MaidSafe as an alternative to Dropbox/cloud storage?

[janitor]

@dyamanaka

Storage credit should always be used first before deducting from the PUT Reserve.

In a Full Reserve Storage system, yes.

@fergish

The purpose of @dyamanaka’s model is to force the individual to go back to the trough regularly instead of buying a huge commitment from the network which could be an outstanding liability if things fluctuate the wrong direction.

To me it reads more like the purpose is to make it irrelevant when/how frequently you buy (or hold before you spend).
As is, that Safecoin you buy is always an outstanding liability - regardless of how much network capacity fluctuates in either direction.

An easy way to imagine this is SAFE Network Day 1 Hypothetical Scenario that I described in this comment:

• 4 300 000 000 MB of usable storage available on the network
• 430 000 000 SAFE coins claiming that capacity
• One SAFE buys you 100 KB ($0.11 / GB according to today’s price - btw, compare this with Amazon S3)

So there’s no question things will (at least initially) fluctuate “the wrong way”.