Terms of Service

A1. Eligibility. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live if higher, and able to form a binding contract. The Services are not available where applicable law prohibits us from serving you.

A2. Sanctions and export compliance. You represent that you are not located in, organized in, or a resident of a comprehensively sanctioned jurisdiction, are not a restricted party, and are not owned or controlled by one. You will provide accurate residence and identity information when requested. Swarm does not itself operate person-level sanctions screening. Instead, Stripe, Payoneer, identity/KYC providers, or other payment and payout partners may perform screening required for their services, and Swarm may receive eligibility or status information from those providers. Swarm may pause or restrict accounts, tasks, or payouts where law or a partner's compliance review requires it.

A3. Accounts and security. Keep credentials confidential, maintain two-factor authentication, and promptly report unauthorized use at hello@joinswarm.io.

A4. Acceptable use. You may not violate law or third-party rights, distribute malicious content, access data or systems not yours, circumvent security or verification, interfere with routing or consensus, misrepresent identity/location/hardware, improperly reverse engineer the Services, resell without permission, or abuse rewards or promotions.

A5. Privacy. Our collection and use of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy, including distributed Task Content processing and public blockchain reward proofs.

A6. Intellectual property. Swarm and its licensors own the Services, software, models we provide, and branding. These Terms grant only the rights expressly stated.

A7. Beta and test features. Beta, test, preview, pilot, test-network anchoring, and test-credit features may change or end at any time and carry no availability or retention commitment.

A8. Changes. Material changes to these Terms will be communicated through the Services or by email and take effect on the stated date. Any future opt-in Task Content training feature will remain subject to any consent required by law.

A9. Suspension and termination. Accounts may be suspended or terminated for breach, legal/compliance reasons, security risk, or extended inactivity. Provisions that should survive by their nature continue after termination.

A10. Disclaimers. The Services are provided "as is" and "as available." Independent consumer hardware may affect availability, latency, and capacity. AI outputs may be inaccurate or incomplete and are not professional advice.

A11. Limitation of liability. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Swarm, Delusions of Grandeur LLC, and their affiliates, officers, employees, licensors, service providers, and contractors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenues, goodwill, use, data, business opportunity, or other intangible losses, arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms, even if advised of the possibility of those damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Swarm's total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Services or these Terms will not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount the claimant paid to Swarm for the Services giving rise to the claim during the twelve months immediately preceding the event giving rise to liability; or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

These limitations do not apply to liability that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Nothing in this Section limits Swarm's obligation to pay undisputed Provider Rewards that were properly earned, verified, and recorded under these Terms. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations of liability, so some of these limitations may not apply, and in that case liability will be limited only to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

A12. Indemnification. If you use the Services on behalf of a business or organization, or for commercial purposes, to the extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Swarm, Delusions of Grandeur LLC, their affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, licensors, and service providers from and against third-party claims, liabilities, damages, judgments, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or relating to: (a) your Task Content or other content you submit, transmit, distribute, or make available through the Services; (b) your applications, products, services, nodes, or systems used with the Services; (c) your use of the Services in violation of these Terms or applicable law; (d) your infringement or violation of another person's rights; or (e) your material breach of these Terms.

Swarm will provide reasonably prompt notice of an indemnified claim and reasonable cooperation in its defense. The indemnifying party may control the defense and settlement of the claim, provided that it may not enter into a settlement that admits wrongdoing by, imposes non-monetary obligations on, or otherwise materially adversely affects an indemnified party without that party's prior written consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld.

A13. Governing law and dispute resolution.

Governing law. These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules or principles. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of the arbitration provisions below.

Informal dispute resolution. Before either party begins arbitration or files a court proceeding, the parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally. A user may begin this process by emailing hello@joinswarm.io with the subject line "Legal Dispute Notice" and providing the account email address, a description of the dispute, and the relief requested. Swarm may provide notice to the email address associated with the user's account. If the dispute is not resolved within sixty (60) days after receipt of the notice, either party may proceed with arbitration or another proceeding permitted by this Section. Any applicable limitations period will be tolled during this sixty-day informal-resolution period to the extent permitted by law.

Mandatory individual arbitration. Except for the exceptions stated below, you and Swarm agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will be resolved through final and binding individual arbitration rather than in court. Arbitration will be administered by National Arbitration and Mediation ("NAM") under its applicable rules then in effect. The arbitration will be conducted before one neutral arbitrator. Hearings should be conducted by videoconference where reasonably practicable. If an in-person hearing is required, the location will be mutually agreed upon or determined by the arbitrator in accordance with applicable law and the arbitration rules.

Arbitration opt-out. You may opt out of the mandatory arbitration provision by sending an email to hello@joinswarm.io with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out" within thirty (30) days after first accepting these Terms. The notice must include the email address associated with your Swarm account and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. Opting out of arbitration will not affect any other provision of these Terms.

