What is MaidSafe ??

[David Irvine]

OK we are not explaining this as well as we should so I will take stab 1 at an early adopter view. I expect not one word of this to exist after we have all taken it apart, so please start tearing away.

Short version

MaidSafe is the decentralised Internet.

Longer version

MaidSafe consists of two key parts. The network and the client applications. 

The MaidSafe network can be best described as a fully distributed data management service. This network manages static and dynamic data as well as communications. Importantly the data held is either 

1: Encrypted by clients

2: Cryptographically signed by clients 

In either case the network cannot decrypt any of the data on the network. 

This can be thought of as a decentralised server that performs the tasks of todays httpd, ssh, scp, ftp, smtp, pop3, imap etc. servers.

The network is made up of unused hard drive space, cpu and communications capabilities of commodity computers. These computers are likely owned by the very users of the system, but need not be limited to that. Each computer will effectively mine for credits which can be traded for many other goods and services. These credits are called safecoin.

 

MaidSafe client applications access this network via some innovative steps including

1: Self encrypting data

2: Access and create cryptographically secured id's on a decentralised PKI

3: self authentication. 

(papers exist for each of these, they are on the wiki in github)

Client applications can access, store, mutate and communicate on the network. The clients allow people to anonymously join the network and cannot prevent people joining. 

Data is presented to clients as virtual drives mounted on their machines, application data, internal to applications, communication data as well as dynamic data that is manipulated via client applications depending on the applications programmed methods. 

Examples of client apps are, cloud storage, encrypted messaging, web sites, crypto wallets, document processing of any data provided by any program, distributed databases, research sharing of documents, research and ideas with IPR protection if required, document signing, contract signing, decentralised co-operative groups or companies, trading mechanisms and many others. The clients can access every Internet service known today and introduce many services currently impossible. 

These clients when accessing the network will require people never type another password to access any further services. The client contains many cryptographically secured key pairs and can use these automatically sign requests for session management or membership of any network service. Therefor a website with membership can present a join button and merely clicking that would sign an authority and allow access in the future.  Digital voting, aggregated news, knowledge transfer of even very secret information is now all possible and much more!"

--

David Irvine

maidsafe.net 
twitter: @metaquestions

blog:  http://metaquestions.me

[David Yamanaka]

On Sunday, March 30, 2014 5:11:38 AM UTC-6, David Irvine wrote:

OK we are not explaining this as well as we should so I will take stab 1 at an early adopter view. I expect not one word of this to exist after we have all taken it apart, so please start tearing away.

Short version

MaidSafe is the decentralised Internet.

I think the title is a bit off... (no offense)
From a common person perspective, this first thing I think of when I hear MaidSafe is a person who cleans safes.
To me, SAFE Network, SAFE Net, or SAFE Internet would better convey the initial impression we are trying to convey.
MaidSafe is the company who started, or seeded the New Internet 2.0.
 

Longer version

MaidSafe consists of two key parts. The network and the client applications.

 
Aside from the title, I think you hit the description perfectly.
It was very clear, to the point, and had examples.

I always find visual examples to be most effective.

The INTERNET is like a spider web network of servers (cocoons), with a million tiny spiders (users), crawling from and to each cocoon.

The SAFE network is like a spider web network of vaults (cocoons), with electricity (data transfers) pulsing between all of them.

Instead of a large group of tiny spiders converging on a single cocoon (DOS attack), the SAFE network cocoons stay put and pass data between each other.

I'm sure the visualization can be tweaked for better accuracy.

Hope this helps with your Bitcoin conference.

[David Irvine]

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 6:05 PM, David Yamanaka <drey...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think the title is a bit off... (no offense)
From a common person perspective, this first thing I think of when I hear MaidSafe is a person who cleans safes.
To me, SAFE Network, SAFE Net, or SAFE Internet would better convey the initial impression we are trying to convey.
MaidSafe is the company who started, or seeded the New Internet 2.0.

Absolutely right, my bad :-). Project SAFE I think should be the title used in all these communications for sure. MaidSafe can be remembered as the initiator as you say and hopefully (if they do a good job) one of the teams improving it. 

I also like examples, these help a lot and we can certainly use many of these in short sketches and info graphic type giveaways.

[Bob Marin]

I agree that the name is very important and to be honest when I think about this project I don't call it Maidsafe or SAFE  -  to me it's just Safenet, very simple yet delivers the message perfectly. Also the value of this branding will be incredibly important because when first timers hear of safenet they will be much more receptive to further explanation of what MaidSafe is when they immediately get the first impression of the whole internet just safer, more secure and private.

