The Web Entrepreneur Egg Race

@ Tefal

The point here is not the technical but the marketable. A simple drag and drop solution that anyone can understand and use. As I said in the Programming sub-forum take a look at dsCrypt's interface; its insanely simple. Drag a file onto it and it generates an encrypted file.

Now, use a similar interface tool for PGP and provide only the Public Key and anyone, literally anyone, can produce a file locked until the date that the Private Key is published on the service providers web-site. It just doesn't get easier. Simplicity sells.

Anyone prepared to put the time in could secure very considerable free publicity for the service, even in the general national media. Most importantly, because the cost of providing the service is so very low, insanely low user numbers deliver significant profits.

Its no skin off my nose if anyone recognises that or not. I posted it here as a freebie concept.
 
yes it's very simple to do, and yes a million other people could do it too so you're not going to be unique for long.


Also it's not really very useful at all.

And your costs are, holding contract info (and updating), copy of the file + the key + the bandwidth for all the massive file uploads

and read the last post of mine.


as you've just said you're not vetting the data you're gonna go to jail and be put on the sex offenders register after the first police raid.
 
Tefal: the files don't have to be stored by the encryption company?
It'd just be like emailing a zip file to friend, the company only produce the software, like winzip or similar, no hosting/storage fees from what I gather?
 
@ Tefal

I'm sorry mate but your rant as regards the law just has to be replied to because it was so illogical not least in the way that you extrapolated disclosure upon request by the Police as something which would result in failure or lack of confidence in such a business.

Quite obviously one would give over the password (Private Key) if requested to by the Police. It simply does not follow though that such would result in business failure or loss of confidence. All manner of businesses operate upon the same provisions but do not fail. Such subservience to the law is a given in business. Period. Even Solicitors do not have totally unfettered provision to withhold information.

The law issue you raised is so very plainly of zero consequence. Few people would lose confidence in a bank offering a safety deposit box service just because the bank allowed Police access to the box of a suspected criminal. Or could it be, Tefal, that you believe that it is only criminals who use safety deposit boxes?

If you re-read my posts you will also see that in most cases the file would never be held on the company's server; although such an option might also be offered as an extra. The safety deposit box analogy also applies. Are banks required to vet all materials stored by clients in their safety deposit boxes?

As regards some of your other arguments I am baffled by the equally illogical arguments. Just because something akin may or may not have been done before does not equal FAIL. Was Google the first search engine or Facebook the first Social Networking site? Equally because something can be copied that too does not equal FAIL. Or are you saying only patented products, still in patent, can ever succeed?

As for how big the potential market is, so what? I take it you have no perception of what Niche products are or of Niche marketing? Remember - 36 customers a day globally equals over £1K a week almost all of which is profit. Your argument that its such a small market and your argument that huge bandwidth would be required are self-contradictory are they not?

Finally, you seem to assume that masses of data needs to be stored. In reality in most cases there is less data to store than with most other simple web-based businesses. All that's needed are normal customer details plus three fields (1) A record of the Public Key Issued; (2) The corresponding Private Key and (3) the date from which to make that Private Key available on the website. That's not a lot of data is it? Whether the customer or anyone they gave the file to ever bothers to look up the Private Key on the website and unlock the file is up to them.
 
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anyone who wants it can do it with the timelock program anyway why pay you just because you have it on a website? if there were money it in google or ms would be all over it.

i cant think of any reason why you would even want such a thing
 
I'm not sure why it would be worth paying to use such a service. You could just encrypt it for free on your computer and send the key out to whomever whenever you want.

By using a cloud service you are giving a random company the sensitive data and giving a random company control of the keys. This company could go bust, get hacked and have keys or original files stolen. Even though you say the file wouldn't be held, there may be legal requirements to store it or it could be forensically recovered, but if you have the keys on the server and the encrypted data anyway it's game over.
 
slylittlefox said:
I'd love to see a list of potential uses/users for this product, because I'm struggling to see them :)
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same only use is for game releases and they already have time locks on most games sold on dvd's and steam has its own encryption based timelock.

i cant imagine it beeing of any use to the average person and any company can do it themselfs its not exactly complicated
 
If think anyone with the knowledge/ability should have a crack at it. You never know - there could be a very niche or specific market/application for it.

If it doesn't take off, at least you tried.
 
tigerstyle said:
Tefal: the files don't have to be stored by the encryption company?
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then the product is no longer simple it's pretty worthless if you have to make sure a specific file is kept safe (and compatible) for years on end.

it only makes sense if they keep the file and contact the person you want it sent to.

otherwise you may as well just use an envelope with a date put on the front.
 
FARGO said:
If think anyone with the knowledge/ability should have a crack at it. You never know - there could be a very niche or specific market/application for it.

If it doesn't take off, at least you tried.
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its already been done by the "timelock" program as an application just not with a web interface.

seriously though i cant think of anyone who would need such a website
 
Pfft, easy concept and you don't need to tunnel out to NTP servers, just make sure the server time is maintained, cron job to make file available/unencrypt when unlock date/time = server date/time.
 
