Start-Up Profile: Ubbey Tech

Company
Ubbey Tech, Ltd., wholly-owned subsidiary of Universal Labs, a non-profit foundation aims to develop the proof-of-storage consensus based open blockchain system and located in Hong Kong with manufacturing in Shenzhen, mainland China

HQs and Offices
San Mateo, CA, USA, Hong Kong, China and Seoul, South Korea

Date founded
2017

Financial funding
To launch on Kickstarter around June and for buyers to get up to 50% discount on the product when released

Revenues
$2 million

Founder and CEO
Keda Che, expert in blockchain and distributed storage system, worked at the Blockchain Research Lab co-sponsored by Harvard University, Fidelity, Citi and NASDAQ and also provided blockchain consulting services and solutions to Fortune 500 companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Emirate Airline. He has a Master’s degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University. He founded his first blockchain start-up Ownership Technology (Boost VC Tribe 7) back in 2015. He is also an adjunct professor at HIT. 

Number of employees
30

Technology
Distributed storage, blockchain, AI, private cloud

Product description
Ubbey NEXT is a decentralized modular intelligent storage solution, stackable and secure, smart and distributed, built with magnetic connected blocks, various modules to meet diverse needs. It’s designed for anyone to keep their data safe and manage conveniently. It aims to change the way people interact with their data, resulting in data ownership and AI-powered p2p sharing with incentives. It is beyond NAS as it’s is easier to set up and capable of more possibilities.

Che is optimistic about his product:: “I believe the current model of Internet is wrong. There are so many centralized digital giants. They want to control all data, even users’ personal data. Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web on a NeXT computer made by Steve Jobs. We want to follow the path of the two great pioneers and use our Ubbey NEXT to re-decentralize the Internet.”

Up to 4TB, storage expansion module can also be used as mobile hard drive.
The unused space can be shared and traded with Ubbey p2p network.

The stackable design includes 4 types of modules:

• Ubbey N: The base module comes with 1TB capacity to use most of Ubbey App’s features via Android and iOS, and participates into the Ubbey blockchain mining by contributing your unused storage.
• Ubbey E: To expand the base modules storage. One piece of Ubbey E contains up to 4TB capacity (1TB, 2TB, 3TB or 4TB). You can stack a maximum 3 Ubbey Es on a base module. Each one can be used as a mobile hard drive as well.
• Ubbey T: Wifi module, connected to router wirelessly
• Ubbey X: With more possibilities, for example IP camera module let to remotely monitor home or office

Tech Specs

• Processor:1.5GHz quad-core processor (Ubbey N)
• RAM: 2GB DDR4 (Ubbey N)
• ROM: 8GB (Ubbey N)
• Storage: 1TB HDD (Ubbey N) and more space by adding Ubbey E
• Color: black/white
• Volume: 123x123x50 mm (one block)
• Weight: 400g (one block)
• Connectivity: 1GbE port
• Interface: Type C USB 3.0 up to 100MB/s
• Ubbey App: remote access, download and share digital files (supports SMB, IPFS, DLNA, Plex protocols), decentralized application store, AI-powered content recommendation and p2p downloading
• Blockchain: mining by proof-of-storage consensus
• HDD encryption and RAID backup

Released date
During 2019

Price range
$150 to $300

Roadmap
Will ship first batch within 3 months. 

Customers
Those who care their data security and privacy

Applications
You can store all your files on the Ubbey NEXT, from documents to photos, music and video collections. By using Ubbey App on mobile or desktop, you can access files locally or remotely. You can also contribute unused storage to Ubbey network to get rewards or trade with other users. 

Target market
HDD and cloud storage

Competitors
Include NAS manufacturers, Dropbox, iCloud