I wonder if it was true that no one thought much about it when the Wright brothers launched the first airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina that day?

I wonder if many people will even read this article to see the question I just posed?

It’s a curious oddity: we can be so unaware of or indifferent to real progress.

How willing we sometimes seem to be to just let a moment pass by as if it was like any other moment.

How insulated we all sometimes can choose to be in our lives of many splendors having too much titillating stimuli to choose from nowadays. How often do we while away engrossed in our orgies of over-occupied hours?

How unlike such gaudiness is a particular unassuming moment when in a small office in a nondescript street in a town most have never heard of that the world changed forever on 12 July 2014.

Well, can we chalk this up to pure ignorance? I suppose but maybe it’s just that we’re just too distracted these days or authentically troubled with life’s pressing issues to go looking for the quiet things that make no demands for our attention, the things that often matter in ways we can barely imagine yet.

Well, like Mademoiselle Liberte above, I must bare my “breasts” too. I must show you my grotesque nakedness (not a pretty sight) to announce something important.

Wake the f#ck up!

I say it so crudely, so impolitely so abruptly so you’ll hear me and then go and tell others about this.

Please, wake the f#ck up!

I know it sounds horrible to talk to you so rudely this way. I’m not angry with you or anyone else, I just want your attention. I have to tell you something very important. It’s something you should have heard about already but didn’t realize because you had to do this or wanted to do that instead. It’s okay, you just need to know about it now.

The world just changed and you never even heard about it. You were fishing or changing diapers, I don’t know, but something quite peculiar, unique and wonderful just happened right under your noses.

MaidSafe did it and even Nick Lambert, COO was out of the office that day taking care of telling the world about the SAFE Network and SafeCoin or maybe he was busy doing something else, I didn’t ask him. I mean it was Saturday and he’s got kids to tend to, you know?

Anyway, on that weekend day without any news trucks with their satellite dishes nor pretty girl reporters with their cameramen lurking in alleyways to get the scoop, MaidSafe went down in history.

What did they do?

On Saturday, 12 July 2014, the MaidSafe core development team gave birth to the SAFE Network. Yes, on that date, the SAFE Network was born.

Happy Pre-Independence Day, SAFE Network!

Yippee! Go out and light a sparkler or two.

Let’s call it Pre-Independence Day because that’s what it is. It’s that preliminary moment of moments, the proto-moment that really counts. And, it’s a true Kitty Hawk moment, no kidding.

What’s the moment? It’s the moment when Testnet 1 went LIVE. That’s the moment the SAFE Network was born.

I’ll let Nick Lambert tell you the particulars in his own words to me:

“So in speaking with Ross [Muir], here are some snippets of how things transpired on “Independence Day” (or maybe that should be the road to independence (the real one will be when the network goes into beta).

[Note: Nick gave me the idea to call this 12 July 2014 moment “Pre-Independence Day” instead. Thanks, Nick.]

“So to quote from our blog:

“This test network [Testnet1]is significant as it’s the world’s first operating, autonomous and server-less network that enables self-authentication.

“Self authentication is a crucial component enabling, for the first time, users of this network to be in control of their own data, allowing login to the network without the knowledge or involvement of third parties, providing completely private and unilateral access to personal data.

“Ross [Muir] was the one who ‘hit the button’ while listening to the radio on Saturday, the 12th of July around 17:00. In Ross’ words, ‘I think the real story is all the work that the Dev team did prior to Testnet 1.’

“The full testnet was [and still is to the best of my understanding] comprised of 200 nodes in 3 continents and 4 cities, 50 nodes each (San Francisco, New York, Singapore and Amsterdam).

“The testnet was initiated by region, NY first…in 30 second intervals (followed by San Francisco, Amsterdam then Singapore).”

Thanks, Nick.

Sounds pretty unimpressive, doesn’t it? Yeah, I guess that’s why there weren’t any news hounds trying to break down MaidSafe’s door that day.

Like I said, sometimes important things are quiet.

The MaidSafe Team still have a lot of work to do but savor the moment, people.

We’re really on our way to privacy, security and freedom.

This is why we need to get ready for the beta launch now. Tell everyone you know that MaidSafe is changing the world as we know it. The SAFE Network beta is coming.

One day soon, probably this year, MaidSafe will be telling us how to download the client software. The more people who do so, the more robust and ubiquitous the SAFE Network will become and the sooner the new private and secure internet will gain traction and absolutely change the world as we know it.

This is why the SAFE cafe has so much added value also. It’s a unique place where devs, ordinary folks, artists and musicians can hang out together, create real community even though we are geographically spread all over the planet. Here, we can find out about what’s happening on the SAFE Network, especially learning about killer apps like Network99 being exclusively designed and developed for the SAFE Network.

Sure, The SAFE Network is not even launched yet but this is what we need to be doing: getting informed and getting ready. While we’re waiting for the beta version, we can learn and tell others all about the soon-to-be launched SAFE Network.

So, join us LIVE in the SAFE cafe when you can and when you can’t, just check out the shows you’ve missed on YouTube.

Go here to see past SAFE cafe episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNXO6ANAp4hHQBZ7XfDMaKQ

Together, MaidSafe, the SAFE Pods, MaidSafe.org , the SAFE cafe and the SAFE Network Blog are developing the critical mass of folks who are now the SAFE Network pioneers and earliest adopters.

YOU can be part of this historic Pre-Independence Day era too.

Sometimes, the most important things in life happen without much fanfare. On Saturday 12 July, 2014 around 17:00 BST such a thing happened in the office of MaidSafe’s headquarters in Troon, Scotland.

Thanks, MaidSafe. Thanks for being the real deal. Thanks for all the hard work that you’re doing to launch the SAFE Network later this year.

And as always…

Thank you for following the SAFE Network Blog, the premiere news and information source for all things interesting, new and exciting about applications being built for the SAFE Network, MaidSafe & Project SAFE as well as reporting on the rise and development of the new alternative SafeCoin economy and anything else that’s cool and useful that comes out of ‘coffee talk’ in the SAFE cafe. Remember, you can email me directly at dl99pr@gmail.com with any questions or comments.