The best simulation we can do is run an Alpha launch before the Beta. It’s open to the public with the clear intention to gather real life data. MMORPG companies do this all the time. We tell people this is ONLY a Public Test Network and ask them to report any bugs, and things they would like to improve or remove. User experience and Network performance is very important when setting the tone before we launch Beta.
I see Testnet3 as being Alpha Stage. Think of it as a SAFE Network with Training Wheels. However, there’s a unique challenge. Because it is open source, the Beta will actually be a fork of Alpha. This also means we cannot allow Safecoin to be part of the Alpha launch. So we actually need a proxy to Safecoin, call it Maidcoin if you want.
I don’t know if MaidSafe plans to do something like this but I hope @dirvine is listening.
EDIT: In order to prevent confusion, We will call it TestNet3 and Testcoin. This way people do not assume it is the actual SAFE Network. Reward bug submissions and improvement suggestions with Testcoins which can be converted to Safecoin later on. Ratio could be 100 Testcoin to 1 Safecoin or something to that extent. Let people farm, upload as much as they want, we need to get a real life simulation.