MEXC Research: Ethereum Web3 Stack Distributed Storage Platform— Swarm
Introduction
IPFS, CHIA and SWARM are the representative projects in the field of distributed storage. The distributed storage project, Swarm, distributed messenger, Whisper, and smart contracts that implement distributed logic are also known as the three pillars of Ethereum.
Swarm can be considered an official part of Ethereum. It was primarily developed by the Foundation and allows mining pool storage, bandwidth, and computing resources to support applications based on the Ethereum network.
Swarm’s storage and communication system are designed to provide decentralized and redundant storage for dApp code, user data, blockchain, and state data, as well as the underlying infrastructure for untraceable communication. The built-in incentive system is implemented through smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to provide resource support such as data storage and network bandwidth for Ethereum applications.
Swarm’s decentralized content storage and distribution service can be thought of as a CDN (Content Distribution Network) that is distributed on computers over the Internet. Similar to BitTorrent, it can also be analogous to IPFS, with ETH as a reward or incentive.
Incentive System
Swarm has a unique incentive system built around three important components: Swap, Swear, and Swindle. The operating mechanism is as follows:
Swap: Records Bandwidth, Direct Incentives
Swap systems record bandwidth usage and provide incentives for all nodes and content that provide storage, where popular content is automatically spread more widely and accessed more quickly.
Swear: Automatic Connections, Indirect Incentive
Ensures that contracts can handle long-term storage, allowing nodes to sell their storage space while also allowing others to store their content reliably on Swarm for a long time. For example, when new Bee nodes appear, they will connect to the existing Bee nodes, and the number of connections on the Bee nodes will be displayed with levels. Like real-life bee swarms, the more connections, the higher the level of the nodes.
Swindle: Compensation and Incentive, Ensure Fairness
The fraud contract is composed of a litigation engine to solve disputes. The fraud contract can be adjudicated. The storage node is related to the contribution and will be able to determine the content that needs to be retained. The node rewards from paying the fees can prove that the data has been stored. This system is similar to the lottery system and provides a higher chance of winning the lottery with multiple storages.
Swarm Bee
Bee is a Swarm client implemented in the Go language and is the basic building block for the Swarm network and the first client implementation.
Bee’s main network will launch a soft boot (limited boot) on June 13, 221.
Mining
On February 15, 2021, Swarm officially announced the launch of 1 million BZZ airdrops to reward valid nodes, which will be converted in proportion using qBZZ before officially launching on the main network. Unlike the June 13 soft boot, the one in February was with a well-known testnet. The soft boot is more like a main network version with some limited functionality.
The current running node of Swarm is not able to get tokens directly, but instead gets a voucher, which is qBZZ (“cheque”). The qBZZ will be converted in proportion to the BZZ token. Nodes are currently divided into two types, one is the normal node, the other is the queen bee node. There are 35 queen bee nodes, and there can be an unlimited number of normal nodes.
If the qBZZ acquired by the normal node are to be exchanged into other tokens, it needs to exchange data with the queen bee node before the cheque acquired can be converted into tokens. The current way to become a queen bee node is uncertain, either randomly or filtered based on contributions after the end of the testnet. (At present, in the testing stage, the conversion ratio of cheques and BZZ tokens is randomly determined and is related to the number of participants, the amount of funds, the number of tickets issued and the effective nodes. Because physical miners are not officially confirmed at the moment, most of them now use cloud services to avoid the risk that physical miners will not be able to generate the cryptocurrency.
In the latest version 0.6.2, there has been some feedback that the current node temporarily cannot generate qBZZ, please take note of this risk during participation.
Comparisons with Filecoin
Investment Institutions
Ethereum Foundation, Swiss Bitcoin, ALPHEMY CAPITAL, bitscale capital, DFG, KR1, HASHKEY, NGC Venture, LD Capital, P2P CAPITAL, Waterdrip Capital, White Paper Capital, YBB Foundation LTD and others.
Tokenomics
BZZ is Swarm’s UTILITY Token and is also used as bandwidth and storage incentives. After the main network is launched and the tokens are deployed and distributed, it is expected that there will be a curve model for minting and burning. Refer to Ethereum.
Initial issuance: 62.5 million (currently no official lockup period)
Early token sale: 42% 26.25 million
Public token sale: 8% 5 million
Present and future teams: 20% 12.5 million
Ecosystem: 23% 14.375 million (allocation of 10% 6.25 million, dApp grant 10% 6.25 million, donation 3% 18.75 million)
Swarm Foundation: 7% 43.75 million
Practical Usage Scenario Analysis
Practical Value
Bandwidth and Storage Incentives
Used for payment when storing or transferring
Selling pressure
Partial cashout by investment institutions
Cashout by the team
Partial cashout of incentives
Recent Activities
Platform: Coinlist public sale
Time: June 14 to June 15
Details:
Evaluation
Advantages:
The team has a strong technical background
Partial participation by Vitalik Buterin (incomplete advantage, refer to previous projects participated by Vitalik Buterin, technical level and secondary market performance are not fully linked)
Distributed Storage Domain
Depends on Ethereum’s ecosystem
Risks:
Version updates change many things, community opinion and distribution are not uniform enough
Additional rules not yet published
Early projects with high listing uncertainty on the main network
Circulation estimated to be incredibly large
Off-site price premium is too high, up to more than 100 times higher
