Someone's (bad) take on SAFE Network vs. TOR

When I posted some information about the SAFE Network in a forum for people with a high sensitrivity for computer security and privacy I got the following response:

It’s like .onion except…

…not anonymous (anybody hosting their “proxy” server knows your IP and can see what sites you go to), 100x slower and very unreliable.

“Freenet” tried this same idea in the early 2000’s, Tor improved on it, but this is a step backward (it was designed in the early-mid 2000’s). Only a handful of people will be able to access a “server” at any given time. Unlike Tor, this system tries to host web servers on a small number of home computers and cellphones, but smartphone OS’s and consumer OS’s limit the number of simultaneous connections. Also if none of the 4-8 people offering to host data storage for the website happens to be online, the website will simply be down with no way to alert anybody and no way to bring it up until one of them happen to come back online.

Then the way the system “votes” on everything among a dozen or so PC’s and phones (that could be spread around the globe) means horrible latency for simple requests. Think 10 seconds after typing in a website until something responds, then another hour to load the page because the only online “vault” is on some guy’s PC with 28.8K baud dialup in rural China.

The whole thing really seems to revolve around people contributing high-speed PC’s and paying their own money for ISP, bandwidth and electricity costs to host other people’s websites, child porn and pirated movies on their home computer (albeit “encrypted” with a method they won’t disclose), for the “reward” of receiving a worthless cryptocurrency.

They also make it free to download whatever you want, but to post a message or share a file with the world you have to pay for it. Sort of like BitTorrent, except having to pay to seed your files. Not sure what they think the incentive is for people to share content on this “network.”

I don’t see how this will even get to the level of Tor, if they even manage to implement everything they describe.

[here’s their comment]

Would anyone care to set this individual straight? I mean, I think I can, but others are better qualified I’m sure.

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It takes a lot of energy to convince somebody whose mind is closed. Personally I would move on. Such people will follow when their skepticism is disproved.

If you think you can answer, go ahead - it’s a good way to improve your own understanding - and come here for clarifications as you need them.

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If this person doesn’t get rebuked many people will think they’re right having themselves no knowledge about the subject.

I will give a reply, but any good arguments from here would be useful.

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If your not confident just try your best then just pop a link on your response encouraging them to come over this way for a visit :slight_smile:

You may not convince all of them but there will be a few enquiring minds that will go digging :+1:

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OK, here’s what my response came out as:

It is very clear from what you are writing that you haven’t the faintest idea of the principles or technology behind SAFE Network. Where did you do your research on this?

Besides being 100% untraceably anonymous if one chooses so, the transfers are not “slower”, in fact they will be faster the more people access a certain resource.

Also, the notion of some people having to “pay” from their deep pockets to make this network even run and to be able to upload is a half-truth at best. In fact, there will be many ways people can earn currency to access such resources by contributing to the community. I do not use money at all, and from what I gather this will not be a problem as there will be ways in which my contributions to the community and the network will be valued and supply me with credit that I can then use to upload data and consume computer power to operate e.g. a website.

In fact, I took the liberty of quoting your completely misguided comment on the SAFE Network Forum. See link.

I really encourage people to look into SAFE Network for themselves, not taking Icarus’ words for solid knowledge, because it’s completely wrong.

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