Can the team clarify what necessitates the closure of the MaidSafe company and at the same time the creation of a new company AUTONOMI LABS LTD
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I assure you there is nothing nefarious going on, maybe @Bux can chime in.
Well Rusty some of us own shares in MaidSafe and for years weâve been convinced that the company has the potential to make lots and lots of money in the future, as David explains here at the time he was raising funds from us:
Given the changes in the world itâs understandable why the company would shut down, I donât expect anyone to want to end up in jail for developing software. But I am very, very interested in why a new company is openedâŚ
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To be clear, MaidSafe will not shut down on launch, It has a duty morally and legally IMO to pay out shareholders. The point I am making is that the control over the network cannot be in the hands of any company.
So after launch MaidSafe should have no network control, it will provide ongoing maintenance etc. but we should not only have them do it and we should not have the network fail is a single company did not do this.
MaidSafe, the legal entity will likely always provide this support, but its income for that will come from foundation grants.
So please donât take my messages as maidsafe will close and not pay anyone out, that is bonkers. I am likely to always be working for MaidSafe, thereâs Lots yet to do, but we simply cannot have a single company be the network,
But also please donât let us tie the fortunes of the network to the fortunes of a company. That was also never the plan.
Hope that makes sense.
There should be many many companies grown on the back of this, I dearly hope so.
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I was under the impression that with the launch of the network, all shareholders must accept tokens as an exit from the company. Now I understand that MaidSafe will continue to exist and operate for profit and we are under no obligation to exit, am I correct?
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You really love this project man. Amazing 
. I hope your passion and patience will be rewarded.
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Thanks Rusty, I have taken the time to do a long form post on this, some of the comments around partners bothered me also. I would gently suggest that this post is reviewed and read over a conversation that maybe happening in the Dev Forum.
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This is not correct.
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Sorry @Dimitar you maybe got the wrong idea from me, but on launch the network should be free to grow by many contributors. I hope so anyway. MaidSafe as a non profit will do much more core work, but I really hope other groups and individuals do as well. There is a lot like mobile nodes, native currency, better API support and a ton more to be done.
I hope to help out as I do but I will also help any other org doing that. But itâs only after investors and shareholders and token holders are paid out. So paid out means they hold network tokens and they can sell them or keep them.
I am super keen on the next steps. For me it will allow me to do some crazy things I have been wanting to do for a while, but without investors and shareholders to worry about. I hope to have done them proud and @Bux and the team are making sure of that. But my next steps I want to be far far away from money and shareholders as I intend to really get crazy.
For instance I want to
- Get rid of hospitals (as I have previously said, cure all disease and have only trauma centres for physical damage)
- Have robots communicate securely and learn globally, but without bias or ownership
- Really accelerate neuromorphic hardware and software (neuroevolution)
- much much more
I would love to get back to a forum experience where many folk chip in and the only focus is build and no talk of ownership/profit or the like, not that I dislike that, but I would love a pure 100% focus o development and improvements for humanity. People can build for profit with all that of course and I welcome that, but I would want a forum of pure 100% builders and supporters with no financial motivation included.
So while I will have a big focus on the core network I am super keen on what we can do with it now. I totally believe that using this in all ways will make it stronger and I fully support open development and removing all dependence on any single org moving forward.
We built this and folk supported it and they need huge thanks and solid returns on their cash, staff included, but then the whole thing should open up and flourish away form the constraints of trying to please everyone and into a much more pure builder environment that people can and should commercially exploit of course. Personally though I want to see the token value be huge and for me and others to be financially independent and not worry about money and then just build 
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EPIC! 
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David have you consulted a lawyer? During the collection of funds, you promised in plain text that the MaidSafe company would continue to operate after the launch of the network for the purpose of profit.
My question is, does this open the door to lawsuits against you and the Foundation as the future owner of MaidSafe?
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I hope you havenât forgot about the flying car.
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Yes many and many times at much cost. It getâs exhausting to be honest. This is exactly why I want to get back to pure building. As we get closer to launch every word I have said for my lifetime will be analysed.
I have said many times maidsafe should not be the owner of this moving forward, even to the point maidsafe destroys itself (during the ICO) but people will pick at it all in minute detail.
As we have progressed over the years we have to adapt and alter course, it was never a straight line. But having competition in the development of the network has been a long held belief of mine. Having maidsafe, the team financially independent to build is the same, it makes sense.
