What is the difference between Maidsafe and other decentralized internet platforms ( Blockstack etc.)

Is there a major difference between Maidsafe and other decentralized internet platforms like Blockstack and others.

3 Likes

Forum searches answer most questions :wink:

8 Likes

9 Likes

Thanks Jabba,

So I guess the major difference is that Blockstack is meant to run on top of a blockchain and MaidSafe is not??

Running on a blockchain limits the ability and speed of scaling??

Blockstack says the limited scalability of blockchain is a future problem they need to solve.

MaidSafe is allready working to solve that problem???

If someone with more knowledge could clarify whethere these satements are true and also elaborate why and on what the other differences are that would great.

Thank you,

1 Like

The importance of that difference cannot be over-emphasised. It makes them completely different value propositions.

Yes. Getting consensus by getting everyone to agree and share the same data is inherently unscalable.

The serious ‘scaling solutions’ that are being worked on (like sharding) are basically complete redesigns of ‘blockchain’ and they are years away from implementation. They also won’t release all of our spare capacity or provide us with true ownership of our own data.

Indeed, no blockchain on SAFE. No confirmation delays (instant means instant for txs), no privacy issues (not a shared ledger so it’s private by default), no mining, no fees, no scaling issues.

It’s much more than that though. Blockchain is a shared ledger. That’s great for something simple like value exchange. It is utterly useless if you want to do what Bitcoin has done for money with data. Maidsafe have been working on enabling people to own their own data since 3 years before the Bitcoin whitepaper was released. Bitcoin/blockchain is a simple and useful step in the right direction. SAFE is about taking the giant leap and changing the data paradigm.

Imagine a sea of tiny encrypted chunks of data that you interact with directly. No gate-keepers. We can all maintain that ocean with our spare capacity and be rewarded with SafeCoins for contributing. Spare (free) should outcompete economies of scale (cheap), so farming should stay decentralised. You also NEED these coins to interact with this censor resistant network where you can literally ‘own your own data’. You have to burn coins to upload and save stuff. The incentive to get them and the way to access them (leave your pc on) is totally different to other cryptos where you have to ‘buy in’ in the hopes of getting rich or avoiding censors. SAFE seeks to monetise our spare capacity to create a censor resistant network where we use our coins like a utility rather than just as money. If Bitcoin is gold and Eth is oil then you can think of SafeCoin more like grain or salt I guess.

There’s so much more to it than that. I haven’t touched on developers having zero infrastructure costs or being paid by the network for popular Apps (so they don’t need to find ways to monetise, they just need to build the most ‘useful’ things). Really, I could go on all day and write thousands of words with biased and overly-enthusiastic praise for how incredible SAFE is. I landed here two years ago and I’ve been here every day since. This rabbit hole goes so deep it is very hard to find your way out of it! :grin: You’ll need to just dig and read though, hopefully I’ve piqued your curiosity enough to dig a little deeper.

21 Likes

I did a forum search before posting but, to my surprise, found nothing. I see now that there must have been something wrong with my connection or something at the time. Thanks for the links again, @Jabba.

3 Likes

Thank you very much for this awesome answer.

You’ve definitely piqued my curiosity even further.

9 Likes