The majority of initial users could use a digital version of this (similar to xbox live/apple/google play codes etc.), the checkout stuff would be for less savvy internet people who still don’t trust putting their CC details on a website to buy their driving gloves or whatever.
P.S. If anyone needs any MS Paint work doing, come to me, as you can see, I got mad skillz.
Hope the marketing team has eyes 
on this.
A novice has to learn to use the internet and their computer. There is always extra steps for those who do not have someone to do it for them. I only gave a starting point for the discussions and initially a novice is not wanting safe and by the time novices want safe then there will be people to hold their hands and hopefully easier ways.
An account only needs a fraction of a coin and when divisibility is incorporated then vouchers being sold in stores would be viable, the voucher has instructions on it to create the account. Like - visit voucher site, click install, enter voucher code (which is covered till bought) and the site instructs them to create account, copy n paste wallet ID, and DONE. Easier than joining facebook and setting up an account and novices do it every day.
For android/apple have a store app that does all this with “in-app purchase” to purchase the wallet ID.
The wallet would only have a fraction of a coin and is intended to be thrown away for security reasons.
How is that for easy.
edit: Like what @Ken said
To make account creation free would still involve all those steps above except copy-n-paste wallet ID. Except the account spammers would have a field day and DOS the network something shocking.
The “voucher company” would be simply a person/company that generates wallets and loads the wallet with enough factions of a safecoin to set up a wallet and any other services like IDs etc. We are talking perhaps 0.001 cents in todays terms of safecoin needs to be loaded onto the wallet. Then they market it by physical vouchers, play store APP with in-app purchase etc.
Obviously the wallets can be accessed by the company but if the company stuffed around with these wallets then it would go out of business.
Doesnt giving free coins dilute the price of the coins and network?
Also is open to abuse by those who can get past any protections
Perhaps anyone can accounts and have a peek at the features within. To activate the features, gain full access, or even setup a vault to earn, safecoins are needed. Need to pay before start earning.
You will be able to set up a vault without an account, so you can earn coin before setting up an account. Vaults and accounts are separate things and are not linked. The vault will earn coin and they go to a wallet address. An account can use that wallet address if it has the keys for it and that is the only link between vault and account, but is not really a link. Vaults & accounts do not affect each other in any way and a bad vault does not impact on any account at all.
Also David talked about having a temporary account that would not last and must be paid for before becoming permanent.
So there will be options and Maidsafe do know that the chicken & egg problem exists and will address the issue when the time is right.
Thats a good idea. Give a sneak preview
And this will be gamed. Once you offer free coins then someone will work out how to game it.
Better a company makes a business of loading new wallets with a fraction of a coin and then sell those wallets. Voucher system might be best or as a in-android app purchase.
I think that it will mostly happen organically. I’ll send coins to my friends and family to help them setup an account and get started. Many people doing this spreads adoption very rapidly.
With the level of awareness now, it’ll take forever.
Viral sharing is the fastest and most efficient way to grow awareness.
Quality awareness yes. Why not combine both? Good sharing + powerful marketing. Best of both world
I didn’t say anything about not marketing in other ways. I’m always advising a mix, and also to make appropriate use according to stage and context. My point is that if we can tap into effective viral approaches it will not take forever, and will in fact be the quickest route to widespread awareness. That’s what Facebook has used for example.
I get the concern around squandering marketing funds and allowing people to game the system. However, I think there is a balance between believing “if we build it, they will come” and bolstering the likelihood of success (and not ending up like MySpace or Palm Pilot) by taking proactive steps to grow the network. I guess the question is, how can you increasingly take luck out of the equation.
I don’t think holding a competition by which 5 or so promising developers with influential networks can win enough safecoin to join the network and start developing apps (that would in turn further grow the SAFE network) would be any more susceptible to gaming the system than, say, holding a hackathon with a cash prize. When something is new, different or untried, sampling and trial is often used at launch. I also don’t quite see how a one-time give away of a limited number of coins could dilute the price, but there may be an aspect of the economics I’m not considering.
