Answers to
Frequently asked questions
What is Space?
Space is a platform file storage, sharing, and collaboration platform that is user-controlled, censorship resistant, and built on the open web. It truly is your space, where you can protect your files, build your projects, and share without having to compromise your privacy by using cloud platforms that spy, and collect data from your files and activity.
How is Space user-controlled?
Space is built in a trustless way so that users own the experience, files, and their accounts exclusively. We can’t access your files, or their encryption keys, and we can’t access your account’s credentials/keys. What’s more, your storage is not bound to us and you can access it from any other compatible interface other than Space if you wish. It’s yours!
Is Space truly private?
Yes, the platform is built from the ground up to be privacy-first. The user’s information, their files, and interactions across the platform are end-to-end encrypted, and P2P, being the user the only one with access to the keys that protect them. Space is open source as well, which makes it possible to review our code to verify these claims.
Can Space see or gather data from my files?
No. Space uses private-public key pairs and end-to-end encryption to ensure the user, and the people who they share files with, are the only ones able to access files and see their data. Space doesn’t have access to a user’s private keys, and access to backups is user-owned, meaning Space can’t access or modify them either.
What does it mean Space is built on the distributed web?
It means it utilizes protocols like IPFS, Textile, Ethereum, Torus, and Filecoin (in the future), which compose part of the core technologies of the Web 3.0. The distributed web focuses on creating online experiences that are not centralized or under control of a single entity (us!), giving ownership and control of the data to users (you!)
How is Space's online storage different from the cloud?
Contrary to cloud storage, which uses centralized servers, Space’s stores online on distributed Space nodes (which include an IPFS and Textile node). These can only be accessed and decrypted by users. On Space’s V1, we run the Space nodes to ensure availability, but in the future we will offer decentralized options, such as users running their own nodes.
How do the automatic Filecoin backups work?
Aside from your main online storage in Space nodes, we also backup all your files automatically to Filecoin as a redundancy layer. Filecoin is a decentralized storage network that doesn't depend on Space, which means users have the certainty that their files don't depend entirely on our infrastructure. On V1, files are archived in bulk on Filecoin by us. In V2, files will be archived separately for users to be able to retrieve them individually.