Well i think it's a good idea. It's more or less niche, and useful to at least a few people (wikileaks?).
I can't imagine it having a huge userbase though, and I can't imagine charging people much to use it.
 
mistercrabb said:
Well i think it's a good idea. It's more or less niche, and useful to at least a few people (wikileaks?).
I can't imagine it having a huge userbase though, and I can't imagine charging people much to use it.
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That's the point really. Simple drag and drop, easy to use. Doesn't matter if its been done before in a less easy to use way. Search engines weren't new when Google launched. Nor social networking when Facebook launched. The key is always make it easy.

Obviously this concept is minuscule in a minuscule potential market but then again one doesn't need many users (worldwide) to turn a profit. 36 users a day returns pretty much £50K pa profit at a peanuts price of £3.99p a pop. That's a figure most folks wouldn't bat an eyelid at spending.

The concept is very low cost to set-up too and pretty much zero promotion costs if one knows how to work the media with press releases that lazy journo's or bloggers can pretty much cut and paste.

Usage? Well, its a strange fact that folks often use things just because they are there. Often in ways one might never imagine. Remember - SMS was added to mobile standards without any real expectation that it would be used to any degree. Folks think of their own ways of using things once those things exist and are easy to use. I could well see someone making their own family Time-Capsules. Or making a short video for a grandchild's 21st birthday knowing that due to age they won't be there. All Time-locked so no chance of things being sneak viewed before the day. Sealed bids often result in conflicts or disputes because of a suspicion that one was viewed early and another bidder tipped off. A business avoids disputes and demonstrates its probity if it requests all bids to be time-locked until decision day. The potential markets are there to develop both in terms of adhoc domestic usage and a regular routine commercial user base. With an idea like this its just a case of finding the right pitch for the right potential markets and that means the right press release for the right journo's.

If someone doesn't have the ken to build usage of just 36 users a day from the world's population then that's their problem. Its just a case of giving it a bit of hard grunt for a year or two to gain momentum. After that its just like a flywheel. Even if it doesn't work what's the loss? The financial costs of set-up are so very low that its pretty much only a chunk of one's time that's ever truly at risk.

I threw this one up here just in case anyone with a bit of spare time and drive wanted to give it a go. If they don't, fair enough.
 
Isn't part of the problem the fact that anyone could do this? Which means a competitor could come along and offer the service at £3 (particularly if this is a worldwide kind of thing). In which case, what is to stop your service from going bust in 5 years time?

That's the sort of thing that would stop me using this sort of service unless it was from Microsoft or Google, because how do I know you're still going to be around when my grandson turns 21?
 
Skull said:
Isn't part of the problem the fact that anyone could do this? Which means a competitor could come along and offer the service at £3 (particularly if this is a worldwide kind of thing). In which case, what is to stop your service from going bust in 5 years time?

That's the sort of thing that would stop me using this sort of service unless it was from Microsoft or Google, because how do I know you're still going to be around when my grandson turns 21?
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As for someone else doing it and undercutting, well that's the risk we all face in any business. In reality the more one moves into niche markets the less a problem pricing becomes. Just take a look around at LTD Company formation businesses or web hosting for just two examples. Niche markets are rarely price sensitive to any great degree.

As regards your second paragraph that is possibly the first sensible objection anyone has tendered here. To a large degree that is why I suggested earlier in the thread that it is critical that everything is done to project an image of solidity within the business name; VAT registration from day one, etc. Personally, if I were running with it myself I would not look to take any profits in the first year but instead invest in obtaining ISO 9000 certification. I've always followed the old adage - "First get your turnover up before you look for profits." Its never a bad rule to follow. All in all none of that would totally remove your concern but in practice would reduce the number of potential clients that declined for the reason you voiced.
 
VFM Addict said:
I threw this one up here just in case anyone with a bit of spare time and drive wanted to give it a go. If they don't, fair enough.
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Personally I think it's a fantastic idea and I can certainly see it making a substantial profit with the right marketing.

I would actually seriously consider having a crack at this was I not just about to pitch a new business plan to Phillip Clarke the new CEO of Tesco across the coming weeks.

Luckily i've met him on several occasions so have had no problem getting in front of him.

I work for the company already but I had a lightbulb moment quite recently and think i'm onto something very special. I've crunched some numbers and I genuinely believe I can slap an extra 20% onto Tesco's PBT with little to no investment utilizing nothing more than the companies ridiculously high public footfall. Given that their profit was £3.47 billion for 2009 thats a lot of money indeed. Obviously I won't be going in to detail but if all goes according to plan we could see Tesco offering a completely different service soon :)
 
tntcoder said:
Can you explain what you think the benefits of such a service would be though, over the current array of solutions to the problem?
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Ease of use, elegance... And marketability.

Joe public is scared of anything complex and not shoved down their throats...

Why did the iPhone take off when Windows Mobile phones fell flat on their face for years prior despite offering the same funcionality? Simple... Elegance, ease of use and marketability.
 
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