As a lot of you may have already heard the decentralized network project ‘MAIDSAFE’ has just begun It’s Alpha testing stage. As someone who has been following the Maidsafe project religiously over the past two years now, This is very exciting news.
As you can see from the image above the ‘launcher’ has also received a facelift of sorts and Is looking closer to a finished product than ever before.
At this stage there is currently a couple of demo apps, Which will allow users to test out the network and in the coming weeks, There are plans of releasing an official Safe browser.
More information on this develpoment can be found at: https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/after-a-decade-of-rd-maidsafes-decentralized-network-opens-for-alpha-testing/ Or on the Safe Network Forum:
https://safenetforum.org/t/safe-network-alpha-release/10687
For The Newbies
In the rest of this post I’m going to explain in layman's terms what maidsafe actually is and what It will be capable of upon it’s full release in the not so distant future. I will also cover how anyone of you can easily purchase and Safely store Maidsafe coins for the potential price hike that could be on the way.
To begin with I’d like to start by stating a fact that may shock a few people about this revolutionary new Cryptocurrency and the project that it is backing. Maidsafe does not and will not be making use of the renowned Blockchain technology that we have all come to know and trust. Instead rather than having a public ledger, which allows users to track the history of every coin in existence, Each Safecoin will only store the cryptographic signature of the current owner and the previous owner, thus deleting the signature of the owner prior to the previous one.
This has been explained wonderfully in an interview on the Daily Decrypt with a former member of the maidsafe team Paige Peterson.
The explanation in question begins at about 12:40, Although I would suggest watching the entire video, As the content within is extremely resourceful.
Please note that in this video Paige makes a slight hiccup by stating that there will eventually be a total of 431 billion safe coins in total. “Calm Down”, This figure is far off from the genuine number of total coins. The actual total number of Safecoins that will ever be distributed over a 10 year period after the initial release, Will be roughly 4.3 Billion
Now, I’m sure that this has raised many questions amongst a lot of you, But I expect one of the main points on people’s minds is; How will Safecoins be distributed?
OK, So Safecoins are the digital tokens that will be used within the maidsafe network, But at this current time, ‘They don’t actually exist yet’.
Until the official release of the Maidsafe network, When you buy a maidsafe coin, What you are actually buying is a coloured bitcoin, Or rather a fraction of a coloured bitcoin. These coloured bitcoin will be exchangeable for safe coins on a ‘1 for 1’ basis upon the launch of the network. This means that, If you happen to purchase 1000 maidsafe coins right now, You can exchange those coins for 1000 Safecoins as soon as they are made available.
For those of you wondering why these coins exist in the first place, It is simply because the project had to hold a presale in order to raise the funds for the project. This method of fundraising isn't too dissimilar to crowd funding, Only the individuals who invested in the project receive what are essentially transferable shares in the company.
There are currently 452 million Maidsafe coins in circulation.
I Digress
Going back to my previous question of How will Safecoins be distributed?
Safecoins will be distributed on a ‘Proof of Resource’ basis, This process will be known as ‘Farming’, unlike most cryptocurrencies, Maidsafe will not be using the computing power of each miner to work out mathematical equations, But rather the free harddrive space and bandwidth of person committed to the network, Essentially this means that Individuals will be able to rent out their spare hard drive space for payment in Safecoins.
An important note is that, ‘Human beings will not be involved in further distribution of Safecoins’, This will be done over time by the network.
Once the Farmers have received their payment in Safecoins, They can either use them within the network in order to rent large amounts of highly secure cloud storage, Or they can be sold on the market, where they will likely be purchased by website developers, Hoping to host their sites on the safe network.
At this point in the development, It is unknown what services will become available that will except safecoins as currency, It is likely that many of the third party developers that are working on projects for the safe network will accept Safecoins as a form of payment, As this will help to cover the costs of hosting on the network itself.
