We have been taking to the MaidSafe guys for a while now, and following their development. It must be clear that we are not competitors, but rather partners. We plan to implement some of their storage tech as soon as its ready. Think of Storj as more front end decentralized applications(like Dropbox), and MaidSafe as a full protocol level.
I am definitely rooting for you to make it, but saying that you are not in direct competition with Maidsafe is just plain wrong. The fact that MaidSafe has a full protocol stack just means that they are a superior end product because they are going to offer near limitless storage for free.
I agree that you guys are partners, David is a pretty cool guy with whom it's pretty easy to talk to and learn a thing or two from. But the fact is that your products are going to go head to head.
I'm just wondering why don't you try to build Storj on top of MaidSafe?
Actually a better question would be - what is the benefit of Storj over MaidSafe? (I really am interested)