Please, can anyone provide some clarity about some basic issues and questions about SAFE? Any help or pointers are much appreciated!
I’m having a great deal of trouble clearly understanding how a gated online service built on the SAFE Network might function. I’ll create an example proposition about such a fictional service (‘Facesafe’) so I can ask (I hope) some sensible questions.
BASIC PROPOSITION:
Suppose I want to build an online service on the SAFE Network - let’s call it ‘Facesafe’ just for example. ‘Facesafe’ is intended to be just like Facebook, accessed through mobile apps and browsers and through desktop apps and browsers, supporting advertising, etc. To join ‘Facesafe’ you have to sign-up (name, password, email) like the real Facebook.
BASIC QUESTIONS:
If I build ‘Facesafe’ on the current Internet/Web a desktop user can open a standard web browser that they don’t (first) have to sign on to, then navigate to the ‘Facesafe’ site (URL) and log-in.
Can I build ‘Facesafe’ on the SAFE network?
Would it work and look like ‘FAcesafe’ on the Internet/Web?
If I build ‘Facesafe’ on the SAFE network can a user use a standard web browser they don’t (first) have to sign on to, navigate to the ‘Facesafe’ site and log-in?
Or do they first have to (somehow) be notified they have to log in to the SAFE network FIRST, and then use (browser?) to get to the ‘Facesafe’ site where they now do a second login to gain access?
Or is there a way to disguise to the user they are first logging into the SAFE network AND then logging into the ‘Facesafe’ site (nothing nefarious intended, thinking of the ease of use and user experience (‘friction’) just in loggin on)?
Does ‘Facesafe’ have a special kind of url in the normal browser?
How does the namespace of the Web get mapped/connected to my ‘Facesafe’ site built on the SAFE network?
If the SAFE login is visible to my ‘Facesafe’ user, can I 'Facesafe-brand the login? customize it?
Very confused and somewhat frustrated (and I’ve read a great number of the SAFE/Maidsafe docs and FAQs over the last ear but some important basic steps still aren’t crystal clear in my understanding.
The idea with SAFE is just to log in once. When you want to join a website, you might see the launcher pop-up asking for permission and within a click you should be good. Have you tested the testnet already?
Maybe facesite.safenet or safe:facesite in your browser or a special SAFE webbrowser. Depends on what you want.
No need to log on. When you log on once to the network you should be good. A pair of crypto keys is created for every forum, App etc. that you use. Nobody can hack your account.
Broadly speaking, everything you suggest here is feasible. However, the devil is currently in the detail.
There are approaches which could provide many of the core facebook style features in a browser, while providing a distributed solution. However, there is debate over how the user interacts with safe net via the browser.
Using the latest version of the launcher, it would certainly be possible to do something useful in the browser with javascript and the launcher alone. This would result in a dedicated storage area for the app that would require the user to confirm authorisation.
Rightly, this approach has come under scrutiny over the security of this approach. Instead, it is suggested thither browser alone should authenticate against the network, rather than web apps directly. It is unclear how having a shared storage would be accessed or managed securely on a per app basis using this technique, but the situation is evolving. We also don’t know if other techniques will be proposed - it is early days.
Ultimately, the developers are trying to get the core stuff all working, with an API to access it. This is progressing well, but what the best practices and technologies beyond this will be is still tbc, imo.
Thanks very much Traktion for a very helpful and encouraging overview.
My take on your take is that it’s early days, good things are afoot, everything’s in [positive] motion (so to speak) and the best (in practices, methodologies, et al.) is still to come, to play for, and to be decided. In a way, that’s kind of a relief (based on my nascent and still new understanding).
This was/is my first post/question, just (officially) joined today - moving up from ‘stealth/silent’ observation status. My group is building a large-scale online-service we’ve long since planned to hopefully/eventually run on SAFE (once we properly understand /test/ it’s ready etc) because of its decentralized and security features (amongst others). And having read some interesting posts in the forum I do hope that a wider (commercial/government) understanding of SAFE’s implications remains obscure and limited until it’s big and bad enough to survive.
The reason is we immediately recognize - (without spelling the reasons out here, and some of the reasons we’re drawn to SAFE, as others in the forum have both mentioned and been concerned about) - its capabilities and implications in the context of civil society and the prevailing surveillance vectors, and the opportunities it provides to ‘sail’ differently from the wind that’s blowing up a storm.
I hope you’re able to work it out on SAFE and then use a micro payment and or the SAFE coin recompense mechanism to be successful. But also that you avoid all ads and sponsorship as these would present a conflict and rightly erode all important trust.
If you do decide to get involved in a more commercially aggressive model please consider something akin to what Etsay does where you provide search and get paid when you successfully match a buyer and seller maybe adding a micropayment as a fee for service in a point of sale mechanism but also provide general search free of any sponsorship or conflict of interest as a necessary overhead and in this way also take on Google. It seems that honest, safe, non-conflict search and social media are a natural paring. And a way to displace both Google and Facebook. There is something magical that happens when the power of accurate search is tied directly to product search, there are no ads because the search and good product literature make the ads obsolete and all the player’s interests are aligned instead of having the corrupting influence of sponsorship create an atmosphere of lies which pits people against other and misalignes interests and distorts commerce and damages good will toward commerce. Good luck.