2016 is poised to see a major disruption of the Internet with the blossoming of the long awaited MAIDSafe project.

The MAID (Massive Array of Independent Disks) SAFE (Secure Access For Everyone) project is 10 years in the making and is currently in it's second round of public testing.

It attempts to leverage the enormous amount of unused hard disk space that exists around the world combined with peer-to-peer protocols and encryption.

Data is split into thousands of encrypted pieces that is distributed around the world with minimum redundancy at a factor of 4. Users pay once, and can have their data stored forever.

For example, Google Drive offers 30TB of storage for a whopping 299.99 / month. MAIDSafe storage is expected to go for significantly less, as thousands of "Farmers" are lining up to offer spare resources to the network, once it goes fully live.

But MAIDSafe is not limited to just storage, it will encompass secure messaging, Web Hosting, and even how DNS itself functions.

One of the central aspects of the project is that the SAFE network will be completely decentralized and users will acquire resources through the use of MAIDSafe Coins.

While MAIDSafe Coins just sound like another of the many crypto's of dubious value out there on the market, this one will be used for the tangible network resources that will be available.

In the last two months MAIDSafe coins have spiked from a market cap of 7mm USD to close to 50mm USD. Although, the volatility levels are extremely high due to uncertainties around how much storage will actually cost, investors are starting to bet ever higher amounts that this project will actually come to fruition soon.