After telling a friend about MaidSafe, he asked me a funny question: “If I offer one Euro for every MaidSafeCoin that you have, and if you accept you would not be allowed to every buy/farm (Maid)SafeCoin again, would you accept my offer?”
It really made me think for a while, and in the end I replied with a “probably not”. I did a quick calculation and realized MaidSafeCoin’s market capital is currently about 1/350th of Bitcoin’s, and I think there’s a good chance that SafeCoin will surpass that, provided the network works as expected. Even with a significant increase of the supply of SafeCoin due to farming, a SafeCoin would be worth more than a Euro if it achieves Bitcoin’s market capital.
My friend was surprised by my answer, and asked me to explain why not. I kept it short and gave the following arguments:
The cryptocurrency-using population isn’t growing that hard anymore. Fact is, the vast majority of people on this earth have no problem with using the Dollar/Euro and such. I think MaidSafe is the only cryptocurrency platform out there that has the qualities to attract the masses that are disinterested in cryptocurrencies, simply because it provides services that most people are interested in (cheap, safe, and fast cloud storage being the most obvious). Since farming SafeCoin is easy and viable for almost everyone, they’ll naturally come into the possesion of some SafeCoin. Once they have some and they realize that they have value and are quity handy, they will start using and farming them more.
SafeCoin won’t have transaction costs and can scale to millions of transactions per second, which is something blockchain technology so far has failed to provide. Blockchain cryptocurrencies are not able to handle a significant part of the world’s currency transfers.
SafeCoin transactions are by default private, while blockchain transactions are by definition public. SafeCoin thus provides a far higher level of anonimity, which makes it a lot more attractive for the black market. The black market could give SafeCoin’s value a huge boost early on, which could create a lot of hype and momentum. (If this idea puts you off, realize that most criminals use cash fiat currency and you’ve probably been using that your entire life without ever feeling bad about it.) This sudden hype and momentum could give MaidSafe a lot of publicity, after which the network effect will take over.
Anyway, how would you respond to the question my friend asked? Would you take his offer, and why (not)?
Tell your friend I will personally sell him 100000 Maidsafecoins at half price he’s offering and throwing a PS4 and an hour and half of my time hanging out with him. Not to mention doing him a favor as well. Offer stands until this Friday.
I had to read the question a few times. I wondered why the stipulation of not being allowed to obtain more Safecoins was added. Then I realized the answer.
It sounds like he was asking if we value (Maid)Safecoin as a fiat investment. If I were a short term investor only… I would take the deal and cash out my (Maid)Safecoins.
However, I’m an early adopter and project supporter. Therefore, I would decline his offer. I have a financial and personal incentive to see the SAFE Project become a success.
Here’s why…
I want a cryptocurrency that scales past blockchain limitations.
I want a cryptocurrency that is private.
I want a secure decentralized internet.
I want a way for people to earn a living without being subjugated.
I want out of the fiat system.
In order to make the above come true, Safecoin has to be mass adopted. Then the purchasing power will naturally follow and my financial needs will be satisfied.
@Seneca and @dyamanaka, between you you’ve said almost all, except to point one more important point:
If you couldn’t obtain safecoin by purchase or farming, you couldn’t use the network to communicate. You might could use a non-vault client to look at public data, but that’s all. No privacy, no air-tight security for your own data or communications, no being a real part of the revolution towards radical abundance–in other words, no fun at all.
Where is it stated that non vault participants will only be able to read, and not store data securely? That goes against everything I have ever seen Irvine say on the matter. He has stated numerous times that he wants it to be free for all to use.
I don’t think we’re even close to 1% of the people that have got internet and financial possibilities to get involved with cryptocurrency. There are also a few billion in the world that haven’t got a connection with these two worlds yet so I expect the cryptocurrency-using population to grow very hard the coming years.
Fact is, the vast majority of people on this earth have no problem with using the Dollar/Euro and such.
They don’t realize/know there is a choice now to step away from the fiat currencies.
I think that’s not the worst problem. Here are some bigger problems:
Inconvenience (passwords, for example - compare that with no-sig-no-PIN-no-pass that you can get with iPhone or a new credit card)
The moment any crypto currency becomes a potentially lucrative source of tax revenue, they’ll try to cripple it (it’s happening to bitcoin already). As long as anything peanuts in terms of revenue, they’ll let you work your little farm, but when/if the harvest season arrives, rest assured they’ll be there.
From my experience, when you tell them they don’t see a reason to switch. There has to be a very clear direct incentive to start using cryptocurrencies for most people, libertarian/idealist arguments don’t make much of an impression, at least not in my country. Most people never think deeply about the current structure of our financial and monetary systems and how it shapes our societies, they are not independent thinkers in this area and will just use the mainstream systems which they have used their entire lives. Humans are creatures of habit, and most people are followers that just go with the flow.
Not out of the blue I think. Either the national monetary systems need to suffer somehow which would make them look for alternatives, or cryptocurrencies need to become a lot more attractive somehow. Merely the Bitcoin feature list is not enough. That is why I have high hopes for MaidSafe, in my view it’s the only new cryptocurrency platform that has a chance of attracting the masses, as I mentioned in my OP.
The current proposal that seems to have throughput is that an “account” is first created and then activited.
An account that’s been created can view public data on the network, privately and anonymously, but not store data to the network or send communications, because those things require safecoin. Part of a created account is a safecoin address so safecoin can be received, whether from farming or from another account that already has safecoin.
Activating the account takes safecoin, because PUTting data to the network requires safecoin to store or send communication.
That’s the current thinking as to the best way to prevent having malicious actors use free storage to swamp the network with crap, while still allowing anyone to access the network for viewing data, whether news, wiki stuff, forums, etc.
Not that I know of. MaidSafeCoin has been rising consistently over the past few months, so I guess a lot of people are realizing it’s better to just hold. As we’re getting closer to launch the value will probably increase.
Anyway, it might just be a temporary spike, let’s see if it can keep this level for a longer time.
Ah, just saw the cointelegraph article, that may be the main cause. In that case let’s not get our hopes up that it’ll stay at that level, might simply be due to a temporary increase of demand.
Fun times for speculators though.
Edit: And mentioned by Russia Today as well I see.
Most valuable thing of the rise in value might be the new people who get in touch with the SAFE network because they see the increase in price on the coinmarketcap.
future app builders, farmers, journalists who will write pieces about SAFE etc.
Everthing I have seen discussed, says that a " free user" with no safecoin will have " limited space to save. " Meaning they would have full access to see everything that is going on.
They would not be able to use any apps that might require payment in safecoin, due to having none, but would be totally able to store data securely and be a part of the network.