Arweave originally started under the name Archain, but became official Launch rebranding with the well-known AR token in June 2018. While many projects in the fast-moving crypto world have fallen into obscurity over this period of time, Arweave remains current and innovative thanks to its unique features – even though the project has turned to a rather dry niche: data storage. But which features exactly differentiate Arweave from other blockchains and why are they relevant?
Permanent data storage
Arweave enables the decentralized storage of various file types such as documents, MP3s, PDFs, films and much more directly on your network. The team has developed a system that uses financial incentives to enable the data to be stored for at least 200 years, probably even longer. Users only need to make a one-time payment to use the storage space for an unlimited period of time. The idea is to connect people with excess storage space on their hardware devices with those who need storage space. If necessary, users can encrypt the uploaded files and thus protect them.
The Permaweb
With permanent data storage in mind, Arweave goes even further and offers a permanent internet. With the so-called Permaweb, Arweave wants to make it possible to permanently store websites and applications on the Arweave Blockchain and thus enable continuous functionality. All content related to the Permaweb are uploaded, are permanent, quickly accessible and decentralized. This means that once data has been uploaded, it cannot be deleted or changed.
Proof of Access
In traditional blockchains, the verification of data is sequential: each block, which essentially represents a piece of data, is added to the database in a long, single chain and verified in turn. This is very inefficient and requires large amounts of energy as each piece of data must be verified repeatedly.
Arweave is taking a different approach with the creation of the Blockweave, which is a Proof of access system used. In the blockweave, each block is connected to two previous blocks and a following block. This means that it is sufficient if a single, randomly selected piece of data is verified. This greatly shortened verification process dramatically reduces the energy required and therefore the costs to keep the blockchain running. The Blockweave will be able to store petabytes (1,000 terabytes) of data. For comparison, in December 2023, the total data stored on the Bitcoin blockchain was just 500GB.
Financial incentive through the AR token
People who store persistent data from the Arweave network on their computer will be compensated with the AR token. But how can a one-time payment be enough for unlimited data storage? The fee that the user pays is divided as follows: part of the payment covers the initial costs for the first 200 years, while the rest goes into a fund that, with the help of interest, covers the costs thereafter. Arweave assumes that data storage costs will decrease by 0.5 percent annually. This is a very conservative estimate considering that costs have decreased by an average of 30.5 percent over the past 50 years.
Why is Arweave relevant?
Data storage itself may seem like a rather dry topic. The reason users are so excited about Arweave is the accompanying data storage issues that are solved here. These include dependence on large technology companies, data protection, censorship, hacking attacks and general unexpected data loss. Using Arweave avoids all of these problems.
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