Has anyone given any thought to producing safe-specific hardware? I’m thinking something like Space Monkey.
The advantage I see to something like this would be that for little more money than you would spend on a basic hard drive you could get something that’s already set up, just plug in an ethernet cable and enter in your SAFE ID, and you are good to go.
Would this be a good way to get people involved in the network? Does anybody know the folks over at Space Monkey and how they put together their thing?
It appears to me that, if the makers of Space Money were to integrate MaidSafe on their hardware they would have a storage device that directly communicates with the SAFE Network; Especially if they go open source, this way anyone can access their hardware - plus Space Monkey gets the added bonus of being able to use all of the commodity space on the network. Difference is PUTS to SafeCoin expense
versus $49/year for 1 TB
Well and even leaving aside direct negotiation with Space Monkey, one of the cool things about it is that you OWN the drive. If you decide to take it offline, you can. If you decide you want to just use it as a hard drive, you can do that too, and Space Monkey allows you to wipe their code.
Interestingly, you can use your Space Monkey drive without a subscription to the cloud service, however you’ll need a program from Space Monkey that wipes the data off your drive and turns it into a typical backup hard drive, that does not connect to the Internet. You’ll also need a male-to-male USB cable, not included, but it’s an option.
Also, if you take your drive offline at any time, you won’t be penalized by the company, nor will you lose any data already synced to the cloud. CNET Review
So what that means is that someone could design a safe-based software for the Space Monkey hardware and people could have the kind of plug and play ease of use.
Alternatively, Space Monkey’s initial goal on kickstart was only 100K, which means that they have some manufacturer out there who was willing to start production with that amount pledged.
Given the strength of the crowdsale, I certainly think that MaidSafe could put together something similar. One of the PODS might even be able to do it.
If memory serves we looked at Space Monkey and the hardware specs at that time didn’t meet our requirements. Generally though, a hardware device would be good and something we have spoken about, however, it is something that needs a lot of planning and investment and we are focussed only on network launch right now. I think this is something we will probably revisit in the not too distant future.
The reason I ask is that I’m wondering about cost. The attraction of the Space Monkey hardware, is that while it has an ARM CPU inside, its really not that much more expensive than a hard drive. If a SAFE module would basically need to BE a computer, with CPU and RAM, then this idea may not be viable.
I was not involved, but the guys did say the hardware was extremely low power (we do need encryption happening) but hte basic form factor was perfect. If it was even as powerful as a raspberry pi (we had one as part of CI testing) then I think it would work, beagleboards etc. do.
Well then that is an idea to keep in mind. Obviously its on the back-burner until the network is up and running. But once it IS running I think that a SAFE module would be a great practical way to lower the barriers to entry for people who like the idea, and want to participate, but primarily want enough space to store their own personal data and don’t have the tech-savvy to set up a headless linux machine etc.
If you combine the form factor with the MaidSafe logo and stamp of approval, saying to the market, this machine has the specs to do what the network needs, I think that could be a good competitor in the market, at least for vaults. Additionally, it would give MaidSafe, or whoever winds up managing the firmware for these devises (I’m envisioning some kind of DAO) a way to ensure that substantial portions of the network had certain best practices such as partition/vault size etc.
Yes, but my primary computer is a laptop, which I carry with me where ever I go. If I am setting up a farming node, I’m going to go out and buy a raspberry pi and a hard drive and set up something that I plug into my router with an ethernet cable. Its not gonna be on my primary computer.
Now I’m relatively technically competent (and more importantly I’m stubborn!) and I will go through the time and trouble to do that, but I think that there are a lot of people who would like the idea, and would be willing to hand over two hundred dollars to get shipped a module with a very pretty form factor that they could just plug into a ethernet cable and go.
This thing sounds like a good project to take on; especially seeing these interfacing with the SAFEnetwork, might become a common item.
Though I’d bring up hardware security, and how to go about such a thing. Of course all the software ought to be open source to prevent backdooring and hardware level intrusion etc -
Well of course. My thought would be that this would primarily be about ease of use, and wouldn’t take place until there was a stable linux client.
Another thought is that if people become accustomed to modules, then at a later date, if a SAFE-based mesh network starts to arrive, then including that in a same or similar form factor would help adoption.
