SAFE Network Dev Update - June 20, 2019

We sponsored his Phd FYI

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I guessed so. Thatā€™s really a great investment.

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Iā€™m just back from ā€œclueless consumer classā€ :sweat_smile:

@maidsafe people during my demo wondered why the vault/WHM is not integrated into the browser?

Generally they welcomed the SAFE Network, but that is only true if you put your money where your mouth is, soā€¦ Collectively they invested 700 euroā€™s in bitcoinā€™s for Maidsafecoin. Recently Iā€™ve started to create brainwallet out of euro bills:


For example I get someone to invest 5 euroā€™s and use E00131101365 as brainwallet (donā€™t be naive to think that this is an actual brainwallet) to send their Maidsafecoins to. They also take a picture of the euro bill on their phone as backup and store it in the cloud. Because I donā€™t expose them to an exchange, I think theyā€™re less likely to exchange their Maidsafecoins.

Nevertheless keep up the good work Maidsafe, they really got exited (registering a pubID and uploading a file without a company) about this permissionless playground.

P.s. next time Iā€™ll try to record or make pictures (for this first time I just focused on the ui/ux). Tired, got to start :sleeping:
:stuck_out_tongue:

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people during my demo wondered why the vault/WHM is not integrated into the browser?

You mean like this idea, @19eddyjohn75 ?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTkD14ApO0 ? Or something elseā€¦?

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Hi @joshuef i gave my demo in v13 of SAFE Browser and thats exactly what they wanted. Absolutely blown away when i saw the Youtube clip, this imho is how it suppose to work. You guys did an incredible work.

:sweat_smile:sorry for pushing it hereā€¦ if Vaults + a wallet was in the browser :sweat_smile:(makes me sad that i donā€™t got the budget, to let some one code it, even better would be if a community member who can code did it).

Keep up the great work superants weā€™re close, so close.

:stuck_out_tongue:

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I think itā€™s a mistake to assume that the best place for things like wallets and vaults is in the Browser.

For one, we want to make it sure easy to start up a vault, and have it running in the background doing itā€™s thing, with minimum fuss. You might want to do this on a multitude of devices and often you might want this on a device that isnā€™t tasked with day to day jobs like browsing. Thereā€™d also be questions around quitting/restarting the browser, or updating it and what that would mean for the continuity of running the vault. In interaction design terms weā€™d call a vault more of a Daemonic application, with some transient functions, whereas the browser is a sovereign application (demanding most, or all of the users attention). If we start sticking these things together we could end up with a less that ideal experience.

And regarding wallets, there is a similar conundrum. What a wallet app will be tasked with lead it to be more of a transient application, coming in an out of view for the user when required, and its functions will support use of the network across a range of different apps, not just the browser.

Itā€™s worthwhile remembering that the browser is only one way of interacting with the network. For some users, they may have no need for a browser at all. For example if they are using a native application, like a chat app.

And of course, I can happily use the Network without the need for an account, or a wallet, or a vault, I can just browse, so it seems a bit unnecessary to have all that in the browser.

I think itā€™s best to think of Safe like a mini OS within an OS: an ecosystem. Itā€™s useful for the user to have modularity. If someone makes a really great wallet app, or even better vault UI, then great! The user can install it, and reap the benefits. But if we build it all into the browser, it will get more and more bloated, and the end user may not be able to swap things in and out so easily.

Thatā€™s not to say there wonā€™t be UI elements of things like wallets appearing in the browser, but itā€™d be modular, and context specific (e.g. When Iā€™m shopping at a site, I want to see my running total in a shopping cart, against the balance of my wallet) rather than all of the possible functions of a wallet baked in.

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Great post and this mirrors my opinion. Iā€™m glad this project is in such safe hands! :slight_smile:

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Yes so true.

As you say the vault is a background task, no good in a browser or the like.

You know what would be good is a browser page that shows the performance and status/metrics of the vault running though. Many would see it as their vault since the actual vault is hidden in the background.

And the wallet, again I agree that its not for the browser, but of course someone may make a browser app where the user can ā€œcall upā€ their wallet.

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The Browser could bundle the Vault, and itā€™s setup could offer to set the Vault up to run in the background, hooked up to a UI accessible via the browser.

Or both could be part of a larger setup bundle that offers to set up these different things.

For many that would be the ideal. Just one download, then walk through a simple setup and youā€™re off.

I get that putting everything into the Browser isnā€™t a sensible architecture, but Iā€™m not convinced it isnā€™t going to be a sensible default UX.

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Having a common installer that pulls the various key apps would be great. I agree that the user needs a simple install, but we should be able to do this and keep the apps distinct too.

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Thats fine for the setup and I would even suggest that a node (vault) download include the browser anyhow as a package. But also the browser as a stand alone download/install. And then allow a series of install packages for the user who wishes to install a suite of applications. (shown separately so as not to confuse a simple download of the browser.

My understanding and what i answered was the running the vault as part of the browser. In other words the user needs to be running the browser for their node/vault to run.

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