Swarm Community Call, 31 October – Recap

Development update and SWIP-21

Niki Papadatou, Bee Product Owner, gave an overview of the upcoming Bee 2.3 release, which focuses on optimising rewards for node operators. The release will introduce the SWIP-21 feature known as "reserve size doubling". It will allow nodes to store data in two neighbourhoods simultaneously, doubling operators' chances in the Swarm neighbourhood game and increasing profitability by expanding storage capacity. This feature is currently on the public testnet and will be officially released, once verified, with detailed instructions for a smooth upgrade.

Price oracle and multi-chain product

Callum Toner from the Research Track gave additional updates. The improved price oracle is now better at matching supply and demand, creating a fairer market value of the price of storage and will be included in the upcoming release. He also gave a more detailed view of the "multi-chain product", a streamlined interface for purchasing postage stamps on Swarm from any blockchain. This will simplify the entire buying process by eliminating the need for bridging or extensive configurations, making Swarm accessible across ecosystems.

Swarm Fellowship programme and new recipients

The Swarm Fellowship programme just got richer by another fellow, Solar Punk. This latest fellowship will be used to develop libraries for multimedia delivery and privacy-focused social networking, as Črt Ahlin and Dániel Weber explained. Fellowships are a way for the Swarm Foundation to fund larger, long-term projects that support Swarm’s growth outside of core development.

Swarm Foundation at Devcon in Bangkok

The announcements section was packed with exciting updates. Costanza Gallo highlighted Swarm’s extensive presence at the upcoming Devcon in Bangkok. Swarm network is hosting the Devcon website and, once again, the video archive, the latter available thanks to a collaboration with Etherna. The Swarm team members will also participate in several side events such as the Web3 Privacy Now’s Cypherpunk Congress, advocating for online privacy and decentralisation, Crypto Mondays’ panel, Hacktivism Hub and Web3 Social Day. For a detailed breakdown, follow this link.

Attendees of the Devcon conference will also be able to visit the Swarm Impact booth inside the main venue to meet with the team members and learn more about the network’s offerings, for instance check out Solar Punk's new Devcon.buzz dapp, which puts privacy front and centre and beautifully showcases the potential of the Swarm network.

Solar Punk at Devcon with the Devcon.buzz dApp

According to Dániel Wéber and András Aranyi from Solar Punk, the dApp was developed with privacy-conscious Web3 users in mind. It offers decentralised messaging and chat functions. Features include an interactive Devcon agenda, threaded comments, and live chat spaces organised by topic, with gamification elements to encourage user engagement. The dApp uses Swarm for data storage and offers a full decentralisation option for those running their own Swarm node. By extending the set-up with gateways the entire conference audience can also enjoy private and anonymous communication, even from a mobile browser only.

Community Talk – Gnosis chain updates and validator opportunities

Wrapping up the call was Armagan Ercan, Validator Lead at Gnosis chain, who spoke about the basics of running a node in the Gnosis chain. He explained Gnosis' dual-token model, the five-second block time, and efforts towards node diversity and geographic distribution. Gnosis is working to attract more individual stakers and validator collectives, offering affordable staking options with low entry requirements and around 10% APR. At Devcon, Gnosis will announce version 3.0, which includes enhancements for payment and consumer-focused applications running on Gnosis.