Exceptions to arbitration. Arbitration is not required for: (a) an individual claim that qualifies for small claims court, so long as the claim remains individual and in that court; or (b) a claim seeking injunctive or other equitable relief to prevent unauthorized use or abuse of the Services, infringement or misappropriation of intellectual-property rights, compromise of Swarm systems or security, or other conduct for which immediate equitable relief is legally available.

Class-action and representative-action waiver. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, disputes must be brought only on an individual basis. Neither party may bring or participate in a claim as a plaintiff or class member in a purported class, collective, consolidated, private-attorney-general, or representative proceeding. Class or representative arbitration is not permitted. This provision does not prevent participation in a class-wide settlement.

Jury-trial waiver. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, if a dispute proceeds in court rather than arbitration, you and Swarm knowingly and voluntarily waive any right to a trial by jury.

Court venue. Except for matters that must be arbitrated under this Section, and except where applicable law gives a user a non-waivable right to bring a claim elsewhere, the state and federal courts located in the State of Delaware will have exclusive jurisdiction over claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, and each party consents to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

Consumer and non-waivable rights. Nothing in this Section limits any mandatory consumer-protection, statutory, regulatory, or other rights that cannot lawfully be waived. In particular, mandatory rights applicable to users in the EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other jurisdictions remain unaffected to the extent required by applicable law.

Severability of dispute provisions. If any portion of this dispute-resolution section is found unlawful or unenforceable, that portion will be severed or modified only to the minimum extent necessary, and the remainder will continue in effect, except that if applicable law makes the class-action waiver unenforceable in a manner that permits class arbitration, the class claim must proceed in court rather than through class arbitration.

A14. General. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any signed order or SLA form the agreement. Notices to Swarm may be sent to hello@joinswarm.io and Delusions of Grandeur LLC, 1209 Mountain Road Place NE, Suite R, Albuquerque, NM 87110.

B1. Tasks and Task Content. You retain ownership of your Task Content and grant Swarm and assigned Providers the limited rights necessary to host, transmit, process, secure, and verify it. You are responsible for having the right to submit your inputs and for your use of outputs.

B2. Distributed processing. Tasks are executed on third-party Provider devices under confidentiality obligations. Geographic, trust-tier, or other routing commitments apply only when expressly offered in the Services or stated in a signed order.

B3. Model training. Swarm does not currently use Task Content to train, fine-tune, or improve AI models. Any future training contribution feature will be off by default and require affirmative opt-in.

B4. Credits and payment. Tasks are paid with prepaid Credits at 1 Credit = $1.00 USD. Estimated costs may be reserved and the final charge determined at consensus. Credits are not money, are non-transferable, and earn no interest. Applicable refund, expiration, or promotional terms will be disclosed before purchase or issuance.

B5. API use. Keep API keys server-side and confidential. You are responsible for calls made with them and for required notices, consent, and lawful use in applications serving your own end users.

B6. Service levels. No uptime, latency, or support commitment applies unless stated in a separately signed order or SLA.

C1. Node operation. Register only devices you own or are authorized to use, using unmodified node software obtained from a source designated by Swarm. You bear operating costs and Swarm does not guarantee task volume or earnings.

C2. Software license. Swarm grants a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to run the node software on registered devices. Do not modify verification/reporting functions or use spoofed environments unless expressly permitted.

C3. Task Content confidentiality. Task Content belongs to Clients. Providers may not access, view, copy, retain, disclose, or use it beyond automated task execution. The node software processes Task Content in memory and does not write Task Content to persistent disk. Providers must promptly report any suspected exposure to hello@joinswarm.io.

C4. Verification and integrity. Nodes may be subject to hardware identity checks, checkpoint tests, duplicate validation, consensus scoring, trust scoring, and other integrity controls. Do not falsify hardware, register fake devices, manipulate consensus, or game assignment or verification.

C5. Rewards. Rewards accrue only for tasks that complete and pass verification. When an eligible task completes, earnings are recorded directly as a fixed US dollar amount equal to the provider share displayed for that task. The current standard provider share is 80% of eligible task value. Once recorded, that USD amount does not fluctuate based on any token, reference price, exchange rate, or later reward-rate change. Provider-share percentages or reward rates may change prospectively with notice, but correctly recorded completed-task earnings are not retroactively changed except for fraud, duplicate or invalid work, failed verification, calculation error, or material breach.

C6. Withdrawals. Before a first withdrawal, complete identity verification and required tax documentation with the payout partner. Verified country determines payout availability and method. The minimum withdrawal is $25. Swarm absorbs standard payout fees; optional expedited fees are paid by the Provider; exceptional international or conversion fees will be disclosed before confirmation.

C7. Independent status and taxes. Providers participate as independent parties and are responsible for their own taxes. Nothing creates employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture.

C8. Public reward records. Reward proofs, including the node signing wallet address, task identifiers, reward amounts, and proof hashes, are anchored to a public blockchain and are permanently public.

C9. Effect of termination. The node-software license ends at termination. Verified accrued Rewards remain subject to the withdrawal/compliance rules in C6, except amounts lawfully withheld or forfeited for fraud, invalid work, or material breach.