Here is an interesting analogy that I was encouraged to post
Imagine SAFE as an Apple tree that can survive as long as it is used. It can keep producing apples forever and slows down when more and more apples are out in the world and not returned to the ground to mulch the tree.
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FARMERS: The farmers are the ones providing the land, water, and other resources needed to grow a tree. They do a lot with their land/resources, but allocate a portion of it to the SAFE tree, the rest they do whatever. That is, the disk/bandwidth/CPU is a portion of what they own
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Core-Devs: they are the tree surgeons, they keep the tree healthy.
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PtD: They are the tillers of the soil around the tree keeping the soil vibrant and ensuring microbes etc are there. The microbes are the users of the network and search for goodies to digest (read/view)
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PtP: They are also tillers of the soil keeping the soil vibrant and ensuring microbes etc are there. And they attract more of the apples/manure to be returned to the ground for the tree to continue growing and producing more apples
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USERS:
- GETTING: By searching through the soil they are like the earth-worms and every GET is like a little beneficial work done in the soil converting the manure to food for the tree
- PUTTING: By uploading they are bringing in the manure to the tree
So the tree is a little magical, it can last forever while the activities of each group continues.
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The Farmers are given apples according to the farming rate
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the tree surgeons (Core-Devs) are given apples according to 1/20 the farming rate
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The tillers (PtD & PtP) are given apples according to 1/10 the farming rate
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The microbes benefit from all the good stuff provided when the apple/manure is returned to the soil.
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The people who wish to partake of the tree can provide apple/manure to the ground.
And Farming rate is the amount of work done by the microbes enriching the soil. (GETTING)