Freedom 0.8.7: Swarm browsing credit and a pop-up blocker

Freedom 0.8.7 adds browsing credit for the Swarm node so you can pay peers for faster downloads and for uploads, a pop-up blocker, and a simpler one-payment publishing flow on Swarm. Settings are regrouped to match Chrome's order, and a large set of freezes, platform and security fixes lands with it.

New

• Browsing credit for the Swarm node: pay peers for faster downloads and for uploads
  • In the wallet's Nodes tab, with credit left and recent spend
  • Top up in xDAI, or switch paying peers off
• Swarm cache size and Clear cache under Settings > Nodes
• Pop-up blocker: one new tab per click or key press, with an address-bar icon to open a blocked pop-up or allow the site
• Update progress in the browser menu and under Settings > About Freedom
• Myotis warns when a network upgrade needs a newer Freedom

Improved

• Publishing on Swarm takes one xDAI payment to your node:
  • Plans and upgrades priced in xDAI, paid from any wallet
  • New storage is immutable: once full, it takes no more uploads
• Settings regrouped into ten sections, in Chrome's order (Ad Blocking and Site Permissions under Privacy and security; Chains, RPC Providers and Name Resolution under Networks; Experimental renamed Advanced)
• Network sources named in plain words, with the technical name under Advanced
• The first profile can be deleted once another profile exists
• The Swarm node reads chain data through Freedom's chain sources instead of a single RPC
• Video and other large files on Swarm start playing sooner

Removed

• Ankr from the default Ethereum and Gnosis Chain RPCs, as it now requires an API key

Fixed

• Fewer stalls that freeze every window (proof checks, web3:// apps, Radicle files, browsing history, ad blocking, the IPFS node, Swarm messaging, profiles and Bee-era upgrades)
• Sending a transaction no longer closes the browser while it confirms
• Links such as magnet: and mailto: offer to open their app
• YouTube video ads are blocked when ad blocking is on
• A page that closes itself closes its tab
• A local file:// page can be bookmarked
• Remapped shortcuts no longer fire twice on German and other non-US keyboards
• The Windows tab strip no longer starts behind an empty gap
• A private window's address bar, find bar and bookmark fields stay readable in the light theme
• Tor, Radicle, Ant and Myotis start on Windows 11 without the Visual C++ Redistributable
• The Linux AppImage starts on Ubuntu 24.04 without libfuse2, and is 18 MB smaller
• On Wayland, Freedom's windows group under its launcher icon
• Tor starts on Macs without Homebrew's xz
• Offchain ENS names with a .onion gateway resolve over Tor; names with an offchain answer near the 4 MB limit keep resolving
• A log query matching too many logs fails with an error instead of a shortened answer
• The Nodes menu shows peers and bandwidth again for an external IPFS node
• Myotis answers verified reads within seconds of a cold start or recovery, keeps retrying through brief checkpoint outages, and no longer stays stuck after Freedom quits unexpectedly
• Myotis gas estimates use every transaction field; a refused transaction shows as not sent
• A bzz:// address of raw data loads; one whose data isn't on Swarm fails sooner
• Swarm video no longer cuts off when loaded right after the node starts
• Swarm content loads within about half a minute of waking from sleep, not 15 minutes
• Large Swarm uploads no longer drop thousands of peer connections
• The Swarm node no longer dials peers' private network addresses

Security

• Web pages can no longer use your Swarm node's local API (which could spend its funds); dApps using localhost:1633 must switch to window.swarm
• bzz:// pages can't upload or control the node
• The wallet signs only the exact transaction or message you approved; Touch ID keeps the vault password out of the browser window
• A hijacked page can't reach wallet, identity, permission or publishing functions
• Site-supplied titles, filenames and payment details show only as text on internal pages
• Packaged builds ignore debugging flags and load only their own app code
• Sites can't open network shares, directory servers or system settings panes
• A site gets a TLS client certificate only if you pick one, never in a private window
• macOS builds drop two code-signing exceptions
• A permission prompt can be answered only from its own window
• External Swarm and IPFS nodes can't set cookies on the pages they serve
• Bundled nodes updated (Ant 0.5.45 to 0.5.61, Arti 2.6.0 to 2.7.0, freedom-ipfs 0.4.3 to 0.4.5, libradicle 0.7.1 to 0.8.0, Myotis 0.1.11 to 0.1.14); Electron 44.4.5 to 44.7.0

Links

• Changelog
• GitHub Release
• Source on Radicle

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