Marketing Initiatives

[happybeing]

No, I’m just venting and whining rather than suffering in silence. Rust is a remarkable language, and the things I don’t like will become my best mates once I get over it.

It’s actually relatively easy for me to learn because most of what it does and how it works is familiar so far (up to Chapter 6 of the excellent book), but I’ll be getting to harder stuff soon.

Be good to have some buddies on the same journey. We could start a topic to help each other with Rust learning. I think helping each other is a good way to learn.

[happybeing]

I think the privacy needs changing for the channel:

[dirvine]

Aghh it’s not allowing anyone to access, it creates a link specific to an email address. I will delete my orig msg and try and figure a cleaner way, possibly this forum is the simplest after all.

[happybeing]

I was able to use the link to get accepted, and using the same persona in the Maidsafe channel can’t see the #rust channel. Maybe the channel I can access is explicitly open to me? I think the forum is good though.

[dirvine]

Yes I was hoping we could make a channel completely open for anyone to join. Seems the share link requires an email address and only 1. I tried sending you a link, lets see how that goes, but does look like the forum is much more open. Slack want paid for every user.

[happybeing]

Rust have their own forum and Discord channel. I’ve only tried the latter (once) and didn’t get a response but it was a fairly obscure request.

• Rust Discourse forum
• Rust Discord chat

[dirvine]

We used the user forum a lot in the past and it was good then. Stackoverflow worked well too

[mav]

@Sotros25

What would be really helpful is a list of coding challenges and hackathon project ideas/inspiration.

I don’t have specific projects but maybe some ideas of where to start looking. This is a list of some advantages I see SAFE having over traditional server approaches.

Data as a cost - where the data is the primary reason for the service so forms a large portion of the cost of the service - content delivery networks, backup services, mirrors - SAFE should be cheaper.

Data as an obligation - where the data is not the primary purpose of the service but the service cannot function without supplying data - software updates, package managers - SAFE should be simpler to manage

Data as a requirement - some services require data in specific forms or within certain boundaries and the predefined structure of the network may assist meeting those needs - legal requirements such as tax records - SAFE should be easier to demonstrate meeting as these requirements

Data as a liability - where the data and the source must be isolated to prevent risks to the source - eg whistleblowers, piracy metadata (most piracy data is p2p already) - SAFE should increase anonymity and reduce operational risks

Data as a historical record - most of the internet is browsed in the most up-to-date form and records of changes or past versions are discarded - archives, libraries, media and journalism, knowledge graphs, encyclopedias - SAFE should reduce the complexity of managing history

Data as a public good - when private companies own public data it may put that data at risks which can be mitigated by using SAFE network - government services, maps, satelite data, public data sets, community sensor networks like weather stations - SAFE is owned by the public and is less prone to the whims and faults of private services being used for public goods.

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Is the plan to replace an existing service with a new one on SAFE, or to augment the existing service to use SAFE ‘behind the scenes’?

What problem does the company have and how does SAFE specifically help with that problem? Has that problem statement come from the company, or has it been assumed by an outsider? Will the solution actually end up being adopted?

How does adding SAFE / moving to SAFE potentially cause problems or additional costs? Why would they not move to SAFE and how can these issues be addressed?

IMO data as a historical record is probably the strongest place to start a hackathon project due to the permanence of SAFE being such a unique offering.

[Sotros25]

@mav

some ideas of where to start looking. This is a list of some advantages I see SAFE having over traditional server approaches.

Thanks @mav!! This is a great place to start

[Toivo]

@mav

IMO data as a historical record is probably the strongest place to start a hackathon project due to the permanence of SAFE being such a unique offering.

I would also like to see something that shows some benefit of privacy for the general public. Like some health app or something like that. Maybe a hack in a biometric device so that it saves the data in SAFE instead of Google. (Just rambling, I don’t know much about any of this.)

[happybeing]

@Toivo

Maybe a hack in a biometric device so that it saves the data in SAFE instead of Google. (Just rambling, I don’t know much about any of this.)

Maybe @aboynejames would be interested in something like this when the time comes?

[aboynejames]

aye, we are working on that front. https://gadgetbridge.org/ data and now working on data from https://banglejs.com/

If there are other open hardware open data biometrics devices always keen to learn about them.

