Bitcoin crowdfunding resources are all the rage these days, many of them powered by the CounterParty protocol. Today, a new crowdfunding platform called Swarm launched and began funding itself with considerable success, raising more than 1200 Bitcoins in just eighteen hours (the sale began at 12:01 AM June 17, and will continue until the supply of cryptocurrency is depleted). Swarm is the product of an ambitious new startup (the eponymous “Swarm Corp”), which has set itself the rather lofty goal of becoming “the Facebook of crowdfunding.”

The plan is simple: The platform has launched its own cryptocurrency, “swarmcoin,” and is selling units of it to the public in an effort to fund their exchange. Those coins will then be redeemable for crowdfunding services in the future. The coins will continue to be sold for some time in lots of progressively higher and higher prices, to encourage early investment. The money raised by selling “swarmcoin” will be devoted to building a platform that will easily allow others to repeat the same process: Issuing a currency, selling it for Bitcoin, and using the funds to complete their project. The plan is to eventually fund Swarm Corp to the tune of 17,000 BTC, or a little more than 10 million dollars.

The plan is to make Swarm into a full-fledged, Bitcoin-funded startup accelerator, designed to take startups and allow them to pitch their value proposition to the masses, and survive and fail based on the strength of that pitch. There will be no traditional gatekeepers dictating success and failure, and no middleman crowdfunding services taking their ten percent off the top – and, the Swarm platform rules will allow companies to offer equity in the company, not just toys and T-shirts.

You can learn more about Swarm (and help to fund it) at www.swarmcorp.com