Internxt is a decentralized cloud storage service with a focus on privacy and security. The company’s X Core software powers its X Cloud decentralized storage. The team believes that extant cloud storage solutions rely too much on centralization. Internxt’s decentralized blockchain model is designed to enhance the privacy, security, speed, and security of cloud storage systems by creating a blockchain hybrid of private and public cloud systems.

“A major issue with existing cloud platforms is security and data centralization. In fact, cloud computing is a computing paradigm, an abstraction where data and services are accessible all over the network to authorized users and processes,” the developers said in their white paper. “Abstraction of computing away from the physical host entails a loss of control of corporate data and loss of visibility into who has access to it. Another dimension to cloud computing with very serious implications for security is the deployment model: who owns the infrastructure and how is it accessed.”

Who Are the Project Leaders?

The founder and CEO of Internxt is Fran Villalba Segarra. Segarra previously worked for web hosting company Hostinger before launching his own hosting start-up, OneSite.

Segarra’s technical advisor is Alex Sicart Ramos, the founder of FileNation, and his chief technology officer is Volodymyr Shevchyk, who developed the iOS client for eastern European social network VK.

How Is Internxt Different from Conventional Cloud Storage Solutions?

Internxt gives four main advantages to its decentralized storage approach. Files stored on the X Cloud service are encrypted and distributed across the network, so privacy is guaranteed. This same distributed approach to data storage provides security, giving hackers no single storage location to attack. The fact that the system’s computing power is spread across many different individual computers instead of a central server increases its speed, and X Cloud’s open-source, user-driven network keeps costs down in a similar way.

Read: Blockchain Cloud Storage

Another key component is the use of self-executing smart contracts and a system of adaptable middleware that exists outside of the blockchain. This prevents power from collecting in any one user or group of users in the system.

“In contrast to the digital behemoths such as Google and Amazon where datacentres provide storage space on their servers, X Cloud offers a different approach to where the users’ files are to be located,” according to the developers. “In fact, all files within X Cloud are stored nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Before being dispersed among all nodes of the Internxt’s network, all files are split and encrypted with the help of the X Core software. In such a distributed state, the information becomes instantly accessible via a special web-based solution which holds the structure and the location of each piece of data stored in X Cloud. Hence, only an owner of a file possesses all necessary attributes to reassemble the file from the ultimately distributed and highly secure X Cloud.”

How Does X Core Work?

X Core’s software replaces a centralized controller, as each X Core user in the Internxt system donates computing resources to the open-source software. The result is an adaptable network of controllers that grows stronger as it grows larger, the developers said. Functionality is maintained, however, as hosts on the network drop on and off by redistributing resources.

“Since the number of the running nodes may vary in the course of time, the feature of an automatic adjustment enables X Core to regulate the workload of each networked computer efficiently,” the developers spelled out in Internxt’s white paper. “It means that the fluctuations in the number of users online don’t affect the usability of the entire network nor the working capacity of each particular computer within the network. Thus, the system automatically maintains the right balance between all available users in order to provide them with an equal operability of the network making the overall functionality of the system faster than the rest analogs.”

Does It Have Any Competitors?

There are currently five big names operating in the blockchain cloud storage space – Storj, MaidSafe, FileCoin, DADI, and Siacoin. Some crypto watchers speculate that Internxt’s partnership with Civic might give it an edge over the coins deeper into their respective roadmaps.

Civic’s Secure Identity Platform uses a blockchain system to authenticate information and provides a path for know-your-customer identification, which enhance the system’s inherent security.

“Implementing these technologies in Internxt’s services will help Internxt encourage the correct and intended use of its Internet services,” the developers wrote on the project’s blog. “We believe that in order to bring the use of decentralized Internet services to the mass-market there has to be a procedure put in place to stop its foundations being misused to cause damage.”

When Does It Launch?

Both X Cloud and its X Core software are slated for a beta launch by the third quarter of 2018. Later that quarter, the developers plan to release the final commercial version.

What Is INXT, and How Do You Earn It?

INXT is the cryptocurrency associated with the Internxt project. Internxt accepts both U.S. dollars and INXT for its services, and the collected INXT is then distributed to hosts participating in the X Core/X Cloud network.

Internxt views INXT as having intrinsic value due to its direct link to the company’s cloud storage service.

“Gold has value due to its reliable demand, as gold is always likely to be desirable,” the developers wrote. “Some cryptocurrencies rely on everybody agreeing they have value, which may change, particularly if a currency with vastly improved technology becomes available. In contrast, INXT is designed to function as an economy with reliable demand, as all revenue generated from Internxt’s products are to be converted into INXT.”

INXT can also be bought on four exchanges, although the developers expect that number to increase shortly. The exchanges are CoinExchange, Mercatox, IDEX, and YoBit.

INXT has a current price as of May 7 of $8.44. The coin’s market cap is $5.3 million with a fixed 629,610 supply. It is not minable.