Ethereum vs counterparty vs maidsafe

Can someone briefly and high-level explain to me what the fundamental differences are between ethereum, maidsafe and counterparty?

One other question i have would be for in order for me to use the network, do i need to buy safecoins? I would like to create an app when the network goes live but in many cases as is with ethereum you need to buy their coins in order to be able to be part of the network.

Also, if i would make a decentralized app, can others just use it without having to buy safecoins and is one allowed to use google ads to commercialize and/or generate revenue (as long as you honour the 1% tribute to the maidsafe foundation)?

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Hi Lawk, you can find many answers on your questions by searching through the forum. There’s a lot of information in this forum and also a lot in the systemdocs: http://maidsafe.net/SystemDocs/

If you still got unanswered questions after searching, feel free to ask them of course!

Threads on comparison between Ethereum and Maidsafe:

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You can earn safecoins by providing storage space for the network, all this is also mentioned in the systemdocs btw :smile:

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MaidSafe is a decentralized content network, a little bit like a combination of Bittorrent and Tor. Ethereum is like Bitcoin but then with support to run any kind of computation on it in the form of a “digital contract”. Counterparty is also a blockchain technology meant as a platform to run financial tools.

SafeCoins are only required to store data on the network, not to retrieve data, so you can download/read public data without ever spending SafeCoin. SafeCoins can also be gained by farming, which should be possible to do with a regular computer, as it’s not as resource incentive as mining Bitcoins for example.

The network also rewards uploaders of popular public data/apps with SafeCoin. So you can actually offer free and ad-free apps and still generate revenue. It’ll also be extremely easy for users to donate using micro-transactions.

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Maidsafe is a little like bittorrent but instead of single files able to be downloaded, it’s brain is spread across everywhere and everything, Any single IT related topic can be improved and helped by using maidsafe, it allows protection of data that even the NSA would find next to impossible to break once fully up and running

maidsafe relates to everything IT

Ethereum is sort of like the banking institutions (not in the centralized nature or anything) but imagine bitcoin as cash , the banking systems and many other systems require this cash to function. ethereum is the financial system and the cash to fuel said system tied into 1.

Counterparty uses the security of the bitcoin blockchain and effectively allows it to be ethereum like, but instead bitcoin is the cash and counterparty with its decentralized assets and other options it brings gives it the ability of decentralized financial infrastructure. Sort of how like sidechains would work really, except with side chains you would expect 200 different side chains doing 200 different things like a new alt age but in sidechains

obviously this is a really simplified version and comparison to things already existent for quite some time, and while not direct comparisons , they have their similarities in some regards

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  1. Ethereum: uses a blockchain (just like Bitcoin) where people can do transactions. It added an extra feature where you can run scripts (little programs) on that same blockchain. They will provide apps for everyone to connect to the scripts and blockchain. Will be great for something like a decentralized crowdfunder.

  2. Counterparty: uses the Bitcoin blockchain. Can be used to create new coins. Even coins that pay “dividends”.

  3. Maidsafe: uses no blockchain but creates consensus about who owns Safecoin without a timestamp. It also provides storage in the network for files and data like websites etc. People will be payed in Safecoin to provide resources. Just like Ethereum it will use apps. Think of the apps like in your Chrome-browser.

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Is it possible that Ethereum and Maidsafe collaborate and come up with a product that combines the scalability of Maidsafe with the ease of Ethereum scripting language ?

Great question. I asked it in a somehow different way in the topic below. I don’t think that the dev teams will sit down together to discuss this, but I do think that maybe some coders in both communities will try to do something like that. Like storing their blockchain in SAFEnet. That would make sense.

About the scripting language, David did a reply on my topic. It’s a great read. And to make things even more broad, I just saw that there’s something called Etherparty :stuck_out_tongue:

All these projects will probably work with API’s etc. to make them more usable for people. I really can’t wait to see how all these projects will work out.

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Perhaps it should be added that Counterparty aims to support Ethereum’s Smart Contracts via Pythereum (it already does on testnet, but not yet on mainnet) in the near future.
It won’t be 100% the same (e.g. Counterparty will not use ETH, and it will continue using the blockchain), etc. apart from documented differences the rest will be the same.

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They are for different purposes and it really depends on when they each launch. If SAFE Network is delayed it favors Ethereum.