Cubbit is a Bologna-based company that develops and maintains a decentralized S3-compatible cloud storage. I have discovered it since its very early days already in 2020, then I got in touch with the company and became acquainted with the CEO, Stefano Onofri. We lost touch in the past few years, and I also voluntarily distanced me from the company, for several reasons.
- One of their top clients is Leonardo, an Italian weapons producer that supports genocide.
- The company is extremely cryptic about its product development roadmap.
- There is no way to run or self-host a Cubbit Cell without buying one from the company. As of the 2nd of May, it is also impossible to buy a Cubbit Cell! It’s clear that individual customers are not their business model anymore, see below.
- The focus of the business has changed from individuals and small groups to big businesses, thus not focusing anymore on the people who originally bought a Cubbit cell.
- The whole infrastructure is fully proprietary and users have no direct control over their data, there is little if no transparency about the flow of information, even though I am continuing to assume, in good faith, that the data is actually encrypted and distributed.
For all these reasons, I am definitely not a fan nor a supporter of Cubbit anymore. Still, as I bought a Cubbit Cell for myself, I am using the product for “free” object storage, but I am ready to migrate somewhere else, as I fear and I expect sudden turns of events.
Thoughts from 2022
Here are the original thoughts I shared about this company:
On top of the awesomeness of the service, I am a fan of Cubbit also for several particular reasons:
- I am among the first backers of the project
- I proudly own two Cubbit cells
- Cubbit has sponsored Scambi Festival
- I met Stefano Onofri, Cubbit CEO, and he showed me around Bologna, the city where Cubbit was born. It was a great experience and I had the opportunity of seeing the enthusiasm and commitment Cubbiters have!
The only problem of Cubbit is that, being so cutting-edge, its development is sloooow and new features are rolled out very, very rarely.