The Swarm Association is announcing a 50,000 DAI “Wikipedia on Swarm” prize (paid in BZZ) for a solution that observes a Wikipedia offline archive and uploads it to the Swarm network. The goal is to allow for Wikipedia in any language to be easily uploaded to the Swarm network, making it resilient to the potential grip of censorship.

A push for freedom of information

Swarm is a decentralised and censorship-resistant storage and communication system that enables digital freedoms. Building a mirror of Wikipedia on the Swarm network would give everyone access to Wikipedia.

The first steps towards this goal were made during the We Are Millions Hackathon and Festival(WAM). The Swarm Association partnered with Kiwix (a protocol developed to store and search for content offline) to create a solution that enables a mirror copy of Wikipedia on the Swarm network.

Three inspiring solutions were submitted as part of WAM, which laid the foundation for bringing Wikipedia to Swarm and making it censorship-resistant. Now it’s time to develop a complete and working product, and the new prize aims to achieve this.

Why is censorship problematic?

Censorship goes against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ Article 19, which defines the freedom of expression as the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. However, censorship is used around the world to restrict access to information.

Making information available to everyone is therefore a crucial effort in preserving the freedom of expression, one of the pillars of freedom for people all over the globe. This includes free access to Wikipedia and its vast repository of knowledge, which is often the target of censorship attempts.

Your work matters

Your solution can become an important part of the continuous efforts to provide people around the world with access to information and to enable digital freedoms. So, why not give it a try? The hefty prize is just a cherry on the top!

If you have any further questions, support is available on Swarm’s Discord or on Fair Data Society’s Discord