SAFE network
MaidSafe was founded by David Irvine in 2006 with the mission to improve privacy and security for everyone by building better internet platform. MaidSafe will do so by building the SAFE (Secure Access For Everyone) Network, the world’s first autonomous data network. This video explains.
Following years of extensive research and development MaidSafe held an ICO in 2014. An OMNI token MaidSafeCoin was sold in the world’s second ever ICO and at the time was one of the fastest crowdfundings in history raising more than $5 million in 6 hours and around $7million in 3 days. This fundraising contained no founders pool and all funds raised were invested into building out the network.
Contents
User base
There is a dedicated community of followers and innovators. This is highlighted by an active forum which has over 5,500 users and around 500,000 views each month. Both MaidSafe and the SAFE Network have subreddit with a combined total of over 4,200 readers.
Social media community as of 8th November 2017:
- Twitter Followers: 37,040
- Facebook Likes: 2,431
- LinkedIn Follower: 444
- YouTube Subscribers: 2,252
- Alpha 2 downloads: 5823
Product
The SAFE Network is the world’s first autonomous data network. This decentralisation combined with principles of self-encryption, self-authentication, closed group consensus and lack of human intervention creates an autonomous environment in which security and privacy are paramount.
As with any large infrastructure project SAFE has been a significant undertaking which has involved over 11 years of research and development, thousands of commits, 17 granted patents and 16 pending (obtained for defensive purposes only and given to a charitable foundation – The MaidSafe Foundation), by a team of over 25 people based in 10 countries.
Unlike many other decentralised products the SAFE Network does not use a blockchain; SAFE is a fully autonomous network in which the ledger is private and integrated, not an add on.
The SAFE Network is currently in Alpha 2; this release enables users to access a decentralised network hosted on nodes that are currently controlled by MaidSafe. The network is accessed via a client called ‘the Authenticator’ which enables users to securely authenticate themselves onto SAFE, while protecting their network login credentials from apps.
Bundled with the SAFE Browser, the Authenticator supports Windows, OSX and Linux, as well as Android support. iOS support is in the works. The desktop version of the SAFE Browser comes with two tutorial applications. The Web Hosting Manager and SAFE Mail. The Web Hosting Manager allows users to create their own public ID, and upload and publish content instantly. SAFE Mail provides end to end encrypted email using the public key of the recipient to encrypt the message. The two Android applications provided with this release are the Authenticator, and SAFE Messages, an example application that demonstrates end to end encrypted mobile email.
In order to run Alpha 2 members must gain Trust Level 1 on the SAFE Network forum in order to reduce the level of spam on the network. This will provide users with an invitation code from which to download Alpha 2.
MaidSafe Coin
Following an ICO in 2014 MaidSafe has a cryptocurrency called MaidSafe, MaidSafeCoin is an (OMNI) asset that is listed on the Bitcoin blockchain and can be bought and traded on several exchanges. MaidSafeCoin is a proxy token and will be swapped on a 1:1 basis for Safecoin once the SAFE Network becomes live.
- Main article: MaidSafeCoin
Safecoin will be the mechanism that incentivises the provision of resources by the network, measuring and rewarding value without wasting any resources. Safecoin is therefore ‘farmed’ by users who provide reliable resources to the Network.
Safecoins are distributed entirely by the SAFE Network with no human intervention. Only .3 billion coins will be in circulation at one time and each will have a unique identifier.
Unlike many other cryptocurrencies which use proof of work algorithms Safe coin works on a proof of resource mechanism. The resource provided by each farmer is continually checked by the Network.
App developers will also be paid automatically, by the Network, as their app is used in Safecoin. As all users who wish to use SAFE Network service must pay for these in Safecoin there is continual flow of Safecoin throughout the Network.
Safecoin, like the SAFE Network, will not have a blockchain. Users will know the current and previous owner of each coin, similar to cash.
Code
The SAFE Network is an open sourced project with all source code available through GitHub.
The open source is protected with a General Public License v3 to encourage our contributors to open source their app code.
There is also Community Engagement Programme. This programme matches community developers with immediate and fundamental network requirements. Community members are encouraged to create teams and bid for projects that can be suggested by the community or MaidSafe. Successful teams will receive funding from MaidSafe’s CEP fund and/or the community itself. These apps once completed cannot be revenue earning.
Team
The SAFE Network is being built by a dedicated team who are based in Ayr HQ or are working remotely across the globe. In total MaidSafe has 26 staff, 21 of these being on the development teams.
David Irvine is MaidSafe founder and CEO. David has in excess of 23 years experience in IT and 15 years running companies. He is the designer of one of the World’s largest private networks (Saudi Aramco, over $300M). He is an experienced Project Manager and has been involved in start up businesses since 1995 and has provided business consultancy to corporates and SMEs in many sectors. He has presented technology at Google (Seattle), British Computer Society (Christmas Lecture) and many others. He has spent many years as a lifeboat Helmsman and is a keen sailor when time permits. David is also a published author on papers in the fields of complex networking, distributed computing and cryptography related technologies. His is the author of 30 patent applications in the field of computer networking.
Having graduated in Aerospace Engineering and Astronautics CTO Vivekanand Rajkumar worked as a Server Specialist at IBM before joining MaidSafe. He has extensive expense leading UX teams as well as being a certified Mobile platform engineer. Viv’s experience with IBM and his 6 years at MaidSafe ensure that he is capable of leading all aspects of development. In his time at the company he has been pivotal in refining development processes and helping to build the development team
COO Nick Lambert, started his working life in project management roles with IBM and Sanmina SCI, before a change in tack led him into senior marketing positions with a diverse range of companies. He has also co-authored papers on decentralised networks, presented at several international conferences, holds an MSc Marketing and has been published in the Huffington Post, Computing Magazine and Info Security Magazine.