Topic: [ANN] Swarm Fund 1.0 - [OFFLINE THREAD] - page 6. (Read 139863 times)

We are using Swarm/Foursquare API for our coin

I think the same principles apply that have always applied:

[1] SWARM holders will be able to choose new delegates after the present implementation cycle is complete.
[2] Value of the network and SWARM will be established as business value is established
[3] SWARM holders get the Swarm basic income as projects launch

Any other ideas?

Here's an update by Thomas:


Hi everyone,

I'm Thomas, I first met Swarm through investing in the 2014 crowdsale. From there I followed the progress and last March my start-up www.vevue.com was selected to be one of the first companies to organize as a DCO and launch on the Swarm platform.

A lot of progress has been made on the DCO front as can be seen here;

DCO marketing campaign  designed by Vevue team member Kathrine

DCO Step by Step guide

First DCO contract

Marketing Analysis

Why DCO?
DCO is the business model in which crypto-equity tokens are issued. Due to current SEC laws, issuing securities is illegal, which makes Swarm illegal. The DCO model is a pending model that provides Swarm room to move forward. Also, although Swarm may technically be illegal in the US, it's still legal in many parts of the world. Being decentralized keeps the platform mobile from changing laws.

Part of the DCO Model involves promoting delegates, basically employees at this stage. Over the last few months, along with others, two members of the Vevue team have joined Swarm as delegates. Delegates are selected by the Swarm community, then placed in positions of influence to help propel the platform forward. Over the coming months I will use my position as a delegate to implement the DCO Step by Step guide in bringing 100% transparency to the Swarm community.

The Swarm software is approximately 90% complete. Right now we're in the process of expanding the Swarm programming team from one programmer to several. We're doing this in an effort to take pressure and stress off Pavlo, the programmer that has been working tirelessly for over a year on Swarm. This will also help as the Swarm platform launches and there is extra work involved with troubleshooting and expansion. Pavlo is currently working on the final phases of programming but due to being in and out of the hospital during the summer, has fell behind. This is why we're being proactive about using developers from our team at Vevue/Whizpool and familiarizing them with Swarm code. Whizpool will bring a new level of organization and transparency to progress updates through implementing their Project Management Software system. We plan to have the first update available before September 1st.

What does this mean for Swarm coins value?
As an owner of Swarm coins I feel they have value. Due to delays and complications, others may feel differently. Part of the reason for implementing delegates is to help avoid future delays. I think the value of that decision is already beginning to show in the fact Kathrine is available to help with marketing/design and we're in the process of adding to the development team.

Delays
I think the biggest reason for delays is beyond Swarms power. Most in the Blockchain industry did not expect an almost 2 year downtrend in Bitcoin's price. From our start-up at Vevue to Swarm and many others, the burn rate of funds has been hit hard. Delegates was one answer of many to stay alive and keep progress moving forward.

Hopefully we're near the end of this downtrend... Vevue is within 3 weeks of entering beta with its newest update. We're still planning to do our initial launch through Swarm and hope to be the first successful company to launch on their platform.

Weifund
I haven't spoken with Joel about this but trust his networking skills will continue to add value to Swarm and the DCO business model.

 

Thank you for the update.  Where does this leave SWARM investors?

Here is a set of updates in no particular order:

[1] I was always extremely interested in the possibilities of a fully developed smart contract platform. I only got seriously involved in Bitcoin/Blockchain after I read the Ethereum whitepaper and wrote several whitepapers immediately following, including this (https://github.com/fractastical/distributed-governance). I also co-ran the EtherCasts channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/EtherCasts) which continues to be active. I've advised several Ethereum related projects and always believe that the ultimate "swarm" would require some sort of smart contract capable platform.

[2] Although I initially made the decision to adopt Counterparty, I've been rather seriously disappointed with Counterparty as an option at several points in the history of our project. Although I created and curated several of the main channels, including both the main Skype and Dev skype channel and partially bootstrapped the Counterparty developer community via my own efforts, I was pretty disappointed with decisions made internally.

The primary problems we've had along these lines have been:

(a) Too much downtime and breaking changes released into the core protocol
(b) No consistently reliable APIs
(c) Weird decisions made re: initial Counterparty Foundation board
(d) Not enough efforts made to cultivate a positive developer community / too much hostility

Consequently, I decided not to run for the Counterparty board and I removed myself from the Counterparty promotional channels I created.

[3] I think in general we've had a larger problem with the legal sphere, particularly in the United States. In general, the crowdfunding projects we've been most excited about have been the most legally problematic, and we've spent a lot of time working on our own internal legal details around this DCO model. This has taken an enormous amount of time and been very frustrating. Among other things, we've had very favorable responses from other countries but have had an incredibly difficult time figuring out what we can do in the U.S.
 
[4] Although we've stayed away from the traditional venture pathways, we've started working with incubators that are very progressive on the blockchain front. These folks are taking an active interest in pushing together a better version of the software that is cross-chain compatible. To do so, we have had to innovate on several layers:

  (a) permissioned blockchains
  (b) crosschain compatible identity systems
  (c) distributed reputational systems
  
Due to the inherent technical difficulties, I think it's probably a 6-8 month timeframe before this next wave of innovation is fully complete and release ready, but there should be interesting things to test out along the way.

[5] We've also implemented the fullness of our new DCO legal model internally, which has led to the provisional appointment of several delegates which ostensibly represent the will of the members of the Swarm and decide what to do with the funds and IP generated by the Swarm. These delegates have been working hard to expand our developer team and make sure that there are more regular updates.

[6] The Swarm Fund, which we've setup in order to take stakes in projects and apply the "wisdom of the crowd," has been running in alpha status. The main barriers here are regulatory but they are moving forward slowly.

[7] In general, I will let Thomas post the specific near-term development updates since he is basically managing progress on that end and has promised weekly updates. We had some setbacks here due to the sickness of one developer who was in the middle of refactoring some key services, but my understanding is that he is going to have that ready soon.

They won't communicate with us but do they with you?

Nope, asked some of the team for an update here on the forum and on Swarm forum. Hope they jump in.

zeeman, any info for us at all?

Looks like he s more interested in ethereum atm. He s advisor weifund and co-founder EtherCasts and both projects are in "full swing". But he s also specified as "founder swarm.fund" at weifund page .... Wired....that´s crypto ....wired.
Question is: Is it that easy to ditch a project with 1300btc (wasn´t it?) ipo? On the Qt?

I've not been very active for the project over the last couple of weeks. Missed that question on the forum. I'll try to get some more info. Reply here as soon as I can.

zeeman, is it a technical issue, legal, financial...?  No response here:

https://discourse.swarm.fund/t/state-of-the-swarm/232/3

So Joel Dietz is now an official advisor to competing crowdfunding platform Weifund?

http://weifund.io

His Facebook page says "I just had the biggest nerdgasm since I read the ‪#‎Ethereum‬ whitepaper."  So maybe he is moving on from Counterparty/Swarm to Ethereum/Weifund?

Work on the Swarm CMS is delayed. This is indeed an unofficial update. Read all the Newsletters here and/or subscribe to stay informed. There is a channel on Slack, but that's for volunteers and the Swarm Team only.
There's a Forum where you can post any questions. You might ask them here as well.

Anyone got any unofficial updates?

Is there an IRC channel or anything

Is this project dead?  No response here and no blog entries all year.

How is the project going?