Decentralizing the Internet: Maidsafe
Last week I began a little series about decentralizing the internet, and I kicked off the series talking about Golem, which focuses on decentralizing computing power.
Today I’m going to cover MaidSafe, which targets decentralizing storage by distributing your encrypted data.
MaidSafeCoin (MAID) is currently listed 27th on coinmarketcap.com
Current price- $0.52 per coin
Current circulating supply- 452 million coins
24 hour volume- $2 million
Market cap- $236 million
By clicking on the “markets” tab on coinmarketcap.com, you can see the exchanges that work with the coin, and the prices that the coin is being traded on those exchanges.
If you’re looking for an arbitrage opportunity, you can get a hint by checking out this section.
You can purchase MaidSafe on a number of different exchanges including Poloniex and Bittrex.
When choosing which exchange to use for making trades, it’s best to use the exchange with the highest volume, in this case right now for MaidSafe, that exchange would be Poloniex.
MaidSafe has been working on providing a decentralized solution for data storage for quite some time now. This project, along with the few others that are also working towards providing a decentralized internet, no doubt was sparked by the mass surveillance state brought to us by the NSA and robustly cultivated thanks to websites like Facebook, Google and Yahoo which pretty much give away what should be your private information to the highest bidder.
Here is MaidSafe’s approach towards finding a solution and hopefully preventing a nationalized internet.
The idea is that once you join the network you can volunteer your unused computer storage to be used by the network, the more storage you provide, the more safecoins you’ll be paid.
If you want to upload a file to the network, you will encrypt it first, then it is then divided into many “pieces”, randomized, and distributed throughout the entire network. Because you were the one to encrypt your file, you will be the only one with access to your file. The network will respond accordingly and redistribute the fragmented files as computers on the network are turned on and off.
What I think is the coolest aspect about MaidSafe- although it makes it sound like a pyramid scheme- is the fact that the more people who use the software, the more distributed the network becomes and the more space is made available for a faster network.
It’s the complete opposite of what we are used to when popular sites get a huge influx of traffic and it causes the centralized servers to crash and the site goes down.
With MaidSafe on the other hand, the more the better. Furthermore MaidSafe is designed in a way that it removes duplicates of all stored information, making it the very definition of efficient.
They have recently finished Alpha 1 testing and are now transitioning to alpha 2 testing which includes new APIs, a browser, tutorials and demo apps
Like I said earlier, MaidSafe and Golem aren’t the only projects working towards providing a decentralized internet, there are others like SIA, Shift, and coming soon: Filecoin, which I will be covering in the future.
Additional Reading/Sources:
MaidSafe Website
CoinMarketCap: MaidSafe
Status of MaidSafe Project
MaidSafe Forum
MaidSafe Reddit
How MaidSafe Measures Up to the Competition
MaidSafe Github
More on Safecoins
CryptoCoinsNews Article on MaidSafe
So many new coins and ideas coming out, wonder who will lead the pack in the future 🤔😀💖
I agree that a lot of new coins are coming out but i believe that the maidsafe project is even older then bitcoin itself
Great post Heidi😊 i have been following maidsafe now for over 1 year and i think it could become huge🚀 keep up the great work! FULL STEEM AHEAD!
/André
Where does Storjx fit in with this group of coins?
I remember these projects from waaaay back.
Your username makes me smile, but Storj is similar to MaidSafe.
..and Siacoin , I've installed the Sia-client and configured it, they have a working version of it, only downside is it uses a hell of alot of bandwidth constantly, so much so it impacts browsing, but I'm sure they'll sort this out in the next update, I've purchased some MaidSafe thanks to your blog Heidi, and thanks for scripting out whats discussed in the video, makes it so much easier for those of at the office to keep up with it. anyway, check out Siacoin if you hadn't had a chance yet, would love to see you do a comparison between Sotrj, Sia and Maidsafe in one of your next entries. thanks
Edit: oops, I just realized that you mention Sia in your blog right at the end, my bad, would still like to check out the comparison though ;)
Here is a short comparison from Taek a Sia forum admin:
Sia supports on-blockchain smart contracts that require hosts to store files in order to get paid. Once the contract has been created, the host is guaranteed to get paid, even if the uploader never accesses the file. This contract also allows us to enforce penalties on hosts that go offline or lose data.
Storj is similar to Sia, but does not feature on-blockchain storage contracts. Instead, Storj offers a pay-as-you-go model where hosts are paid with some frequency by the users. If the users disappear or go offline, the host stops getting paid. Storj is still running test groups, and has not yet implemented a network where you can upload files.
MaidSAFE is a very ambitious project that goes beyond just decentralized storage. They also have a much softer focus on efficiency. Sia's network should be both cheaper for uploaders AND pay its hosts more, due to smarter redundancy management. MaidSAFE also does not yet have a working global network where you can upload and download files.
MaidSAFE uses a completely novel scheme for achieving consensus (not a blockchain). This scheme is not proof-of-work, and has not been reviewed anywhere near as extensively as the Bitcoin protocol.
Thank you for that comparison, it was extremely informative I appreciate it, I'm going to guess that the only reason MAID has a higher value than SC is becuase it's been around longer and has had time to grow a following? since I've actually used the SC application and it's working (not perfectly but ja) so SC should really be higher in value than MAID in my opinion?
This is the coin that I'm most uncertain of. But if they succeed with everything (storage, dns, e-mail) I see no clear limit to how big this potentially could be.
It was a good write-up, by the way. Easy introduction.
How is this different than Siacoin? Is it approaching a different market? How similar is the technology?
Sia focuses on storage. Maid on all things internet. Including storage.
Great work @heiditravels Anyone looking into buying Maidsafe can purchase it on BitShare's Open Ledger trading platform. And if you own MaidSafe you can also deposit them into this distributed exchange. ALSO if you have just made a shit ton of money in ETH or BTC and are worried about those bubbles popping... you can buy bitGOLD or bitSilver here also and wait out the correction. Thoughts?
Very interesting. One question: What happen if someone leave the network, what happen with the piece of information that he has. Is there redundancy?
There is a redundancy of the data, I don't recall the specifics off the top of my head though. I believe there are also penalties or a sort of reputation markers for vaults that fail to send information or respond.
wow very interesting! thanks
Great info, but how safe are they? cos, I don't wanna cry
Maidsafe is still in works do not have a working product.. storj aready is live and paid users.. i am bullish on storj
Maidsafe is to crypto what Xanadu is to the World Wide Web.
@heiditravels, you are doing a splendid job and I always enjoy your honest analysis and suggestions with regards to altcoins..I am seriously looking a Golem too. keep up the good job.