The path to achievement is not a straight line, they say, and how right they are. In a truly bizarre year like 2020 pursuing this path has been more like clinging onto a length of wool which has been knitted into a sock, purchased by a high-stakes gambler, passed through a digestive tract and out the other side.
As the black swan spreads its wings and flies off into the mists, it’s time to look back to see just how far this twisted path has taken us.
The thing about chance is that it can swing either way. When the pandemic hit, @dirvine’s earlier decision to close offices and revert to a core team working from home turns out to have been a blessing in disguise. While others struggled to adapt, for MaidSafe it was business as usual.
And as usual that business meant building on what works and being brave enough to kill the odd sacred cow on the way. Out went Parsec, a great theory that would have required too much extra work in practice, and in came a new radically decentralised design based on CRDTs and AT2, which has the potential to extend the benefits of the Safe Network to the offline world. Out went vaults and in came nodes as part of a new lexicon designed to be easily understood by non-technical users.
While the engineers @bochaco, @oetyng, @ravinderjangra, @lionel, @joshuef, @qi_ma, @adam, @yogesh and @danda were refactoring away like crazy with @stephenc running the work through all the tests and @sharontannahill holding the fort, the creative mind of @jimcollinson was dreaming up a stream of UI ideas to make Safe the Apple of the decentralised world.
Creativity isn’t limited to the core team of course. When it’s time to launch the community will be ready with all the fireworks we can lay our hands on. Luckily, we can count on some fantastic marketing minds to help us, not to mention all the expertise on the tech side, and kind donations from members to support these efforts. The list is long, but you know who you are.
Another major source of inspiration and ideas is this forum. Thanks to all for the fascinating debates, flashes of genius and continued good humour – it’s really been a pleasure (most of the time).
It’s been a weird old year but we’ve ended it on the cusp of a working testnet and with the coin riding high. Under the circumstances, you can’t say fairer than that.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and onwards to 2021!
The Mods
