Swash: 2020 Year in Review

Published in

Swash

4 min readDec 24, 2020

As 2020 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to pause and look back on all of the achievements Swash has made during this crazy year. Although we haven’t hit all of our goals just yet, we have gained serious momentum, giving us the foundation we need to make 2021 a success.

Product

Swash has grown from a technical experiment into a fully-fledged product with an array of features and integrations. As well as continuously improving the Swash experience with easy withdrawals and improved UI, we also regularly add new browsers and domains to make sure Swash users are monetising as much of their data as possible.

Some of the main technical milestones we’ve achieved this year include creating a referral program for Swash members, reducing risk of bots, making it easy for users to import and export their settings, and capturing new data and creating analytics to create new types of data products.

As well as updating the product features, we also launched our new website in August where you can find everything you need to know about Swash, FAQs, media features, and blog posts.

Also, behind the scenes, we have been working on some exciting integrations and new features with some of our partners which will be launched in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Team

2020 saw two new additions to the Swash team. Reza Naeeni joined the team to further business development, make partnerships, and to drive Swash forward. He wasted no time in getting Swash accepted on to the Outlier Ventures Base Camp accelerator, selected out of over 270 startups, to support with business development, network relations, and industry networking.

I joined soon after to cover Swash marketing, starting with a complete rebranding of the Swash website, creating marketing materials and content, and continuing to grow the Swash community.

In the second half of the year, Swash gained several new advisors with valuable expertise across data analytics, media and advertising, data governance, and policy. They have been guiding us on business applications, market positioning, and product development to make sure that Swash has a concrete market fit and stands out from any competition. Looking forward to making even more progress with them as we charge into 2021!

Partnerships

Some of our biggest news this year has been through the exciting partnerships we’ve made. As well as continuing our work with Streamr, we have also expanded further into the decentralised data realm by partnering with Ocean Protocol as their first Ocean Market Data Launch Partners.

Just last week, we announced our partnership with Chainlink to upgrade the way we do sponsored withdrawals and to make proportional revenue distribution possible in the near future. Meanwhile, partnering with 1World Online and Crunch Digital Media marks the real-world potential of Swash for data buyers, starting with advertising and media.

Community

One of the biggest changes in Swash this year has been how much we’ve grown. Although we haven’t hit our initial goal of 10K just yet, we’re making good progress. In the last month alone we increased our user base by 32%!

Swash is a community-driven company. We’re grateful for the enthusiasm and feedback we receive and work hard to keep everyone motivated. Giving back to Swash members is the centre of our business model, so hearing from the community is priceless.

Some of the best ways to share your thoughts are by tagging us on social media, starting a conversation on Telegram or Reddit, leaving reviews on your browser’s extension store page, or getting in touch.

Here are some of our favourites:

Features

Media exposure has been through the roof this year! By July, Swash had already been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Hackernoon, Coindesk, and CoinTelegraph.

We have also participated in events like Diffusion Digital and MyData Online 2020, mentioned on several major podcasts, panels, and interviews, and started putting out content like animated explainer videos and regular blog posts.

About Swash

Swash makes it possible to earn as you surf the web. Simply install the plugin and use the web as normal to start earning rewards straight into your wallet.

Swash aims to redesign the data economy to work to the benefit of everyone, ultimately creating a better internet. This is only possible by rewarding everyday internet users for the value their data generates as they use the web and by recognising every individual as an integral part of the data economy.

With Swash, everyone can profit from the value of their data. By redefining how data is collected and valued, Swash aims to accelerate change and set new standards for our data economy.

For more information about Swash or to get in touch, visit the Swash website, follow us on social media, or send an email to contact@swashapp.io.

Swash is available on all major browsers. Install Swash here.

Originally published on the Swash blog on December 24th, 2020.