Swarm & Fair Data Protocol: From Data Silos to Decentralised Control

TL;DR

Imagine a decentralised Dropbox, where all your files, documents and application data are stored securely and privately—only accessible to you or those you choose to share them with. Swarm and Fair Data Protocol (FDP) provide a decentralised, interoperable solution that builds on Swarm’s broader vision of the Web3 PC and the Fair data society’s vision of a fair data economy. This solution overcomes the limitations of traditional data silos, allowing users to retain full ownership of their data while ensuring seamless interoperability across dApps. For developers, FDP serves as a decentralised backend-as-a-service, allowing them to focus on building the dApp itself without the complexities of managing data storage.

Explore the demo:

Challenges of Traditional Data Storage Systems

In today’s digital world, centralised platforms often hold control over our data, leaving users with little control and no true ownership. These data silos restrict users’ ability to freely manage or access their personal information. The lack of interoperability between services further exacerbates the issue, resulting in fragmented and vulnerable data scattered across isolated platforms. In the age of AI this issue is more pressing than ever.

Empowering digital freedom

To reclaim control over our data, we need a storage solution that is both secure and decentralised—offering all the conveniences of Web 2.0 while removing the risks associated with centralised servers. This is where Fair Data Protocol comes in. It builds on Swarm’s broader vision of the Web3PC—a decentralised personal computer that integrates Web3 directly into the operating system and gives users complete control over their data, empowering a fair data economy.

Fair Data Protocol: Unified control across multiple dApps

Fair Data Protocol storage solution ensures seamless interoperability across dApps, enabling them to connect and re-use data globally. Users maintain full control and can share their data with dApps as needed, without duplicating files across platforms. This keeps data ownership with the user whilst providing flexibility in how it’s shared, moving away from traditional centralised storage models.

Demo: A New Era of Data Control

This demo showcases how Fair Data Protocol on Swarm addresses the limitations of traditional data silos.

User story

1. Fairdrive Desktop App: Connect to the FDP storage account and create a new pod called “Billiards,” where images are uploaded.
2. Bee Dashboard / Swarm Desktop App: Log in to the FDP storage account, access the existing pod, and create a sub-pod, “Billiards/Notes.” A markdown (.md) file is uploaded to this sub-pod.
3. Etherjot: Create a new blogging page in Etherjot. After connecting to FDP storage, load the .md file and images from the “Billiards” pods, and publish the blog.
4. Fairdrive Web App: The final step demonstrates the Fairdrive Web App, showing how all previously created data, including pods and files, can be accessed.

Notes:

• Fairdrive Desktop and Web App: These are in Beta and provided for evaluation only.
• Bee Dashboard: A UI tool for users running a full Bee node.
• Swarm Desktop App: A one-click install application that allows you to run a Swarm light node and seamlessly access the network.
• Etherjot: Requires you to run a Swarm node, either light or full.

Join the Swarm Grant Programme: Shape the Future of Decentralised Data

Web3 is more than just infrastructure—it requires the right solutions to prevent recreating the flaws of Web2. Fair Data Protocol (FDP) enables developers to build data-rich dApps that function as seamlessly as local applications. FDP acts as a decentralised backend-as-a-service, so developers can focus on building the dApp itself without worrying about data storage. It simplifies the complexities of managing data privacy, interoperability, and data sovereignty, paving the way for more powerful and privacy-focused applications.

For developers eager to get started, explore this FDP Tutorial for a hands-on guide, and join our grantees programme to help advance this proof of concept into a fully fledged production product.

Let us proceed together apace.