means any user that has a free account can have unlimited files (space) linked to them, and can download, stream, even send the link to other users. Their only restriction is when they go over their 10GB limit, they can no longer upload to their free drive, but they can continue to receive links, no matter how big the size is. BUT WHY UPLOAD, when another user can just send you a link to the data you want? Even when the link is deleted they still have access...they can send the link to another account and another...and it will never get taken down as long as they are all getting duplicated links.

Now how does Bitcasa offer unlimited space? It's because they match your files, they technically don't upload anything if the same file is already on their server. They do this in chunks. So if say one file is slightly different than another file they will match as much as they can, and actually upload the difference to their drive. So when you upload your 10TB library of movies, you are NOT uploading your library, you are MATCHING your library to theirs if those files exist. Bitcasa says 60% of data is non unique, so their is a high chance that you are matching. Now when these files get matched, or uploaded they get encrypted from your side, basically a KEY is generated to your username and password that only has access to view these files. But what if millions of users are uploading (matching) the same file? They are all just generating different keys to have access to those files...the originals on Bitcasa's server.

Think of it like this. You start a brand new free Bitcasa account ( similar to a key-chain with no keys ) you upload a file, it never really gets uploaded, just matched. You now generated 1 key on your key-chain to have access to that file. Now if you share a link to your buddy for that file, you actually just generate a key for them, you never give them access to YOUR file, cause it was never YOUR file in the beginning, just a match. Now if you delete the link, they will permanently have access to that file. Now they can stream, download, even send the link to someone else, like a spreading virus.

Now the crazy idea I had. Imagine one person starts a collection, about 1TB of media, they share it to 1000s of people, all those people add to it, they keep sharing, it builds and builds and builds, like a snowball growing while rolling down a snowy hill. Then this link file is about 1 Petabyte, 2-5-10- 100 Petabytes. Remember you never send the actually files when you send a link, just KEYS to all the files. It spreads so much that it's uncontrollable, and this is when action takes place, and Bitcasa comes to an end.

Now some people will say, well don't give out links, or keep everything tight and secure. But who are we kidding! It doesn't matter because your FILES are not your FILES, they are matched to the server. When in-experienced people find out how easy this is, they will share everything. Post links on facebook, twitter, etc... Then those people will share everything they want. In example, I shared my 800GB collection to my friend today (really just keys), it was the fastest 800GB I've ever transferred took 1 minute. He can now stream, download, and also share that with whoever, no matter if I delete my account! I've been reading about people talking about Bitcasa and how they have uploaded their 40TB movies collection. They are NOT uploading anything! All they are doing is just verifying their files with what is on Bitcasa's server. The funny thing is, if that person were to just send a link of his (but not his) 40TB of movies to someone else, then someone else would have that collection in less than 1 minute or he could just search for other Bitcasa users that have movies like his that they could retrieve the link for. Now imagine everyone sharing this, and how fast it can spread! Think of a website just hosting Bitcasa links or people just constantly posting on facebook....you dont need to go to your regular site and download 720P 5GB movies you can just get a link for it, you would have a movie ready to stream in 1 minute. Then you can share that with anyone you want. You don't actually have that movie, but the KEY to the movie that is on Bitcasa's server...or you can download it and HAVE it saved on your hard drive.

I use XBMC to stream my movies, and I have streamed many videos from Bitcasa on my windows PC using XBMC pretty flawlessly, and so has my friend, and brother, and his friend who are all at different locations using my link that I gave them. Also I have no idea if they have shared the links I gave them. Heck, I can delete my account permanently and they will continue to stream all those files, because they have the keys to the files Bitcasa has on their server. Never MINE. When people start sharing links, its just going to grow and grow and grow. If everyone were to upload 1 file and start sending links it would grow insanely fast. I fear what's going to happen when this catches on.

What do you guys think? To good to be true, or what?

i use XBMC too steam tv from uk and usa looking good

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tranceology3

What do you guys think? To good to be true, or what?

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In theory this is great, but on the other end, all the Industries (MPAA, RIAA, software) need to do to order a universal takedown is supply a matching signature. All similar files can/will be taken down (erased from that big ball everyone is sharing) and forever marked.

The door swings both ways, unfortunately.

EDIT- From CNN Money article on Bitcasa:

[QUOTE] Bitcasa claims that it has no idea what you're uploading, and it is one of the few cloud services that encrypt your files before they ever reach the server. But since there's only one version of each file on Bitcasa's servers, the contents of your folder that match other people's files would contain the exact same encryption. That means it potentially wouldn't be difficult for a hacker or perhaps law enforcement to identify everyone who owns a particular file. [/QUOTE]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tranceology3

Ok I know this thread is long, but please give it a read.

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War and Peace is long.On the other hand what stops me from reading this thread is that it's boring.:)

Either the content, or my way of describing it wasn't exciting enough. Anyway, am I the only one that finds this extremely powerful for sharing files? Or is this pointless for people? Am I missing something here?

I mean why would you torrent a file, download off some server with thousands of ads, pay for a service like NZBs, when all you need is a free Bitcasa account and a Bitcasa link to the file(s) you want, and now it's on your cloud and you can freely download the files, stream or share them anytime you want, and get high download speeds. Even if law enforcement deletes the matched files, who's stopping you from downloading any file off the bitcasa server before its deleted? NO ONE cause its in your personal cloud. I mean to really make my theory work, a website just needs to host Bitcasa links, and then you would have access and keep the master files, Many Many TBs. And then anyone can re-post those links and keep it alive.

My point when I say it's to good to be true is in fact the reality of it. Once it catches on lots of accounts/files are going to be deleted, ultimately hurting Bitcasa, and probably coming to an end.

Well I guess it was to good to be true, they raised their price to 100$ a month now.

Not surprised they did a bait and switch. I was a former customer and got a deal $50/1yr unlimited. But I should have tested it more, the client uploader was buggy and many features were missing. Many people had problems in their forums.

Since they don't own their own servers and use Amazon S3 they have no control over prices. The founder and former CEO saw this coming and left the company. Many big players in the industry have tried to offer unlimited storage and failed.
Rapidshare, Megaupload, Filefactory, Mozy....etc

Never trust the cloud with unique copies of your files. It is only good as secondary backup.