In terms of paying out investors, we can get deep into legal territory. Investors though themselves decide on accepting or not any proposal. That part is where we can be held liable and have to provide the proposals to the shareholders and so on, but seriously that is perfectly fine, I have zero concerns that the proposals are voted on by shareholders.
However there is no promise broken and we need to get to a place where folk can have ideas and say them. If we consult lawyers for every thought we are dead in the water here.
Imagine all the people, living life in peace
I donât wish to continue talks of legal matters to be honest, it gets way to dangerous and kills about every single part of remaining trust available to us all. Legally we have alway acted very strictly while being a fair and open as possible and will continue to do so. Not many projects can claim to come anywhere near as open as we are as a Ltd. company
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I have not and I still play with ionic energy devices in my workshop. Folk donât seem to like the lightning bolts mind you 
Especially if I also put on the old Tesla coil I built (analogue and very powerful, but sparky :D)
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I still think having a hull around it (hovercraft) and not needing to compensate gravity 100% with the boost from your ion thruster but building an air cushion and hovering around on that does have some merits
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Reading all this I really think you must have hated such a big part of being the CEO, @dirvine
Iâm really happy to see that you were able to hand those tasks you hate over to Bux and start enjoying and doing the things you do best again. And Bux really seems to enjoy and shine doing all those things, which is a nice side benefit donât you think.
I personally have September 28th marked in my calendar every year, as that was the day Apple launched its famous âthink differentâ campaign. Till this very day I celebrate those crazy enough to think they can change the world, and man, did you earn yourself a spot!
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I am amazed almost every week at how she handles things I cannot. Not only commercial stuff (which I can handle to an extent, but nowhere close) but also team building and the hard slog to do that part properly. I am way too focussed on thinking about technical areas and ideas for the future and issues with the codebase etc. I hope not in a dreamy hand wavey manner either, but in a progressive and direct way with proof points and so on.
But Bux and the team she has close to her and then the wider team are melding into a cohesive fighting group and man I had not realised the fight as we get closer to launch. Itâs tricky and needs calm and consideration. I am more likely to say go to hell and move on Not really the most diplomatic approach.
But yes, the transition has been hard on many and will leave some behind and some/most of those are great solid people but I see that ANY path chosen to march down will do that, regardless. So itâs what benefits the most and charge down there. As a commercial company and with a wide field of stakeholders the focus has to slew to returns and the future. So we needed a sharp mind with a strong back, ton of commercial experience and a massive sense of fairness here. Enough fairness to say sorry to some and be praised by others.
Itâs been tough. But we are almost there now and we got through the minefield with all of our feet and legs intact (well I hope so)
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Just to be clear, the current team, is the team that is able to do the work (on an ongoing basis post TGE), that the network needs for its continued scale and stability â it is not a team with the relevant skill sets to be developing and deploying apps (even if they were, which they are not, using the same folk for such things would create a complete shift in priorities which wouldnât be beneficial for the network - we need to have Autonomi on mobile, we must have great security, we want to deploy a native token etc etc to encourage others to build with and use Autonomi so that the network can grow). If we needed to hire more people we would also need to raise more money to pay for them ahead of any application being built generating revenues to cover the same - this is still not the same as being profitable of course.
The (very frugal) use of shareholder funds has been to build the network, the paying out of those shareholders who made that possible is in the network token, this ensures that they can continue (should they wish) to be invested in the network and its growth. This route also means they can continue to benefit as itâs live, from many people who can engage with it and help it to grow - building many compelling applications and experiences for an increasing number of users.
In my mind this approach is much more advantageous to shareholders (who will be token holders), than depending on a small team to get to that same result (of net gain over time) in isolation.
My fiduciary duty as ceo to shareholders is to ensure that they are able to extract as much value from their investment as is possible, the best way for them to do this is for the network to be successful (love it when good goals align) - and the best way for the network to be successful (grow) and for them to benefit from that, is for people to come in and build (on a safe, secure, upgradable network), and for them to hold the token that can attract, through appreciation, the ongoing benefit of the same.
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Like we were chatting about the other day - if you want to be a game changer, the one place you have to be is on the field. With a live network weâre now able to play, sure that will come with some mistakes, knocks and bruises, but theyâll all be worth it to get the outcome that I think everybodyâs here for. 
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