That being said, I think sampling and trial programs shouldn’t be made available to everyone–only those who have the influence to generate a good return on the investment (i.e., marketing cost of providing introductory resources at a discount) by growing the network and/or building something of value.
Why not have Maidsafe pay prospective SAFE account holders to advertise SAFE a la google ad sense. To further lower the barrier, make it possible for the person to simply copy and paste a code/banner into the most popular social media platforms that is tied to their email address (for payment) or better yet a micro wallet app that plugs directly into the SAFE client for easy private key transfer into the network.
Click count is relayed to MS servers that dynamically adjust rewards based on current Safecoin value. The lower the value of SC the less clicks necessay to earn one. Better still would be to issue micro coins (or it’s equivalent) in the way of @neo s divisibility proposal. Win win IMHO. SAFE gains more exposure and users gain entry. 
One time events, and prizes are not a problem because someone has to put up the coins and there is not a way to continually get coins. The worse problem with that as I can see is that the same person wins most events, but that should be unlikely if its done sensibly.
The issue I was responding to was where a site is setup to giveaway free coins with perhaps some hoops to jump through. The thought with those is that the network would create coins just for that purpose. That idea would be gamed and it would affect the worth of the coin.
Maidsafe cannot just create coins period be it for giving away or otherwise, the network startup will have the 10% for MAID owners and 5% reserved (set aside and likley held by the foundation) to pay out investors in maidsafe the company who wishes to exchange their shares for coins at some time in the likely far future.
So someone has to put up the coins for any giveaways or prizes and this will not have any diluting effect since there is no coins being created to give away.
As David has said in the past temporary accounts with limited ability will likely be allowed to be created and will only be made permanent upon payment of a coin. The account would likely disappear as soon as the user closed the SAFE browser to prevent an avenue for account spamming. So maybe limited ability to create a mail ID and wallet ID and maybe 50 PUTs to send a mail or two. This is not definite but was a possibility being considered. This would allow a “trial” and to receive mail.
The idea of a voucher would work well with that because the user creates their temp account, loads the wallet ID off the voucher and pays for the account by spending what is in the wallet to buy “PUT” balance.
Also I would consider that at todays prices a voucher has about 1/1000 of a cent on it. (maybe a million to a billion) put balance and a physical voucher can be given as prizes, or bought in a physical shop for 1 to 2 dollars (the price of a phone sim card) or bought in a “play-store” for mere cents. And all the instructions are on the card or in the “play-store” APP & its description.
So a person/company can make a business out of providing vouchers. No effects on coin price/supply since they have to have the coin before they can create the wallets and put 0.00002 SAFEcoin in each wallet.
I think it would be nice if the SAFE Browser by default came bundled with a Vault, at least on Desktop. When installing, it could ask how much disk space you’d like to share, perhaps with an option to let the Vault choose dynamically and shrink the shared space if the disk was getting full. The installer should show a little explanation that this will help to earn SafeCoins that can be used to buy content and posting stuff to the network. Users who doesn’t want a Vault could just choose to not share any disk space. It could bundle a Vault on mobile also, where by default it would only share disk space when connected to WiFi and charging.
I have been telling people. They are too skeptical. Further to that there is no product just yet. But that has not stoped me 
It’s always a matter of different people at different stages. At this point it is mainly about people with particular mindsets, interests, values and skills, and who want opportunities to build products and businesses on a brand new empty canvas. That’s pretty restrictive, so unless you target those people I’d expect most people you approach not to be interested. But with effective targeting and a useful course of response for those folk, it can be worthwhile.
The viral stage can’t work effectively until there is a large number/high proportion of potentially interested people, and a low enough barrier to getting on board (relative to the level of motivation evoked by the message). I’m sure their must be PhD theses with formulae for this stuff, but it is probably best to put effort into trying things, measure and refine.
Marketing fills in the gaps around these two, but doesn’t have to be expensive if it can be targeted effectively at potential joiners, the makeup of which will change and expand (needing less targeting) over time.
The final stage is when everyone knows about it because most people are using it, and it becomes unavoidable. That’s a long way off, so for now we can focus on getting through the early stages, and trying to make the most of viral and other opportunities appropriate to the situation at the time.