I had prepared this response on the related FAQ thread, but it closed before posting, so I’m putting it over here.
I think we’ll find that safecoin has some different dynamics than you’re taking into account. The concerns you voice largely center around State power, and those who use it to exert broad control over social and political groups.
The beauty of the cryptocurrency concept in general is that it can be a broad-based, voluntary means of exchanging value that has the potential to make the control mechanisms of the “money masters” irrelevant, because it lacks central control or authority.
The problem with Bitcoin and other crypto in general is that it has a real distribution barrier. Bitcoin mining was cool in the earlier days but it’s not a means of getting a lot of bitcoin out in the hands of people at large. Other altcoins have tried to adjust for this but haven’t gotten there in a really meaningful way.
This leaves a huge chokepoint: the necessity to exchange heavily controlled fiat currency for the crypto in order to make it available broadly. This exposes them very much to currency manipulation.
Enter safecoin. People all over the world already use the devices necessary to run the software necessary to access the SAFE network. Running that software has a value to those people quite aside from earning safecoin: it secures their data and communications, privacy and anonyimity, and much more. I’d venture to say that there are enough privacy/security/anonymity concerned people around the world to run a secure implementation of the SAFE network all by themselves, just because they want the features.
Add much, much broader adoption due to convenience, the fact that it’s no strain on people’s already-in-use resources, AND the ability to earn a currency which is essentially digital cash (even if pennies, at first) and we have something that looks very different than anything in existence so far.
Exchanges will come into existence, but they won’t dominate or very much manipulate the value of safecoin, I think. Safecoin will have a scarcity which will increase with time, but won’t start so scarce that you have to jump through hoops to get some and start using it. It will be generated while doing what you’d be doing anyway–i.e., communicating, saving you data securely, etc.
Safecoin will not replace Bitcoin or fiat quickly and dramatically, if ever. It will first permeate, then find relative value, then increase in value.
These are some of the reasons I’m not worried about manipulation of safecoin value. It’s rather resistant, out of the box, and will sneak up on everyone in its effect. So I perceive, anyway.