Yes, you read it right. Swarm is giving out 1 million BZZ tokens to the people who already run a Bee node on the testnet. We call this airdrop “The Rise of Bee”.

TLDR;

1. Swarm is airdropping 1 million BZZ tokens.
2. To be part of the airdrop you must run and install a Bee node.
3. The more you contribute to the network the more chances you have to get BZZ tokens.
4. You need to cash out cheques from the qBee nodes to receive the tokens before Swarm goes to mainnet.
5. There are several ways of installing and running a Bee node. Check the documentation.
6. The campaign started on 14 February 2021 with the Goerli block #4283397

Why are we doing this airdrop?

Besides the obvious reason — to reward our early adopters — we want to achieve a few things before we go live on mainnet:

1. Stress-test the network (and the organization)
2. Boost the number of active Bee nodes
3. Establish good tech-support channels
4. Raise awareness that Swarm 1.0 is just around the corner
5. Create quality FAQ lists & tutorials
6. Gather feedback from the community

Now that we’ve got the “why” out of the way, let’s dive into what YOU need to do to be a part of this airdrop.

What do you need to do to get your hands on these BZZ tokens?

This one is simple. You have to run and install your Bee node. You will need a working, well-connected, and data-rich Bee node to increase your chances of getting the BZZ. The more you contribute to the network, the more chances you have to get BZZ.

Which nodes will be eligible for the airdrop?

The nodes that will be eligible for the BZZ tokens are those that have proven exchanged bandwidth with what we call trusted “Queen Bee nodes” (qBZZ nodes).

There are going to be exactly 35 qBZZ nodes in the network and nobody (not even the team members) will know which those nodes are. This will be decided at the very end of the airdrop.

The proof of data exchange between your node and the qBZZ node are the cheques you received from the qBZZ node.

At the end of the airdrop, we will simply run a script and collect all the nodes that have proven cheques from the qBZZ nodes. The more cashed out qBZZ cheques you have, the more BZZ tokens you will receive.

How many tokens will you get?

We are handing out exactly 1M BZZ tokens. The worth of qBZZ is not yet determined, as this depends on the network traffic. The total worth of BZZ tokens which you will get depends on the share of the qBZZ which you received over the total number of qBZZ handed out.

Example:

At the end of the airdrop, 500k worth of qBZZ cheques were collected from all the nodes in the network. In this case, one cheque is worth: 1M BZZ divided by 500k = 2 BZZ tokens per qBZZ cheque.

So, if your node collected 50 worth of qBZZ cheques, you would receive 50 x 2BZZ = 100 BZZ tokens. If you ran 3 nodes and they collected 50 worth of qBZZ cheques each, then that is 300 BZZ from the airdrop.

When does the airdrop end?

The airdrop will conclude just before we go live to mainnet, which is estimated for the first half of 2021.

The one important step you should do just before the end of the airdrop!

This is important — as the airdrop concludes, you will need to cash out your qBZZ cheques. Without this, you will not receive your BZZ tokens once we hit mainnet. How to do the cash out will be explained in a separate tutorial in the following days.

You are strongly advised to join the Bee tech-support channel, our Discord server, or closely follow our social media channels so you don’t miss this tutorial.

All good, but how the hell do you run and install your Bee node?

There are several ways to install and run your Bee node. One of the more convenient ways is to get a Raspberry PI and use DAppNode to install your Bee node. This is a very simple process and we created a detailed but simple how-to tutorial a few weeks ago. You can find this tutorial here.

You don’t need to invest in a Raspberry Pi to run your Bee node.

You can run it on your computer too. Just check the documentation links and follow the instructions.

Struggling to install and run your Bee node? Let us help you out.

We do realize that the UX of the installation process is not yet perfect (we will focus on that soon enough), so feel free to contact our tech support anytime. The best way to do that is to use our dedicated Discord channel for Bee support.