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I’ve been considering this for over 5 years. So far, cutting edge commercial is https://www.piql.com/ https://www.piql.com/, the Norwegian company that did the

by elamje 3y ago

I’ve been considering this for over 5 years. So far, cutting edge commercial is https://www.piql.com/ https://www.piql.com/, the Norwegian company that did the GitHub Arctic code vault. Their tapes have instructions on how to decode the data inscribed on the tape itself. Truly cutting edge (non-commercial) is Microsoft’s Project Silica optical storage as well as DNA storage. I’ve been thinking about building something in this space since I started my career, but the business seems incredibly hard to figure out a revenue model for. Trying to have someone pay up front for eternity(?), always seemed like a steep price. Would love to hear others thoughts if they’ve talked to people about this.

xupybd 3y ago
One thing I would pay for is a way to engrave my SSH keys into thin steel plates as a QR code. I have a safe with my critical keys in it but that is only fire proof for 3 hours. If things got really hot those are gone. In theory it shouldn't be an issue as I have them backed up other places but it would give me peace of mind to have them on a fire proof media.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  Credit where credit is due, the crypto space has some innovations in this area. Fully analog secret storage has a few options I have come across. One is where you punch/stamp your secret into a piece of steel. The blank is pre-scored with a template or letters so you can do this with just a hammer. The other is where you have little rings pre-stamped with letters/numbers which you then assemble onto a tube. A random site[0] I found offering some of the solutions. Given the industry, I assume this is just the most highly astro-turfed platform, but there you go. [0] https://cryptosteel.com/ https://cryptosteel.com/
  - xupybd 3y ago
    That's very cool. A lot of work to encode a long ssh key.
- mkj 3y ago
  Signing keys like ssh keys aren't so important, you should be able to replace those out of band. Decryption keys are more important to back up.
  - xupybd 3y ago
    If I lose my ssh keys the business I work for will no longer have access to their production sites. They can rebuild them from backups somewhere else but that is about it. They're printed on paper in a safe because of this.
- aborsy 3y ago
  The way that works in crypto is that, you generate a private key (such as an SSH or GPG key) from a mnemonic passphrase and punch/engrave those words on a metal plate.
wmf 3y ago
Piql and Silica are interesting at a civilization level but they aren't useful for personal archiving. You won't have a reader and you probably won't be able to build or buy one. For the economics of storage see https://economicmodel.dshr.org/ https://economicmodel.dshr.org/ and DSHR's other writing about archiving.

by elamje 3y ago

xupybd 3y ago

One thing I would pay for is a way to engrave my SSH keys into thin steel plates as a QR code. I have a safe with my critical keys in it but that is only fire proof for 3 hours. If things got really hot those are gone. In theory it shouldn't be an issue as I have them backed up other places but it would give me peace of mind to have them on a fire proof media.

0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
Credit where credit is due, the crypto space has some innovations in this area. Fully analog secret storage has a few options I have come across. One is where you punch/stamp your secret into a piece of steel. The blank is pre-scored with a template or letters so you can do this with just a hammer. The other is where you have little rings pre-stamped with letters/numbers which you then assemble onto a tube. A random site[0] I found offering some of the solutions. Given the industry, I assume this is just the most highly astro-turfed platform, but there you go. [0] https://cryptosteel.com/ https://cryptosteel.com/
- xupybd 3y ago
  That's very cool. A lot of work to encode a long ssh key.
mkj 3y ago
Signing keys like ssh keys aren't so important, you should be able to replace those out of band. Decryption keys are more important to back up.
- xupybd 3y ago
  If I lose my ssh keys the business I work for will no longer have access to their production sites. They can rebuild them from backups somewhere else but that is about it. They're printed on paper in a safe because of this.
aborsy 3y ago
The way that works in crypto is that, you generate a private key (such as an SSH or GPG key) from a mnemonic passphrase and punch/engrave those words on a metal plate.

wmf 3y ago

Piql and Silica are interesting at a civilization level but they aren't useful for personal archiving. You won't have a reader and you probably won't be able to build or buy one. For the economics of storage see https://economicmodel.dshr.org/ https://economicmodel.dshr.org/ and DSHR's other writing about archiving.