joshuef

I made a simple wee Konbini compass* app for whenever I'm ambling around Tokyo so I no longer have to go through the (_so heavy_) process of opening a map app, changing to jp keyboard and typing `konbini` to reliably find something.

Instead it's just a compass face, with brand and distance.

It's free for basic konbini hunting (has probably most of the stored in Japan), and is offline first. So maybe it's useful to other folk?? (I hope so!)

There's some stamp-book style collection things in there too, but that's more fun, and a few `PRO` gated things (more stats, filtering... soon some other store types). But none of it required for finding the next Biru or coffee.

*https://apps.apple.com/us/app/achira-japan-offline-guide/id6...

Is that right?

Sort of. You don't _have_ to enable storage etc in your app. Being a 'node' can be independent of running an app. And your app can just store things on the network without having to worry about making a user share their space (and do onboarding to the network etc).

If so, what happens to other people's data when I turn off my machine? What happens to my data when other people turn off their machines, or are otherwise unavailable?

If you turn off your storage, you stop earning money. The network ensures there are X (currently 8, I believe) copies of each piece of data available at any one time, so data on the network would be replicated to make up for whatever went missing as you (or anyone) turn off a node.

I don't understand what problem this is solving

The problem of centralisation and data hoarding. Facebook. Google. Being de-facto forced into giving up your data as a user.

It aims to decentralise this, and (hopefully) will make it easier for users to remain in control of their data, without the need for massive server farms etc. By using spare space on user's devices.

The crypto currency is an incentivisation layer. (you are rewarded for participation in storage / serving data etc).

I'd recommend reading the primer (https://primer.safenetwork.org/) to get into the details of how this will work.

Ah thanks!

Sorry, been a lurker on HN for a whiiile. Just made an account to reply. I assume it's just markdown style?

As one of the devs, i'd say:

It solves ownership of data, and removes the need for large data centers by securely, anonymously letting users share storage space.

I'd caveat that we're still in alpha, but things are coming together very nicely.

The Safe Network (will) incentive user storage and uptime through cryptocurrency, though non-blockchain based, so avoiding a lot of throughput pitfalls there. So it can also act as a storage backed currency in some fashion.

It allows users to truly own and manage the permissions of their data without relying on any third party. And it provides enough flexibility for this to let folk make applications as well as store files.

I hope that helps some? I'm trying to avoid buzzwords :) I know that site has any. It's also worth noting that the dev hub is a bit out of date (things are still moving pretty fast.) But the community (https://safenetforum.org/) is very friendly!

Let me know if I can get more specific, I'll be about for a little longer.

(Oh, also there's some other links in another top level post I made that may be helpful)

It's a tough one to categorize. (I say that as a dev on the project)

It's similar to IPFS in terms of the goal of distributed file storage. But it incentivizes users to store in non-blockchain way, sidestepping a lot of the size and throughput issues there.

Connections are indeed anonymized. But as you can work with and update data in a distributed fashion, there's a lot of scope for applications. (We've previously built a simple twitter clone, using RDF data on an older testnet: https://github.com/maidsafe/safe-patter-js)

Things are still very much in development. Still Alpha stage. But There are things available for users to try!

The Safe Primer (maintained by community members) may be a good place to start:

https://primer.safenetwork.org/

The dev hub is sadly out of date with current things. The forum is very friendly and open to new folk and answering any questions: https://safenetforum.org

The main network website has more generalised info: https://safenetwork.tech/

Hope that's helpful!

One of the devs here.

For those interested in reading more, I'd recommend the more up to date https://safenetwork.tech for a brief overview. And [the Safe Network Primer](https://primer.safenetwork.org/) for a much more in-depth overview

The forum (https://safenetforum.org/) is a great community that will happily answer any questions.

There is a test network available of the current iteration. But it's worth noting this is all still alpha level, and not finalised.

You can see more detail on the "baby-fleming" test net here: https://safenetforum.org/t/baby-fleming-public-shared-sectio... .

And the CLI implementation for any other curious folk: https://github.com/maidsafe/safe-api/tree/master/safe-cli