I would like to ask on thing though - you mention that Safenet will be able to access every internet service available today. so does that mean that people will be able to use google, facebook twitter etc. on Safenet?   

Also one thing that I hope you understand is that people will very easily grasp what MaidSafe is, what they'll (me included) will have problem understanding is how does it accomplish all of this?

I'm just saying a live demo would go very far because there are many preconceived notions to shred. For instance how will you make Safecoins secure, how is it possible that Bitcoin network needs hashing powers in the petaflops and the Safenet doesn't, how can you be sure that the speed of the network will always be optimal (you should definitely add some simulations of network speed)

On Sunday, March 30, 2014 7:53:48 PM UTC+2, David Irvine wrote:

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 6:05 PM, David Yamanaka <drey...@gmail.com> wrote

sI think the title is a bit off... (no offense)

[David Irvine]

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 9:06 PM, Bob Marin <bobmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I would like to ask on thing though - you mention that Safenet will be able to access every internet service available today. so does that mean that people will be able to use google, facebook twitter etc. on Safenet?   

I really meant be able to access all of the same services on SAFE. I think there will be bridge technology, it's not really what I meant though. I really meant all todays services can be redeployed and improved on SAFE. Or it is possible to do everyone on SAFE that you can do today plus more. 

Also one thing that I hope you understand is that people will very easily grasp what MaidSafe is, what they'll (me included) will have problem understanding is how does it accomplish all of this?

Yes this will always be an issue I think. A simple overview diagram is good, but as soon as folk want to dig deep, then it gets very deep very fast. That is when it's hard to make easy.  Maybe more short videos ?

I'm just saying a live demo would go very far because there are many preconceived notions to shred. For instance how will you make Safecoins secure, how is it possible that Bitcoin network needs hashing powers in the petaflops and the Safenet doesn't, how can you be sure that the speed of the network will always be optimal (you should definitely add some simulations of network speed)

I agree with the demo for sure (you may notice interesting branches in some of the projects at the moment :-) ). We have a repository full of simulations and measurements (https://github.com/maidsafe/Simulation ) , to me they do not mean much as we can not simulate human behaviour and the network will react to us depending how we use it and how many miners in which geography etc. These simulations give overviews though. 

It is kind of like saying how fast is the internet, what does it mean really? We know we can give data speed etc. This is a good area to try and improve, explain etc. All thoughts welcomed. 

[David Yamanaka]

I like the name Safenet. It's catchy.

People could say "Safenet > Internet".

Unfortunately, I did a Google search for the name and here's what I found.

http://www.safenet-inc.com/safenet-30th-anniversary/

The video on their website describes similar features/functionality compared to the SAFE Project.
However, SafeNet is a corporation, licensing their encryption software.
The SAFE project is a "free decentralized internet," developed, and supported by the public.

~~~

Common words in the title had many direct hits, which could cause confusion.

Fortunately, "SAFE Internet" did not have any direct hits.

Also "MaidSafe" was unique enough to stand out as number 1 hit.
This is a big advantage for capturing curiosity from name searches. Definitely keep it!
We can use the "SAFE Internet" title when referring to the network, seeded by the MaidSafe company.

I used to think all copy machines were called XEROX machines. Then I found out XEROX is just the company that started making copy machines.

[Benjamin Bollen]

Both the SAFE network is a good new name, but equally the company name is a nice word play

M(aid safe ?) A(nonymous) ID Safe sounds like 'Made Safe’.  If it catches on Safenet can become a colloquial term, too bad for the existing company.

Curious, other plays behind the name? :)

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[David Yamanaka]

On Monday, March 31, 2014 1:16:23 AM UTC-6, Benjamin Bollen wrote:

Both the SAFE network is a good new name, but equally the company name is a nice word play

M(aid safe ?) A(nonymous) ID Safe sounds like 'Made Safe’.  If it catches on Safenet can become a colloquial term, too bad for the existing company.

Curious, other plays behind the name? :)

I believe the original meaning is "Massive Array of Internet Disks, Secure Access For Everyone"

[Benjamin Bollen]

That's an even better acronym ! :)

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[Christopher Brandt]

David,

I've added some of your text from the start of this thread to the Wikipedia entry.

Do you have a paper or reference that I can cite for the decentralized PKI? I did a quick search and came up empty.

chris.

[David Irvine]

Fantastic Chris. I have attached a PKI paper. We will get it added to the wiki on github to. Thanks again for all this. It is a load of work. 

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