[JoeSmithJr]

@Southside

#CryMeARiver

Thanks for sharing. I have my own standards, you have your own.

@goindeep

Most

Yes, most do compromise.

[mav]

Some practical features that will contribute to the perception of the network:

Simple installation. No libraries or dependencies. Freenet requires a java runtime to be installed and that friction is enough to prevent me running a node. It should be download a single file, run it, be done. This is looking like it will happen for all aspects, the vault, the browser, the cli, mobile, etc so that’s great. The work on eliminating manual port forwarding for vaults is also really positive.

No sign up to participate (ie permissionless). Storj requires an email address to use the network and that’s definitely a point of friction for getting started. This is looking like it will happen, at least for readonly mode. Posting new content requires safecoin but there’s been lots of UX work on how to easily get coins to new participants so that’s really positive.

A good starting point. When I begin using IPFS or zeronet there’s no way to know ‘what to look at’. Having a simple way to take the first step or two toward interesting network content will be important. I’m not sure how this will happen just yet. Maybe start with a default listing of popular / common places to visit? Or a search engine (perhaps later)? Bit of a chicken-egg problem. I feel like popcorntime solved this problem really well (legality aside).

Public feedback on network progress. I’m thinking along the lines of mining difficulty charts, mempool charts, block explorers, coinmarketcap, that sort of thing. I’d like to be able to easily see a few metrics - number of nodes, total data stored, total safecoin in circulation / remaining, estimated cost to store, ‘the weather’ ie average bandwidth and disk usage and latency for the past minute/hour/day/week. I don’t think there’s a mechanism for getting these stats yet, it’s fairly different to blockchain so might be hard to make this but I feel from a marketing perspective it’s really important to be able to show the speed which the network is growing.

A farming viability calculator where users can put in the specs of their machine and connection and see what sort of reward they might expect to get by running a vault. Hard to make this until the farming algorithm is more clear, but also depends on live network stats being available which is something we can be working towards now.

Clear pricing information or expected costs, even though it will vary it would be good to have this clearly stated/updated somewhere.

[VaCrunch]

@mav

A farming viability calculator where users can put in the specs of their machine and connection and see what sort of reward they might expect to get by running a vault.

Excellent synopsis of basic needs/wants of users, Mav. Better than having the users input specs of their machine, though, is for the SAFE Network installation to include the ability to retrieve specs of the machine/device and then make network performance assessments based on that. If your vision of the setup process can be realized it will be a great step toward mass adoption.

[dirvine]

@mav

Clear pricing information or expected costs, even though it will vary it would be good to have this clearly stated/updated somewhere.

This can be done fairly I reckon if we display recent mutate costs. Kinda like recent buy orders fulfilled ?

[jlpell]

@mav

Data as a public good - w

Don’t forget “Data as a private asset”.

Data is valuable. Family photos, personal documents, writings, essays, art, etc. Think individual users.

[Southside]

I suspect “ Data as a private asset ”. is actually a better sell than “Data as a public good”

Both are powerful but outside the geek community, I think the notion of keeping YOUR data will have more traction.

[mav]

@jlpell

"Data as a private asset”.

Data is valuable. Family photos, personal documents, writings, essays, art, etc. Think individual users.

I agree completely and this should be on the list. But as a bit of devils advocate, looking at social media this isn’t actually a selling point, most people don’t seem to care much about their data as a private asset and I don’t think this network will suddenly convince them it’s worthwhile. Hopefully I’m wrong about that.

It’s definitely a message that is worth considering, how to pitch it, why people would switch their caring from public to private, I think it’s not as easy as it seems on first glance.

[Dimitar]

@mav

why people would switch their caring from public to private

This is not happening ever A lot of people on this have nothing to eat, so when you’re hungry you don’t think about such things. I have said it before and I will say it again. Safecoin, Safecoin, Safecoin.

Safecoin has two very strong Pumpamentals:

• it’s free for 2 billion people with internet
• you can “eat” it

You see how successful Bitcoin is precisely because it has a freemium in the beginning.

The problem with the most cryptocurrencies is that they are not edible, ie. can be printed on paper by the rich. You can’t do the same with food, water and housing. Safecoin is these 3 things at once.