Kim Dotcom MegaNet (Alternative Internet) - turns every mobile device into a router/server

7 Likes

I think he has not the resources to create meganet for many years, he has been talking about this since 2014.

He is going to rip all the maidsafe code he can as fast as he can, right?

I seriously doubt that he has anything substantial near workable on this, or even could fork the MS code effectively.

The point is that whether or not he has any real plans or feasible tech approach to do it, just the fact that he puts it forward as a possibility and a desirable thing is great.

3 Likes

i learned about MS because i heard of meganet and did some research ā€¦

the problem is - as i see it - that people would probably only want to use one network ā€¦ either meganet and MS are creating an interconnection or only one of them would be successful :wink: ā€¦
kim is not one of the evil guys as i see him =D and of course his resources a very limited right now but still he gets - i think - 160k per month of his money for covering his living costs :wink: so he is not completely broke ā€¦ and he is very good at PR-stuff :smiley: ā€¦
but in the end most people do see him only as a criminal and besides MSs additional functionality that will probably be the reason why meganet wonā€™t get as much adopters as MS will

2 Likes

Meganet an SAFE solutions have a fundamental difference: trust open code, or trust a man / company.

Whether you agree with Kim Dotcom or not, it doesnā€™t make sense to trust that his code, his company, or he will be there forever, or even betray your trust. SAFE network may or may not deliver what we hope for, but I canā€™t think of another project that has addressed the issue of trust so well.

7 Likes

fair point
iā€™m not perfectly sure if ā€œpeopleā€ in general care about it but i agree that i trust MS way more than any single person and am planning to move my data from mega to MS as soon as I consider MS as stable :wink: so at least some people care about the difference :slight_smile:

They will care when Meganet fails in some respect. Each hack (like yesterdays of the USG, big hacks seem to be happening every month atm) or each service failure, will bring more people (individuals, companies, and who knows, eventually governments :-)) to realise the value of SAFE once it has established.

1 Like

Reminds me of the device John McAfee proposed a few years back called ā€˜Decentralā€™. All words and calls for attention, I seriously doubt Kim has the technical backing or passion to get something like this even remotely into a reality.

2 Likes

I think he can (and will) pull it off. He has the branding behind him; along with a cult like following.Over the next 5 years, I think we will see as many decentralized internet projects as their are cryptocoins.

1 Like

Perhaps we should design a friendica for the decentralized internets.

1 Like

And hereā€™s an update,

MegaNet details will be revealed and equity will be available via crowd funding on 20 Jan 2016, the fourth anniversary of the raid

Phones have some pretty tough hardware limits. To be a full-on router, itā€™d have to run the wifi all the time - current phone batteries, I suspect, arenā€™t up to that challenge and wonā€™t be for quite a while. Long term it seems like a good idea.

Also youā€™re not going to be putting your website on your phone I think ā€“ not unless itā€™s hooked into the SAFE network. I wonder if Kim even knows about the Safe network - does anyone here know - has anyone approached him to ask?

I could see some sort of limited use functionality - like a social network app that uses wifi to connect to others around you + basic file sharing. But calling it ā€˜meganetā€™ makes it sound like heā€™s aiming for something bigger/better than the internet. Thereā€™s just no way thatā€™s going to happen any time soon with phone hardware.

EDIT: I suppose the ā€œmegaā€ in meganet is being derived from his use of ā€œmegaā€ in his past products, so fair enough.

1 Like

I have come across a few people on Twitter asking him if he was aware of the SAFE Network, but have never seen a response. I would be surprised if he hadnā€™t heard of or taken even a cursory glance at our project.

5 Likes

Yes, Iā€™ve asked him one or two pointed questions and offered SAFE as comparison. He hasnā€™t responded to anything re SAFE tho.

2 Likes

I see that he is looking for $100 million and will be using Bank to the Future in an equity offering: Kim Dotcom Reveals New Details on MegaNet, Including His Plans to Raise $100M Through Crowdfunding

Well there we go then. This is why SafeNet isnā€™t on his menu. he canā€™t attempt to raise $100MM for something already being built ā€“ heā€™s all about the 'megaā€™bucks! lol

I donā€™t think itā€™d take anywhere close to this amount of money to build a new software platform in any case ā€¦ not even a hundredth of this amount. Perhaps heā€™s aiming to build a new hardware platform as well.

Either that or heā€™s just scamming the publicā€¦time will tell.

1 Like

I think there is always an element of ā€˜not invented here syndromeā€™ as well. People often have a very specific vision of how they solution a problem. I agree it is a huge amount of money for software product. I wonder if there is a hardware element somewhere, or maybe for legal fees.

A cursory glance? Hah! He wants to rip all the code he can from the FOSS projects into a closed source project and outcompete them with marketing using his fame and connections.

1 Like

Maybe @lowry_jim, but this approach will cease to work. There is a undeniable ground swell of companies moving toward open source, each benefiting from the other. Users are just starting to demand that these types of services (ones that get close to our personal data) be open in order that security and privacy of our data can be assessed by experts. If I recall Kim has a less than 100% record in this area.

2 Likes