Many people within the cryptocurrency space have shed doubts on the future value of Safecoins, due to the high number of coins that will eventually be distributed through the Farming process, But it is important to note that as each coin is essentially recyclable, As they will be used to pay for network space, It is unlikely that all 4.3 Billion coins will ever be in circulation at the same time.
Another feature that has been rumoured to become available with Safecoin at some point, Is the use of smart contracts. Currently altcoins that have been implemented with the smart contract t have become illustrious within the crypto space. If Safecoin were to make use of this feature then that would simply be the cherry on top of the prodigious cake that is the Maidsafe Network.
Is Maidsafe Pied Piper?
Now, Although this project is not exactly the same as the fictional data compression program from the hit tv show ‘Silicon Valley’, A few members of the Maidsafe community, managed to pick up on some similarities between maidsafe and the fictional ‘Pied Piper’ in episode 9 of the newest series.
The way that Pied Piper was explained in this short clip, Is very similar to the way that Maidsafe will manage the decentralised data on the Network. Your uploaded data will be broken up into chunks and spread out over the entire network, Making it impossible for anyone to have authorised access to any of your personal data.
This process is explained perfectly In the generic marketing video that follows
How will the Safe network avoid clogging up the network?
Although very informative, One point that the video above didn’t point out is, How Maidsafe will avoid clogging up the network with masses and masses of data. This is actually very simple, The maidsafe network will automatically delete any duplicates that are uploaded.
Let’s say for example that I decided to store an mp3 of a popular song to the network, But as this song is so popular, Thousands of other people have also uploaded an exact copy of this mp3. When situations like this occur, The network will automatically delete all other copies bar one (plus a couple of backups), And will then grant access to this data to any person that uploaded a copy of this mp3. This process will take place for every duplicate on the network
Think of how much server space is wasted due to multiple copies of the same file being stored from people all over the world, In the Maidsafe network this won’t be a problem.
So, Now you want some Maidsafe coins?
I’m sure after reading this, A few of you may be very interested at thought of investing in maidsafe.
Now, I Know that this process is probably very easy to most, But just incase there are any crypto newbies in the house, I'll briefly cover how you can secure yourself some of this marvelous currency and where you can safely store it until the release of the official wallet and coin.
To begin with you’ll need to acquire some bitcoin, You can do this at Coinbase.com. This is a very easy website to maneuver and there are plenty of tutorials on Youtube If you’re struggling with it.
Next you’ll need to move your bitcoin to an exchange, I like to use Poloniex, But you could also use Shapeshift, Bittrex and many others.
Once you have your bitcoins in an exchange you can begin purchasing maidsafe coins at the current market price.
Storage
Ok, So at this point it may be tempting to store your coins on the exchange for ease of use, But as history proves, This is not a very good Idea. Exchanges are always at threat of being attacked, Due to the large number of coins that are kept on them.
Personally I like to keep mine in an omniwallet, This is the platform that was used to colour and distribute the bitcoin, As I mentioned before.
If you wish you can send your maidsafe coins to a regular bitcoin wallet on your desktop or even keep them in cold storage.
You are now a proud investor in Maidsafe.
Note- Do not send your maidsafe to coinbase, As it will not recognise them as a coloured bitcoin and will simply store them as satoshis.
I feel that I have covered most of the important aspects that I can think of at this point. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to answer them, In the event that I am unable to answer your questions, Be sure to pop over to the MAIDSAFE Forum, Where myself and many other (better-informed) members of the community will be happy to help.
Be sure to check out the SAFE Network Forum using the link above and be sure to drop me a follow If you have enjoyed my delivery of this content.
Thank you for Reading
endaksi1
Resources
https://safenetforum.org/
http://maidsafe.net/
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/12/after-a-decade-of-rd-maidsafes-decentralized-network-opens-for-alpha-testing/
http://bluzelle.com/what-are-smart-contracts-a-primer/
https://followmyvote.com/bitfinex-hack-isnt-downfall-blockchain/
http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/06/14/maidsafe-to-decentralize-the-internet-making-it-safe-and-secure/