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Introducing shdwDrive v2: A Thoughtful, Phased Rollout for a Better Experience
Today marks the beginning of shdwDrive v2's release!
We've chosen to implement a phased roll-out that moves us toward production-readiness through a deliberate, thoughtful approach. This strategy isn’t just about caution; it’s about delivering a meaningful and positive experience for shdwOperators, #Solana developers planning to use the shdwDrive platform, and the individual user!
The shdwDrive app is downloadable on any Android device and can be found here: github.com/GenesysGo/shdw…
Simply follow the link on your Android device (iOS coming soon), allow the download, and that's it! You're ready to become a shdwOperator!
Why a Phased Rollout?
In network development, slow and steady wins the race. A phased rollout is an industry-standard best practice that gives the network time to stabilize. This ensures stability before introducing we introduce staking, rewards, and new tools. This measured rollout approach helps ensure that when you start staking $SHDW to contribute storage from your mobile devices and earn your portion of network generated fees—the experience is consistent, reliable, and free from the bugs that plagued participants in things like shdwDrive's Testnet2.
Staking & Initial Rewards: A Better Start
On January 6, barring no unforeseen issues, we’ll introduce shdwOperator staking, staking rewards distribution, and our CLI/SDK! We learned a lot from shdwDrive's Testnet2, where payout issues surfaced due to underlying network bugs. The goal of letting the network soak through the holidays before deploying shdwOperator staking & rewards is to ensure that shdwOperators have a consistent and reliable experience in the distribution of rewards. Even though shdwOperators aren't having to go out and rent expensive servers for an additional cost to themselves, we still want a much smoother experience than last time!
Similar to Testnet2, the GenesysGo team is donating SHDW tokens that we purchased in the open markets (just like anyone else would have to) as a gift to the early adopters who are helping to bootstrap the shdwDrive v2 network! Your help is incredibly valuable and want this experience to be meaningful for the community of shdwOperators while the rest of the payments infrastructure is finalized and new users come onboard.
***To earn shdwOperator rewards, you MUST actually BE a shdwOperator!***
Meaning, you must be contributing storage space from your mobile device and in order to do that you must be meeting the staking requirements. Stake SHDW -> Contribute storage -> Earn the gift of SHDW! Rewards are limited and not indefinite... and the staking mechanics is simple: the more SHDW you stake and the more uptime you accumulate (starting now!) the more gifts that are programmatically distributed to you by the Solana on-chain program that owns the staking vault. Meaning, gifts are first come, first served. The longer you are connected to the network, starting now, the better! And, thanks to shdwDrive v2's mobile device only architecture, becoming a shdwOperator is as simple as downloading the app and turning it on! Download, activate, set it and forget it, earn. It's that simple.
TL;DR - Staked SHDW + Uptime accumulated (staring now!) = a greater share of the pool!
Prioritizing Developers & Users
The goal of letting the network soak before deploying the CLI and SDK is similar. When the CLI and SDK are released, we want to be able to fully prioritize any issues or bugs that developers in the #Solana ecosystem report to us and fix them right away (rather than developers having to wait indeterminant amounts of time for bugs to be fixed). By waiting to roll out the CLI and SDK, we can focus on addressing bugs as they arise, ensuring developers have the tools they need without unnecessary delays.
Customer Payments and Decentralized Revenue Distribution
We heard your feedback with some of the less than smooth rollouts in the past and by implementing a more phased rollout for shdwDrive v2, this will give us the opportunity to ensure that you all get the user, operator, and developer experience you deserve.
The last thing we want is to have the launch of shdwDrive v2 marred by issues that affect paying customers or the operators earning their share of user generated revenues. Hence why we are gifting shdwOperators tokens in the meantime, to ensure they know how much we value their help! As soon as we feel confident that the network, the CLI/SDK, and the features of the app are in a solid place, we'll be updating the payment plans and the on-chain Solana programs needed to power customer payments and the trustless fully programmatic distribution of those payments to shdwOperators. In the meantime, customers will all have access to the lowest free tier of storage to begin using the app today!
Of course, that leaves the outstanding question of how does staking work when customer payments and programmatic revenue distributions work when they go live? For full information on the network's scaling and economics, please visit our shdwDrive v2 Economics Whitepaper here: github.com/GenesysGo/shdw…
App Store Listings!
App store listings are being processed and we are excited to say that the shdwDrive app will be listed on all three major app stores soon!
Continuous Improvements & Future Plans
Through all of these steps, minor feature upgrades and releases will be deployed just as soon as they are completed. However, once all of the above has been fully deployed in the near future, the team will be fully dedicated to feature updates and rolling out the litany of premium services planned for shdwDrive v2! We have a list of feature deployments that we are very excited about, ranging from multi-user file sharing/editing to platform integrations and everything in-between!
A Better Experience for Everyone
All of this is to say that we have listened to your feedback on past rollouts. This phased deployment is a strategic decision to ensure a seamless experience for everyone: users, operators, and developers alike. It's to ensure that all steps are forwards and none are backwards. The future of shdwDrive v2 and #DePIN is bright, and by taking things step-by-step, we’re ensuring that shdwOperators, users, developers, and all of #web3 are being given a platform built to last.
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