SAFE Drive - Decentralised Dropbox

SAFE Drive has reached the stage where you can copy and share files over SAFE Network. It is still in testing, but the basics work using file copy and rsync.

This needs further testing, and at some point to create a simple UI such as some command line scripts to configure a cron script. If you fancy trying this out or helping improve the UI, please reply to this post.

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Hi @happybeing. I have a client who is in the process of building an application and is looking for a way to synchronise a small file (like a web cookie) between a user’s devices via some decentralised infrastructure. The working assumption for now is IPFS but I am encouraging them to consider MaidSafe. Seems like your SAFE Drive would be the perfect tool for the job. Do you think SAFE Drive could be the backbone for keeping such a small file in live sync (it would probably be an XML or JSON text file)?

It would be nice to have a production app using Beta SAFENet and SAFE Drive is possible/viable.

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It might be suitable, although it does not itself provide sync - for example if the file changes on the network that won’t be apparent until it is accessed on the drive/local device. So if they want some kind of notification, or an alert, it might be worth creating a small CLI app to do the job.

Also, the need for the user to auth access on starting the client (a safe sync app or SAFE Drive) might not fit the use case.

How best to do this depends on several factors.

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Thanks kindly @happybeing. Yes, I wasn’t expecting it to provide the sync function, just the common ‘cloud’ storage location for an external sync tool to use. I guess thats roughly how DropBox works for instance, with AWS being the ‘cloud’ element for them.

I was indeed imagining that the authentication would be handled through my clients application on behalf of the user, perhaps with some sort of key management app and perhaps a finger print ID to unlock it etc - haven’t thought that far ahead.

Sounds to me like SAFEDrive may still well be really useful for this project but plenty to pin down first. I’m encouraging them to build the MVP in as modular a way a possible such that we can be compatible with which ever external resources emerge, such as SAFEDrive.

Good luck with the work - I’ll help out with testing if/when you’re next looking for that

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