General questions about Safe network. Expectations, ideas, suggestions

Features
1

Hi. I am quite new to this decentralized concept of internet, so I would like to ask some questions. Some of them had definitely been asked before, but some of them not so I would like to have it all on one place. Also I would like to learn through this how the whole thing works and maybe to suggest some features it could have. Please be aware that I am not a developer so I really don’t know much about how this works.

This post is meand to everybody - developers and basic users like me. I would like to see facts and even expectations, so I can make a better understanding about this whole thing and about community surrounding it.

First I would like to ask development team or anybody who might know this - how big is your team? When do you expect this whole thing to be released?

Will the whole think be encrypted? Like nobody will know who comes to which pages (or apps)? Or maybe even that nobody will know where are the pages (or apps) stored? Will other users know which pages or apps I use? Which transactions I did? etc.

Will there be implemented any self-cleaning mechanism? Like when some app or page hadn’t been used in long time, it will for example ask for some money to let it run and if not payed, it will automatically delete itself?

Talking about this, how will the apps be kept running? There will be possibility to let it run on decentralized nodes of other users for some money I guess, but what if I want to run it just on my node? Will there be such possibility? And if so, what will prevent other people to make another big, centralized thing like facebook?

Will there be possibility to give some apps power and space for free. If somebody make some really good app and I would like to run it on my node for free, finance its run with my own money? I understant that I will make my node vulnerable if other people will know that I voluntarily support some app or page, so it might be good that other people won’t know which apps I support this way… I guess.

This is principle that work on torrent - files are stored voluntarily and for free there, so possibility of this for apps would be awesome I think.

I guess that informations will be for security reasons stored on multiple places. For the sake of speed of the most popular apps, will they be stored on more places, than less popular ones?

Do you work on some user-friendly interface, like ethereums mist browser? Or would you let that to other developers?

Is somehow resolved consensus? So there can’t happen what happened to bitcoin? (not being able to rise block size)

Are there any borders this network couldn’t overcome? Or could it do the most hardcore things? Like host multiplayer game of Battlefield 4 hosted on network?

Do you expect it to do be like one app, like browser, or more like multiple apps that will comunicate with this network.

Will you develop MaidSafecoin wallet? That would really make me feel safe! :slight_smile:

Thanks for any answer!

(I will propably post similar set of questions on ethereum forum)

1 Like
2

I’ll answer a few as I don’t have time to respond to all of this and maybe others will pick up other questions - or you could read the FAQ and search the forum, or listen to the podcasts - @fergish made an excellent (I’m told) series that v takes you through what SAFEnetwork is and how it works step by step.

Everything is encrypted and nobody will know who you are or what you do based on network traffic etc. There are several discussions about this, people saying, “but what if this” and so on, and all have been answered. No holes found.

Will there be implemented any self-cleaning mechanism? Like when some app or page hadn’t been used in long time, it will for example ask for some money to let it run and if not payed, it will automatically delete itself?

No money is required to keep data after the initial storage fee is paid. Data that is untouched for a long time eventually becomes “archived”, but is still accessible - just a little slower to access on first retrieval.

People sometimes find it hard to believe this model can be sustained so there have also been several in depth discussions about this! We won’t know for sure until it is demonstrated, but I am satisfied that this approach will work.

Talking about this, how will the apps be kept running? There will be possibility to let it run on decentralized nodes of other users for some money I guess, but what if I want to run it just on my node?

I’m not quite sure what your asking here. If you own a computer you can run what you like on it, but that’s nothing to do with a decentralised compute platform (which is planned, yes, and will cost Safecoin for those wanting to use it’s massive computing power! Or a tiny bit of it :slightly_smiling:)

And if so, what will prevent other people to make another big, centralized thing like facebook?

Again I don’t understand what your imagining here. SAFEnetwork doesn’t stop things (except surveillance, censorship, and centralised ownership of the resources) - it enables people to do what they like, gives users control over their internet, their data etc and enables anyone to create the next big application without needing to pay for massive server farms. So a very low cost of entry makes it easier for many very small competitors / harder for rich companies to dominate because they lose their advantage.

Without the ability to collect and sell people’s data, facebook and google have no easy to pay for big servers, shareholder profits etc. This means they or others can create new business models that don’t have to make these massive amounts of revenue, don’t need these economies of scale, but which can fulfil the same functions (social, search etc.)

So SAFEnetwork doesn’t prevent, it changes the rules, and that changes the outcomes.

7 Likes
3

welcome to the forum :+1:

People here on the forum who have “Maidsafe” behind their names are the actual Devs. It’s a team of 9 Devs and other that work for Maidsafe. Totally around 15 people I think.


Reply by one of the Devs :grinning:

No blocks are used. So when the network goes live and it works like expected it should scale to 1 million users without a problem.

Well, yes and no. Every file is like stored on 4 different places on the network. When a file becomes populair it will become faster due to caching.

Here’s Safenet in 5 minutes. I hope that explains some more. And below that it the Wiki.

https://www.reddit.com/r/safenet/comments/3qyqme/safenet_in_5_minutes/

https://safenetwork.wiki/en/Main_Page

7 Likes
4

Thank you guys for answers and resources. @happybeing Sorry I didn’t understand concept at first, really exciting about this though!

5 Likes
5

Good to have you aboard and asking.

Pretty much all of the resources you might find useful are linked at https://safenetwork.org.

https://safenetwork.wiki is a great source for information, including a fairly thorough glossary which contains a lot of clarification.

As @happybeing pointed out I recently finished a podcast series that walks through the wiki and other materials and interviews in order to try to give someone an approach to grasping the big picture, which can take a while to get because if the intricacies of the technology. You can find those at SAFE Network School | SAFE Crossroads.

8 Likes
6

I’d like to reach out to the core devs and reward them in some way for all their hard work. They probably all deserve a night out and a break, so I was wondering if there was some way we users could express our gratitude. Perhaps we could set up a bitcoin wallet that could be used to pay for a meal or food and drinks at the Maidsafe office? I had a quick look and couldn’t find anywhere in Troon that accepts bitcoins, but there are a few places in Glasgow. Any suggestions or ideas?

2 Likes