MaidSafe Platform Use Cases

Current Issues

With so many devices and information having become available in recent years, the ability to retain all of these and secure them at the same time is becoming extremely difficult. Storing data should not be to a device, it should be for the user and available to that user on any other device. Users should be able to walk up to any computer or device and sign in and see their information, on logout not a trace should be left behind. A device should be like a toaster or television, if it breaks we get a new one and should lose nothing.

Solution

Installing the MaidSafe Platform client access in an Operating System and allowing access to the device via the platform would allow OS providers to supply devices with small storage capabilities to people who could store almost infinite amounts of immediately available data and applications. This information would be available on every device in any location for that person, never again to lose data or blame a bad Operating System for losing important information.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation here is relatively simple. OS access screens would use a MaidSafe client to enable access. On successful login a virtual drive is mounted and the user has that mapped as their home drive, all data, settings, cache...etc... is then immediately available.

Current Issues

Many of these devices operate by sharing a disk locally to the local attached computers, some may even share through the home router via a server to allow remote access. These mechanisms leave the user open to security concerns such as; server break-ins, device failure or simply the home network access is down just at the time the user wishes to remotely access it.

Solution

Installing a MaidSafe vault on such devices would allow the whole family to share the space available. Due to the replication and de-duplication facets of the MaidSafe Platform it is very likely that the disk will use space much more efficiently. The family’s data can then be accessed from any location whether the house is powered on, broadband up or down or even when the device totally fails. Security concerns are also alleviated using this method. This allows these providers to supply great hardware and exceptional prices to customers who can be sure they can always access their data.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation is relatively straightforward. The device has a reliable OS installed (Debian, Ubuntu etc.) and installs a MaidSafe vault. This vault would have to be configured to beacon to the internal network (many libraries allow this) and have the users install MaidSafe clients and share the vault between them. Then any device the users have they install a MaidSafe client and they can access all their data. Combining this with the operating system use case (discussed above) would create an all encompassing solution that will provide users with safety, security and the utmost privacy.

Current Issues

Search provision today is reliant on advertising as the income stream. This advertising is targeted for the maximum impact. Unfortunately this means significant intrusion into user privacy. This concern is increasingly becoming an issue in many sectors. Furthermore, the data processing required to serve targeted ads is significant, leading to large data centres and secured indexing mechanisms all behind corporate firewalls. Each data centre requires several years of costly advance planning for network provisioning (where will our future customers be located, what demands will they put on hardware...etc...) and will involve a large element of guesswork.

Solution

The MaidSafe Platform does not allow search of data elements (chunks) and will actively see this as an attack and slow down any node attempting to search or perform a range based query. This is at the network level and above that level there is indexable data in many forms. Public data from public shares (as in today’s web) would be indexed as search engines do today (except on the MaidSafe network and not the web) so this component would be porting existing indexing algorithms across to the MaidSafe Platform.

Interestingly as the MaidSafe Platform never exposes users data or credentials then the intrusiveness of pattern matching targeted search provisioning becomes more acceptable. Using search algorithms, the MaidSafe client would actively match users data with the MaidSafe Platform indexes and deliver very targeted advertisements. Users would be able to switch off the ads should they become a nuisance or not relevant, this is required to ensure user data is as accurate as possible.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation here is perhaps one of the most difficult (relatively). It will require an indexing persona to be included in the vaults. We estimate this to be a 4-6 month porting project for any existing system, particularly if written in a native language (as it should be), although we do not have access to these proprietary systems to fully evaluate these estimates.

This project has not been undertaken by MaidSafe as it is the intent to seek out a partner (or partners) to provide the solution. Many indexing and index management solutions are currently proprietary and it would be a significant step to reproduce these. We urge potential partners to get in touch.

Current Issues

These current systems face many issues; decreasing hard disk costs, reducing broadband prices (a double edged sword) and concerns over lack of security. Arguably there is some level of encryption in such systems, although this is hotly disputed as to its effectiveness. Many of the systems face cross platform or performance issues and may require to expand the offering beyond synchronised or server stored data sets.

