Universal Labs: Blockchain in a Box

Today I will review a bit unusual project. It is a crypto project, but with the real-world product. So it is not just something abstract like another blockchain or protocol (although both serve as the basis for it anyway), but you can also actually touch it. But be careful not to break it. So, I am talking about Universal Labs (ULabs) and its Ubbey Box.

The Idea

The Ubbey Box is a device that serves as a personal cloud storage, the first version of which is available with 1 or 2 TB of space. The box users can store and access their data from anywhere and anytime. The box can be connected to various devices such as TVs or game consoles. But in addition to storing data, the Ubbey Box also serves as a full node for the Ubbey Network, effectively meaning that owners of the devices can use it not just as a storage but also earn some network reward in the form of YOU token.

The Technology

The Ubbey Network uses the Proof-of-Storage/Space consensus algorithm, which incentivizes users to have available space on their devices. The registry of data ownership is maintained with the help of the Ownership Protocol (OWP) that is also capable of managing identity.

The Ubbey Box however is not the only solution for OWP. According to the developers, the protocol can also be used for data computation and exchange solutions as well as a tool to combat counterfeit products by maintaining digital identification and product validation platform that will allow "stamping" genuine products at the producer's location and then confirming their authenticity at the point of sale with the use of mobile application. Thus, an end consumer can be confident that they are buying an authentic product.

The Token

The Ubbey Network uses YOU tokens to ensure its proper functioning and pay the transaction fees. It is also needed for the creation and execution of smart contracts as well as exchange, storage and recovery of data.

The total supply of the YOU coin is 10bn. Forty per cent of all token will be sold (4bn) during the token sale. The price is pegged to ETH, with 1 ETH giving you 100,000 coins. The hard cap for the sale is 40,000 ETH.

The Team and Advisors

The team of Universal Lab is young, skilled and ambitious. Founder Keda Che graduated from Harvard and has been in the blockchain space for quite a while. He was the Founder and CEO of Ownership Technology Inc. that utilized blockchain for intellectual property protection. He also founded YQTC that was ranked as one of the top 16 blockchain start-ups in China. Co-Founder Sammy Mehra, also Harvard alumnus, worked with Keda Che at Ownership Technology Inc. as well as a full stack engineer in Linkedin, Hubspot and Atlassian. Chief scientist Hongyuan Yuan is a Stanford graduate with professional background at Adobe. Lead Blockchain Developer Vence Zhou used to work for Tencent, one of the largest corporations in the world. Other team members have background with such big names as BP, Alibaba, Credit Suisse, FedEx, to name a few.

Advisor team also combines ambition and experience. Jingshu Chen was selected as one of 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in Asia by Forbes in 2018. Dr. Zoya Kinstler serves as an enterprise architect at Verizon Communications Inc. Andy Ann is the founder and CEO of NDN Group, a digital conglomerate investing in digital tech start-ups. Most recently, Simon Luk, CEO of Asia Block Capital, an investment company focused on the most promising blockchain technologies, joined the project as a strategic advisor.

The Product
As of now, the ULabs has already sold the first shipment of 1,000 Ubbey Boxes. The testnet will be launched in October, while the mainnet and OWL protocol are expected to be fully integrated with the device in December.

Conclusion
ULabs and its Ubbey Box is definitely a project that deserves more attention. It aims to create not only infrastructure, but also provides a real-world product that can be used in any household or business environment. The Ubbey Box serves as a personal cloud device but can also function as a masternode on ULabs' blockchain meaning that at some point users will be able not only to return their initial investment in the device but also start earning additional tokens. The technology developed by the ULabs team has other existing applications and can be expanded to future use cases. The team itself is very strong at all aspects and has excellent background.

More info about ULabs:
ULabs website: https://ulabs.tech
ULabs Telegram: https://t.me/universallabs
ULabs Blog: https://medium.com/@pr_52730
ULabs Whitepaper: http://ulabs.tech/images/Universal-Labs-WhitePaper.pdf

This article is not a buy/sell recommendation. I am not a financial adviser and you should do your own research before investing in any project.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for other reviews and feel free to upvote, resteem and follow me!