Ethereum Storage Network Swarm Enters Next Test Phase

Swarm, the decentralized storage branch of the ethereum network, will be launching its third proof-of-concept soon.

In an interview with CoinDesk, swarm lead developer Viktor Tron said the proof-of-concept will be launching after ethereum's flagship developer conference Devcon3, going on now.

Tron emphasized how this work fits into the wider vision for ethereum, since the proof-of-concept will be fully compatible with the Geth client and the Whisper messaging protocol, bringing ethereum one step closer to its "holy trinity" vision, where three systems provide a complete alternative to the World Wide Web.

This third proof-of-concept gets swarm closer to the ethereum mainnet, which is expected for the spring or summer of 2018 with the launch of a fourth proof-of-concept.

Currently, the swarm team is completely rewriting the network layer, synchronization and retrievability, and connectivity layer and chunk synchronization, according to Tron.

Swarm should function much like Dropbox – providing the ability for platform users to store content and create and share folders – within this proof-of-concept, although the platform will be resistant to censorship.

He told CoinDesk:

"If you operate it on Swarm, there's no way for a jurisdiction to take that down because it's this obfuscation method. Nodes can plausibly deny that they have the content. This is a very important feature because it's censorship-resistant basically."

According to Tron, Swarm could pave the way for many "beautiful things," such as distributed public archives that cannot be shut down or censored.

The proof-of-concept will also be stress tested through a network simulation framework that can mimic emergent behavior, Tron said. This is an effort to prepare for scalability, a hot topic at Devcon this year.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misrepresented how CoinDesk received Viktor Tron's statements.

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