Gaya

Total hours: 203.950

Top three:

1) Crypto threat and recovery model

This is quite complicated. It’s difficult because any proposed solution that I come up with requires some kind of storage of keys to verify that the data hasn’t been tampered with. This in turn locks the data from being rekeyed which is an important requirement. Assuming data isn’t rekeyable or only partially rekeyable leaves certain threat vectors open.

At this point I’ve settled for the idea that the individual devices are all secure and trusted. After signing in on a device, you must approve that device from a trusted device. In the event that there are no trusted devices or they’re all marked as lost or inaccessible. I haven’t yet decided to what to do. Either design that I’ve come up with:

1) Each device has a secure private keyring section that only it can cryptographically update. This is the idea of having public/private key pairs. However in the event that all the devices are lost, then we have no proof that the public keys are in fact the correct public keys. Any idea of round robin key signature doesn’t work since each device no longer has access to it’s original key. If a device did then it could let the other devices into their new secure areas and sign that it’s a valid transition. Therefore creating a cryptographic bind between the old public key and the new public key.

2) The other option is a variation which depends on trust and I’m not sure how much should be trust based versus how much should be mathematically impossible to access. Your browsing data is extremely important and extremely private. No one should be able to access it except you.

The problem ultimately boils down to how do you prove you are you?

Requires therefore a key to be stored in escrow in order to unlock the shared contents and restore access to the new device.

However this quickly borders onto a backup service which Gaya is NOT!!!! Gaya is in no way a backup service of any kind. It takes preexisting data that exists on devices and remixes them in a beautiful and seamless way. It partially facilities backing up because it’s able to synchronize all the data to one endpoint but it in itself is NOT a backup service.

2) Quickbooks align

Financial management. Bleh but it had to be done. I need to know how much money I’m investing into this venture and therefore how much I can safely continue to venture into the endeavour without overcommitting and having the project come to a halt.

3) Digitize documents

Running a business is complicated and generates way more documents than you could ever imagine. Since I’m eco conscious and also privacy focused, I’m moving everything to digital and then securely destroy the physical contents.