Solution

The MaidSafe Platform would allow these companies to replace their existing technology with a scalable system that has extendibility at it’s heart. Security or privacy issues also become a thing of the past as well as any speed, cross platform concerns or lack of services. The ability to extend offerings beyond a single OS, or service such as file availability to MaidSafe, brings with it a significant monetary and competitive advantage. MaidSafe requires no data centre, each user brings their own resources and those resources appear where the users are (ready provisioned networking). This means data storage costs would disappear and with it the potential for competing with suppliers. We have calculated that the MaidSafe Platform would add circa 60% to a companies profit margin in many cases. These companies would have to reconsider their business model to transition away from disk sales as an only income stream, but this is felt to be inevitable in any case.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation here is not complex. OS access screens would use a MaidSafe client to allow access. On successful login a virtual drive is mounted and the user has that mapped as their home drive, all data, settings, cache etc, is then immediately available. In addition, communications, applications and a host of additional services would be made available.

Current Issues

Currently video serving via a web interface works well, recently further inroads have been made to encourage users to sign in for greater service. This is a service where costs are very high, servers require significant upgrading and administration and bandwidth provisioning is non trivial.

Solution

Using the MaidSafe Platform to allow users to store their own videos to the network and signposting these videos (as these companies do already) would remove costs associated with the back end systems currently employed. This would also ensure no DDOS attacks or server outages would occur (there are no servers). Login would be via a MaidSafe client key (requiring no interaction from the user) to recognise an entity on the network. No password lists, no user lists are required.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation here is relatively simple. A company installs a MaidSafe client and vault (as any person using MaidSafe would) and makes space available publicly, this space allows users to 'upload' video to the site to be shared with others. The site itself may require additional work to allow the unstructured data type required from uploading videos, this is a relatively trivial project though, for significant competitive advantage.

Current Issues

Big data handling is a relatively new area of IT. Current systems such as Hadoop networks scale reasonably well to circa 4,500 nodes and in many cases depend on local fire-walled high speed networks with single failure points (name server), others require significant administration setup and monitoring. Most, if not all, of these systems cannot run in public networks as they are not secured and do not carry secure data.

Solution

The MaidSafe Platform allows planet wide networking that can handle relatively unlimited data on a public network.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation is simplified with the recent addition of structured data handling allowing index creation and querying. As with existing systems many query 'engines' can be created and coded specifically for the problem being solved.

Current Issues

Virtual currency has a wallet security issue, storing wallets on third party servers is neither secure or safe. Many such systems allow local wallets to be created and secured by encrypting the disk on file. This is slightly safer than no encryption but does not prevent corruption or theft in many cases, it also provides issues with synchronising the wallet between devices as again this would require a trusted third party.

Solution

Using the MaidSafe Platform this wallet would be available on every device in any location for that person and only that person.

Implementation Requirements

The implementation here is relatively simple. Existing clients such as the Bitcoin wallets have to locate the wallet to the virtual drive users have available after logging into the MaidSafe network.

Current Issues

Users have to remember so many passwords that the quantity and quality of them significantly reduces security (they choose the same password for many systems). Single sign on systems attempt to overcome this and the basic idea is sound, however it does require trust between providers and also in many cases exposes users to significant privacy intrusion. The result being many of these systems fail to meet their objectives.

Solution

A MaidSafe client has the ability to create multiple cryptographic ID's including public ID's. These public ID's can range from fully qualified (validate age, address etc.) to anonymous ones. Even anonymous ID's will validate repeatedly, guaranteeing the entity logging in is consistently validated to be the same. The app or site being accessed only has to confirm the user by checking a cryptographic signature. Users can login to services without any username or password, meaning entities that supply services can do so securely and never store any user passwords, etc., automatically becoming resistant to break-ins and the associated PR disasters that accompany them.

Implementation Requirements

Sites in this case have to supply an access page that validates users automatically. The MaidSafe client requires and API method to accomplish this. This API call will be included in the near future.