Automated backups of the database to a remote location would be useful if something unexpected happens with the hosting. Any ideas how to store the backups? Maybe encrypt them and distribute to multiple servers around the world. Distributing them through a single gateway (Dropbox, Tahoe-LAFS?) would save bandwidth.
That would be a good start. Tahoe-LAFS would be nice to use also. (There's also possible synergy between Tahoe and Bitcoin)
I think we can handle trusting the seniors not to abuse the database data.
Any possible timetable?