Time Will Tell for Internxt

I came across Internxt while looking into ProtonDrive as a supplement or potential replacement of Nextcloud. Internxt further strengthens remote, encrypted file storage by breaking individual files into little pieces (sharding) and storing them on different servers. With common file storage options like Dropbox, Google Drive, Nextcloud, and others; if someone steals a file from the server (lets assume it's encrypted) they can theoretically decrypt it (over a remarkably long period of time or with a massive amount of processing power.) Stealing a complete file from Internxt however would require a thief to solve the world's most complicated jigsaw puzzle. Puzzle pieces are hidden in piles of unrelated puzzle pieces in multiple places all over  the world (good luck!)

I purchased the 2TB lifetime subscription to support the company building the product. It is currently too lacking in features to be used efficiently on a daily basis so my hope is that one day they produce a better product. All of the clients are in various forms of development so until they mature more it is not a particularly useful tool.

My primary hesitation on spending money on their product was their lack of documentation describing their security model and system design. ProtonDrive, which is being developed by the people behind ProtonMail, did a much better job presenting the architecture of their security system. To Internxt's credit, all of their code is already open source unlike Proton which generally creates, releases and later open sources their products. However, undocumented and unreviewed source code provides non-technical users minimal assurance.

Internxt seems more focused on marketing that compares themselves with competitors than in demonstrating the security of their design. My hope is that they spend 2021 improving their functionality, releasing desktop and mobile clients, and then have a reputable company perform an audit of their code. Smaller teams have to choose where their limited time is focused in order to grow and become successful; as a advocate of open source tech I am content to wait and see how things progress. It is understandable why Internxt has chosen their current path and I have high hopes that with time it will develop into a valuable tool that people around the world utilize on a daily basis; today it's just not ready.