if these people actually cared about people owning their own data, they would have released a toolkit or an application that lets each individual do what you've just described. Instead of asking for money.
This is a somewhat ridiculous position. If I hope to preserve data for my children, I'm not going to hand them a box with jerry-rigged software and hardware that they then have to maintain. I want someone to maintain that for them.
If I'm looking for my blog, or my tweets, or a set of family photos and videos to live on forever, I absolutely want them under control of a foundation that outlives me and my relatives interest in maintaining that data.
So you just made the claim this is essentially a scam and the people don't know what they are doing (considering the people on the board that's quite a rich claim). JCharante just showed with a back of the envelope calculation that it seems feasible.
Why don't you refute the argument and tell us why it isn't?
You made some pretty bold claims, so I would be nice if you can back them up.
>>> There's no such thing as forever, especially if it's run by beings that won't be around forever. The scammy people behind this initiative will all die in hundred years.
> if these people actually cared about people owning their own data, they would have released a toolkit or an application that lets each individual do what you've just described. Instead of asking for money.
The only way human beings can successfully store data (especially symbolic/digital data) for long terms is by creating institutions to maintain it.
Even granite tablet buried in a cave for 10,000 years will require a continuous series of institutions maintain the knowledge to successfully interpret it, otherwise you'll just end up with something like Linear A.
> they would have released a toolkit or an application that lets each individual do what you've just described
Where is this individual going to store their data? On the unreliable hard drive on their personal computer, which they never back up?
A toolkit or an application isn't hardware. Solving the problem of reliable long-term data storage requires hardware. Hardware costs money. Basically this service is competing with my ISP, my hosting company, etc. to be a long-term data storage provider.
