Could Safecoin Create The Incentivized Web? A Big Idea With Big Implications (Token-Investigation Part 15/50)

Safecoin is a proposed decentralized data and communication network that would replace centralized servers. It’s a big idea with a lot of potential, but without much proof that they can pull it off yet.

The ideas explained in the eight page safecoin white paper are potentially disruptive to the centralized servers of the current internet. It would theoretically offer affordable access to large amounts of computer space via the token.

There are a few other projects attempting this right now such as Siacoin. With Sia speed has been a big issue, it’s a very slow service. That’s why I have to reserve judgement on Safecoin until I see the working product.

It’s great to have big ideas. But at this point in the cryptocurrency space, big ideas are everywhere. I’m looking for good execution.

This article will take a close look at safecoin - what is it, what’s the token model, where is development at, and who’s behind it all.

About This Series + Disclaimer

This post is part of a new series where I investigate each of the top 50 coins by marketcap (based on coinmarketcap.com's rankings on October 11, 2017). My goal is to help steem’s userbase become the most knowledgable blockchain community in the world.

Disclaimer: I am not an investment expert and will not be providing investment advice. I will teach you about the top 50 coins, and you can do what you want with that info.

What is Safecoin

Safecoin is a network of computers offering hard drive space, RAM, and bandwidth that can be rented out by other computers for a fee. This is the same idea behind website servers. However, on safecoin you rent out space from a variety of computers rather than a single server.

Furthermore, there’s a layer of privacy built into the network. It’s impossible to trace the transaction history of tokens beyond the most recent few, and you can’t see what other people are using tokens for unless they want you to.

Safecoin’s incentivized web concept also allows content to hide behind micro-transaction paywalls, such as charging one cent’s worth of safecoin in exchange for access to a long news article.

The concept of using micro-payments to gain access to media is something that fascinates me. I am convinced we will move to this model. It’s just a question of which protocol gets there first.

What’s the development status of Safecoin?

Right now the team behind safecoin, Maidsafe, are on stage “Alpha 2” of their development roadmap.

_{source: https://maidsafe.net/index.html#roadmap}

There are a few apps available on the home page: “Safe Browser,” “Web Hosting Manager,” and “SAFE Mail Tutorial.” I decided to give the browser a go. The site made it look so enticing…

_{How could I resist? source: https://maidsafe.net}

The browser looked pretty simple when I first opened it.

_{not bad…}

I clicked the top site, “Beaker Browser Homepage.” That sounded like a great place to start. This is what I saw:

Undeterred, I went back to the home page and clicked again. I saw the same error page.

It turns out that when I click on any page in the browser, it gives an error. That’s too bad. I wonder if it’s something wrong on my end, because I can’t imagine them having an app where nothing works.

Even beyond my own bad experience, right now the safecoin network is running on a testnet. All the nodes are managed by the development company, Maidsafe. People are buying and selling a token called “Maidsafecoin” right now, which will be redeemable at a 1:1 ratio for real “safecoin” when the team is ready to launch the real network.

Until we reach “Alpha 4,” which brings outside miners (“farmers”) into the system, it’ll be hard to know how good the technology can work. There’s a big difference between managing all the nodes yourself (centralized) and running it as a true decentralized network.

the Token Distribution Model

In April 2014, Maidsafe sold a number of maidsafe tokens equivalent to 10% of the amount of safecoin that will ever be minted. This crowdsale raised them three million dollars, although the initial reports suggested it would be seven million. The ICO was widely criticized for its poor execution.

When the real safecoin network goes live, new tokens will be issued by allowing “farmers” to mine a block whenever their computing power is used. The more usage occurs on the network, the more tokens are minted.

Who is working at Maidsafe?

David Irvine is the CEO of Maidsafe.

Here’s his profile from Crunchbase:

“David has in excess of 23 years experience in IT and 15 years running companies. He was previously responsible for Enterprise network design and project management and has worked on some of the world’s largest network projects. David is also a published author on papers in the fields of complex networking, distributed computing and cryptography related technologies.”

David as a lot of experience. He seems like a good candidate to build a tokenize protocol such as safecoin. He does lack financial experience. I’m hoping to see other people on the team who bring that to the table.

Viv Rajkumar is the CTO of Maidsafe.**

Viv previously worked as a product manager at Maidsafe before becoming CTO. Prior to that he worked as a IT Productions Assistant at Preview Services and a Game Admin for World of Dragons.

That’s not quite as much experience as I would hope to see in a CTO. I’d be looking for more development experience.

Market History

I feel bad for this token. It was patiently climbing up in value for the first few years, finally mooned in July 2017, only to now be crashing back down. To be fair, it’s still up a lot from its first two years. But will the token keep crashing?

I’m not sure what the future holds for maidsafecoin. Hopefully it’ll rally.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of potential in safecoin. There’s also a lot that do not yet know. I need to wait and see what the final product shapes up to be before I can decide if I’m optimistic about the protocol.

There are a ton of great ideas in the cryptocurrency space. After doing 14 of these token investigations, I am becoming harder and harder to impress. Safecoin is a great idea for sure. Here’s hoping that it becomes a reality.

Do you have any thoughts about safecoin?