Swarm, a decentralized storage and communication system built on Ethereum, has launched its mainnet storage incentives program, which rewards storage providers with Swarm’s utility token (BZZ). The program is open to anyone who can share storage space and an internet connection. The rewards are based on the amount of storage shared. Thus, users who have plenty of free space on their hard drives and a fast internet connection can reap the most benefits from the new incentives program.
Rewards are paid out in the form of BZZ tokens. The amount of tokens received is determined by the price of renting storage, which is fixed now, but will be calculated in a few weeks by a decentralised oracle according to supply and demand forces.
Staking has also been introduced to enable participation in the redistribution mechanism, which resembles Ethereum’s proof of stake system, choosing storage providers for rewards distribution depending on their staking proportions
Set up a Node and Start EarningTo become a node operator, a standard computer with 20 GB of storage and a stable internet connection is required. The Swarm network is already operational and the team expects the incentives mechanism to help the Swarm economy expand, with the network becoming fully self-sustaining while enforcing a healthy balance between storage operators and users. Swarm is also working on a new type of computer, called a Web3PC, which is private by design and respectful of users’ rights to use and produce content. The team plans to have a working Web3PC prototype available by June 2023.
This computer will communicate, store, and provide services without leaking any private information, and all data will belong to its rightful owners. Fairdrive, a Dropbox-like solution for file storage in Swarm, is already available and allows users to easily use the Swarm network in a familiar Web 2.0 fashion. Swarm is on a transformative journey, contributing to the development of the web3 space by letting people regain sovereignty over their own data. In turn, this will allow for the freeflow of information without censorship or data tracking. Users will be able to keep their data private or, in turn, get paid for sharing it with marketers and companies of their choosing.
About Swarm
Swarm is a decentralised data storage and distribution technology. It’s a base layer infrastructure for Web3 on which developers can create, host, and store dApps and all their accompanying data, NFT meta-data, and media files. It’s an open-source, p2p network that respects the privacy of its users’ data and secures it by default.
The Swarm protocol shares similarities with P2P (peer-to-peer) storage networks like BitTorrent but the main difference with other decentralized storage solutions stands out with its integrated economic incentives, which enable permissionless upload and censorship-resistant data architecture.
A structural difference is the data upload solution. With other popular storage solutions, that contract is made directly with the storer, knowing the data stored, making them suitable for private data only. In Swarm, due to its architecture, such a deal is made with the whole network, delivering the permissionless property and making it suitable for both private and public data.
Swarm aims to serve as the serverless internet operating system for hosting and running dApps (decentralised applications).
Learn more by visiting www.ethswarm.org
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
