1. Introduction¶
Swarm is a censorship resistant, permissionless, decentralised storage and communication infrastructure.
This base-layer infrastructure provides these services by contributing resources to each other. These contributions are accurately accounted for on a peer to peer basis, allowing nodes to trade resource for resource, but offering monetary compensation to nodes consuming less than they serve.
Swarm is using existing Smart-Contract platforms (e.g. Ethereum) to implement the financial incentivisation.
1.1. Implementations of Swarm¶
| Client-Name | Programming Language | Maintained by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swarm Go-Client | golang | Swarm Core-Team | |
| Swarm Nim-Client | nim | Status.im | Development is planned to start Q1 2020 |
1.2. Public Swarm Networks¶
| Network ID | Network Name | Type of Network | Maintained by | Gateways |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network ID #4 | EF-Test-Network | Pubic Test-Network | Swarm Core-Team / EF Dev OPS | https://swarm-gateways.net |
The Ethereum Foundation operates a Swarm testnet that can be used to test out functionality in a similar manner to the Ethereum testnetwork. Everyone can join the network by running the Swarm client.
1.3. Development status¶
Uploaded content is not guaranteed to persist on the testnet until storage insurance is implemented (see Roadmap for more details). All participating nodes should consider participation a voluntary service with no formal obligation whatsoever and should be expected to delete content at their will. Therefore, users should under no circumstances regard Swarm as safe storage until the incentive system is functional.