RIF Storage will become the first Swarm implementation on RSK, secured by the Bitcoin Network

IOV Labs, an organization dedicated to the development of the RSK Smart Contract Network and the RSK Infrastructure Framework (RIF OS), today announced a partnership with Swarm, a distributed storage platform and content distribution service, to implement and address the incentivization behavior of the Swarm network as a whole, including the Ethereum and RSK implementations. Both teams share a unified vision of an open and encrypted data storage and streaming system, underscored by a new incentive model that reimburses data providers for retrieving popular content. As part of the collaboration, they are also jointly developing the first implementation of the concept under RIF Storage services — which will pave the way for a wide array of innovation related to the blockchain storage industry.

Blockchain technology enabled new alternatives to popular internet services, developed with decentralization, privacy, censorship resistance, and inclusion in mind. Usually referred to as decentralized applications (dApps), many dApps still depend on centralized systems which become the point of control and censorship. One of the essential missing pieces to creating a truly decentralized & unstoppable Internet of Value are storage blockchain solutions.

The Swarm and RIF teams share this vision, and hence decided to collaborate to develop this much needed solution on top of the Solidity compatible smart contract platforms RSK and Ethereum. The incentive system is an improvement proposal that the Swarm and RIF Storage teams will tackle: through Swarm´s Accounting Protocol (SWAP) with a layer-2 (L2) settlement and payment mechanism.

In partnership with Swarm, the RIF Storage team will be building the necessary accounting functionalities between nodes for provided data and settling. Addressing the need for interoperability, the allocation of specifications for independent node implementations will allow Swarm to become a multi-blockchain decentralized storage implementation adding interoperability and antifragility to the ecosystem as a whole.

The accounting and payment system will utilize the RSK sidechain, notably including the recently launched Lumino transaction scaling solution, which will allow users to use the RIF token on the network that will be integrated with RIF Storage for the incentivization mechanism on the Swarm implementation.

Commenting on the partnership, Gabriel Kurman, RIF Strategist said: “It is very rewarding to see great teams working together on a joint cause. Building a decentralized and censor-resistant internet is extremely needed in times of mass surveillance and information abuse. I hope to see many more collaborations such as this one, across the Solidity smart contracts ecosystem to build systemic antifragility through interoperability.”

“Incentivization is a unique feature of Swarm to fulfill its value proposition by providing a permissionless and scalable censorship resistant storage and communication platform. The collaboration with IOV Labs allows us to accelerate this development and deliver Swarm’s mission statement to the community. We are fully committed to collaborate with strategic partners like IOV Labs and see that as great privilege of an open source project.” added Fabio Barone, Track Lead Incentives Swarm.

RIF Storage is a unified interface and set of libraries to facilitate encrypted and decentralized storage and streaming of information. RIF Storage is meant to allow users to store and share all sensitive data in a secure manner. RIF Storage will offer multiple options for different needs, from decentralized swarm storage to encrypted cloud and physical storage.

“From centralization and censorship to data loss and scaling, storage is a major hurdle on the journey towards a fully unstoppable internet. The purpose of RIF Storage is to provide scalable, secure and censorship resistant storage that can be utilized to deploy and run truly unstoppable decentralized applications. This partnership with Swarm, one of the leaders in decentralized storage that has now become the first project to utilize the RIF Storage protocol, is a pivotal step for the future of a decentralized internet,” added Vojtech Simetka, RIF Storage Product Lead.

The RIF Storage beta launch integrated with Swarm on RSK is expected to be launched by the end of Q3 2019. All the joint development is open sourced and can be accessed in the public repos below.

About IOV Labs

IOV Labs is a purpose driven organization focused on developing the platforms needed for a new blockchain-based financial system that will enable worldwide financial inclusion and bridge the gap between these nascent technologies and mass adoption.

The organization currently develops the most popular implementations of the RSK Smart Contract Network and RIF OS platforms.

With more than 30% total Bitcoin hash rate merge-mining, the RSK Network is the most secure Smart Contract platform in the world.

RIF OS protocols is a suite of open and decentralized infrastructure protocols that enable faster, easier and scalable development of distributed applications (dApps) within a unified environment to enable mass adoption of Bitcoin and RSK. RIF OS Protocols include RIF Directory (a naming service protocol), RIF Payments (an offchain payment protocol), RIF Storage (a data storage and distribution protocol), RIF Communications (a secure routing, session and encrypted communications protocol) and RIF Gateways (an interoperability protocol that includes cross chain transfers and oracling services).

About Swarm

Swarm provides censorship resistant storage and communication infrastructure for a sovereign digital society. Swarm achieves this goal through a permissionless and incentivised storage and communication network to host dApps, in combination with smart contract platforms like RSK or Ethereum.