How Swash is Leveraging Filecoin’s Decentralized Storage Network to Preserve and Protect Consumer Data

Cisco predicts that by 2022, internet protocol (IP) traffic will surpass all prior “internet years” up to 2016 combined. As internet traffic multiplies, two trends are developing in parallel. First, consumer insights are becoming increasingly sought after, with advertising growing into a 600 billion dollar industry that is heavily dominated by a handful of tech companies. And on the other side, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their data and more deliberate about how and where they share that data.

One of the benefits of decentralized technology is the opportunity to create completely new ways of managing data across the Web3 ecosystem–from individuals to developers to businesses.

Today, we’re diving deep on Swash. It’s reimaging the future of data ownership, giving people greater power and control over how their data is collected, accessed, and used and compensating people for data that they generate on the web. Swash is integrating Filecoin’s decentralized storage network to further preserve and protect that data– web browser data that creates essential value in the digital economy. Swash will leverage Estuary, a solution that allows developers to easily upload data to Filecoin, to integrate decentralized storage.

Improving data agency and portability with ease

As the Swash app moves toward a quarter of a million members, the project continues to explore new avenues that will empower the entire community. Integrating storage that is decentralized, robust, and efficient, is a key piece of this puzzle. Here are a few reasons why Swash chose to shift its data onto the decentralized web:

Decentralization: As a peer-to-peer network, where data can be distributed across multiple storage providers around the globe, the Filecoin network protects against single-point failures, meaning that websites will stay up even if some nodes fail. And most importantly, the availability of information is not dependent on any one server or company, unlike the current data economy.

Robustness: The Filecoin blockchain verifies data storage, providing cryptographic proofs that data remains available and unchanged over time, meaning there is redundancy built into the system.

Efficiency: By allowing anyone to participate as a storage provider and compete for business, Filecoin network storage is more cost-effective than traditional storage providers. It costs only 0.02% of the cost of storing the same data using Amazon S3.

As the adoption of Web3 continues to accelerate, Swash aims to rebalance the digital economy and set new standards for the data economy. Its adoption of decentralized storage will drive greater power and control for users, help guarantee high-quality and sustainable data for businesses, and encourage developers to be a part of a new generation of data solutions.

“The Filecoin integration marks an important milestone in the evolution of Data Unions in Web3. The goal is to unlock the new ways for stakeholders to interact with consented data while addressing concerns around centralised data storage and governance. We are excited to be on this journey with the Filecoin community.” — Reza Naeeni, Swash

If you’re interested in learning more about the Filecoin ecosystem, visit Filecoin.io or Fil.org. You can also join the conversation on Slack, Github, Reddit, and Twitter.