Monthly Development Update – September 2023

September saw a fresh stream of new releases, announcements and publications that reflect Swarm’s evolving vitality. A new Bee 1.17.4 is out and it comes with a sizable changelog, a breaking change (make sure to update your node) and improved user experience for node operators.

The Price Oracle and deliverables from Phase 4 of the storage incentives roadmap are now on testnet. A new version of Swarm Desktop has also been released to sync with the changes of the new Bee.

Jumping over to the ecosystem side – if you’re looking for a grant to help you build/upgrade your project on the Swarm network, the Full Moon grants wave is open (apply here). You can apply for a grant of up to 10,000 DAI in BZZ. Fairdrive Web App has undergone a significant UI change, and a fully decentralised vector database FaVe has also joined Fair Data Society’s suite of offerings (note that FaVe is still under development).

Four new blogs are also available to read on Swarm’s official blog and you can now mark your calendar for the October Swarm Community Call, which will take place on 26 October at 17:00 CET.

Tracks

Bee Track

Release 1.17.4 is out with the following:

• Improved logging for the pushsync and the retrieval protocols. Note: This is a breaking change so node operators need to proceed as soon as possible with upgrading their nodes.
• Default batch type is now immutable. This ensures that stamp purchasers do not unintentionally overwrite their uploaded data by accident.
• Swap-enable set to false by default. A fresh install, if no other options are changed, bee start command gets the node in ultra-light mode rather than throwing an error. Note: full node operators should have this set to false
• Upload type is now deferred by default. This means that upload data is first uploaded to the local Bee node before being uploaded to the Swarm network

Logging improvment

Logging has been improved, offering benefits in two key aspects:

• Node operators will experience enhanced usability through more meaningful messages and relevant information.
• Developers will gain a better understanding of the technical details, assisting them in debugging the code.

Research Track

• The Phase 4 and Phase 3 deliverables of the inclusion proofs and the Price Oracle are now being deployed to testnet, where we are assessing and making ready for a wider release.
• We are exploring how we can assist the wider hardening phase with any research or contract-based changes that may include doubling reserve sizes, assisting changes to reward variance, etc.
• The solution doc for erasure codes is complete and the EPIC kickoff will begin after the ph4 mainnet release. This will be Research’s key goal between now and EOY.

JS Track

Swarm Desktop App

• New release of Swarm Desktop is out which bundles the most recent Bee version, 1.17.4.

Grants

Swarm Full Moon Grant Wave

• New grant wave started: The Swarm Association launches the Swarm Full Moon Grant Wave from 23 September to 21 December, inviting a diverse cohort of developers, researchers and artists to contribute to the creation of the inaugural Web3 PC, all while championing the principles of digital freedom and decentralised technologies. With a generous grant pool of 300,000 BZZ tokens, participants can apply for grants up to 10,000 DAI in BZZ and pursue further funding through follow-up grants upon successfully reaching initial milestones.

Ecosystem

Swarmscan

• A new page has been added to Swarmscan, indicating the least populated neighbourhoods. Node operators can use this information to target specific neighbourhoods when establishing new nodes.

Fair Data Protocol

Fairdrive Web App

• Fairdrive has undergone substantial UI changes to simplify the login process and improve the user experience when working with pods and folders. Additionally, the process of uploading and retrieving files has been made more intuitive and user-friendly.
• Metamask login and account migration (lite-fdp-account to full-fdp-account in app) received straightforward instructions with new gas estimation.
• Redesigned how the folder path is shown on mobile.
• Between many UI upgrades, import feat is cancelled due to the login simplification process.
• Other enhancements & fixes

Blossom

• Got published to Chrome Webstore.
• New release v0.5.0 with improved session handling.

fdp-storage

• Released v.012.0 with new fdp-contracts-js support & improved pod check structure

Create account page

• Enhanced gas estimation logic

fdp-contracts

• Fdp-contracts-main v2.7.0 brings us
• Readme update
• Improved gas price calculation
• Updated contract metadata
• Support optimism and arbitrum goerli networks

FaVe

• Introducing a new truly decentralised vector database build with Fair Data Principles in mind. This comes as a cherry on top of fairOS, with LangChain integration and standalone python client. It enables a secure semantic search on your documents and allows you to run private GPTs with data on Swarm.
• Vectorizer is a Python server that uses the Hugging Face Transformers library to convert text into embeddings and returns the embeddings as JSON that can be stored in FaVe.
• The project was introduced in the latest Swarm Community Call.

FairPortal

• New feat: users can now edit each record by adding new dApp information and reuploading, without creating a new record in the smart contract.

FDA

• v0.1.8 the docs received an update.

DevOps

• Deployed 1.17.4 Bee to testnet and mainnet.

DevRel

Docs update

• A warning has been added to the documentation, explaining that node operators should not update or turn off their nodes in the middle of a round.
• A new section has been added to the postage stamp page, detailing how postage batch utilisation works.
• Instructions for importing/exporting keys from Metamask have been added.

Apps

Etherjot

• Created a web user interface for Etherjot to efficiently publish articles and manage personal blogs. Features:
  • Markdown editor and viewer to easily edit content
  • One-click actions to create, modify and delete articles
  • Quick links to articles and blog home page
  • Property editor for article metadata and global blog settings

Content

• State of the Network: August
• Swarm Tools Overview and Updates
• Oracle Boosts Swarm’s Self-sustainability
• Bee v1.17.4 Pre-release Notice

Events:

Swarm Community Call – September 2023

• The Swarm Community Call, our main monthly online event, was held on 28 September. You can read a recap blog post about it here.

People&Culutre

• Join the team and be a direct contributor. We are looking for Go Developers and Grant Managers.
• Find out more on our career page:https://www.ethswarm.org/jobs or just drop us a message: talent@ethswarm.org!

Upcoming events

Swarm Community Call

• Swarm Community Call, our main monthly online event, will take place on 26 October at 17:00 CET in the Swarm Foundation Discord (add to calendar. Meanwhile, you are welcome to send any questions you might have for the teams building the Swarm network by using this online form for them to be addressed on the call.