I'd like to dedicate this post to SAFE Network, an open source project developed by MaidSafe.
It's not easy to explain it, but in a nutshell you can imagine to merge
1. Bitcoin (a p2p payment network where the transactions are validated by the miners
(rewarded with new coin) and written on a public and distribuited ledger called blockchain)
2. Tor network (a p2p decentralized anonimous network)
3. Cloud services like Google Drive or Dropbox
4. Dapp concept (Decentralized applications) like on Ethereum.
So, with SAFE Network you can:
1. New p2p payment network that doesn't rely on the blockchain.
But...why no blockchain?
Because you have a lot of limitations:
* scaling problem (the more the network grows,the biggest the blockchain will be
(you can imagine it like a big database)
* the famous block size problem. With the bitcoin protocol you can only do few
transions per seconds (VISA handles on average around 2,000 transactions per second (tps))
* centralization of the mining pools .
You can imagine the SAFE Network like an ordered and antifragile ant colony,
("the antifragile system gets better on stress") where each single ant (node of the network)
has a limited and predetermined behavior and the consensus is reached by the close groups.
The SAFE Network allows many millions of transactions per second and the larger the network,
the more transactions per second can be executed and there are no fee.
Without blockchain there is no method to audit transactions,
so the transactions are anonymous
2. No incentive method there is on Tor in order to sustain the network.
You can easily connect with the SAFE Network to do any sort of anonymous actions
like surfing the internet, chatting, video streaming, uploading
etc.. You can choose to offer a little fraction of your free space
and computation power or pay a little safecoin fee (the "bitcoin" of the network) to use it.
You are a miner, so the more you use it, the more will earn safecoin.
3. Decentralized cloud service with no point of failures.
Every time you upload files, your data are splitted in a lot of encrypted
and compressed pieces,
then they are distribuited on a unpredictable order among the nodes of the network.
In order to grant the integrity of data, files are duplicated multiples times.
Now, you can start to join the dots --> you can see an anonymous and decentralized network
supported by incentives of safecoin, where you can (by protocol)
surfing among the web sites(like tor), creating your web site
(without relying on a hosting provider), uploading data and more.
P.S. Once you pay the initial cost of doing a PUT request(hosting files),
the data will stay on the network forever!!!!!!
4. Third party app developers (called Builders in SAFE network speak)
would code their safecoin wallet address into their apps and be paid by the network
depending on how much their app is utilised by ends users, a gauge of the apps usefulness.
On the roadmap there will be the development of a smart contract system.
It's not an usual "scam coin". It's a project with a huge potential and if successful it can be a real revolution.
You can see the hard work of the team based on the metrics of github or the web site https://www.openhub.net/p/safenetwork?ref=sample.
It is not an easy project to be developed, because they are trying to create a completely new Internet from the scratch.
So, I advice you to be patient and see the development on github.
There is a roadmap http://maidsafe.net/roadmap.html.
I like the development process, because there is a continuous and iterative testing process , in order to prevent a distaster like the DAO hack.
To invest on SAFE Network you can buy "pre-token" maidsafecoin that they will be exchanged 1:1 to safecoins once the SAFE Network goes live. (you can buy them on Poloniex)
Thanks for your attention.
notes:
--http://maidsafe.net/
--https://safenetwork.wiki/en/FAQ
--https://www.reddit.com/r/maidsafe/comments/41oti1/one_question_about_the_safe_network/
--https://forum.safenetwork.io/