What is Arweave (AR)? What You Should Know About This Decentralized Storage Network

Cloud storage has become an essential need for internet users. However, the traditional cloud storage platforms are managed by a single entity due to which users can’t be sure about their data’s security. Blockchain experts have introduced decentralized storage solutions to accommodate the needs of these users.

Arweave is one of the leading decentralized storage solutions where users can save their data for a reasonable fee. So what is Arweave (AR)? Let us understand.

What is Arweave (AR)?

Arweave is dedicated to providing a global, community-owned web that offers equal earning opportunities for everyone. Arweave enables users to sell their additional hard drive space to earn passive income while allowing individuals and businesses to buy storage space for their needs.

Arweave isn’t the only decentralized storage solution as there are other projects like Storj and Filecoin that provide the same service at an attractive price. But the unique thing about Arweave is that it provides permanent storage with just one up-front fee. It means the users can continue using the storage space for their life without having to worry about monthly or annual fees.

The platform claims to store data for as long as 200 years. Arweave uses a sustainable endowment to cover its costs. The storage fee is added to the endowment as soon as the users deposit the fee. Thus, the platform earns interest on this amount to continue running its operations.

Key Features of Arweave

Arweave stands out with a set of unique features.

User-friendly

Arweave is determined to provide the best user experience with its easy-to-use interface. The users can easily store data on this network by simply using Airweaves’s browser extension. The users can also share their saved data with other users on the platform. They can also adjust the accessibility with just a few clicks.

User- and Developer-Center Ethos

Arweave encourages developers to build a stronger bond with their customers. The developers need to build communities so they may interact with their app users whenever they want. It makes it easier to migrate the users to the modified version of the Dapp.

Immutability

Arweave provides permanent storage solutions for users. But it’s an alarming feature for the developers because they can’t customize their app once it’s live. But at the same time, it provides them with peace of mind as they don’t have to pay the fees regularly. So, the developers can take advantage of this platform by creating thoroughly optimized applications.

Arweave Brief History

Arweave was introduced by Sam Williams and William James in 2017. Sam came up with the idea when he was in Scotland and William helped bring the idea to life with his technical knowledge. The project was initially introduced as Archain.

However, it was renamed Arweave in June 2018 when the team got the opportunity to share their idea in the startup accelerator Techstars. Coinbase Ventures, Unique Square Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz are the leading venture capital firms that invested around $5 million in this project in 2019.

The company again raised around $8 million through a public coin offering in March 2020 to meet the needs of community members and developers.

How Does Arweave Work?

Arweave runs its operations by incorporating two important layers permaweb and blockweave. Unlike other blockchain networks, Arweave doesn’t maintain a chain of blocks but it stores the data in a graph of blocks along with the transactional information.

This unique formation is called Blockweave in the Arweave ecosystem. In this infrastructure, every new block is connected to the previous block.

Proof of Access Consensus

The platform uses SPoRA, a proof of access consensus mechanism, to complete the validation process. Thus, it achieves a better accuracy level compared to other networks. In this method, all the network participants play an essential role in validating transactions.

The network operators need to find out whether the new transactions comply with the randomly selected market or not. The new transactions are only added to the network if compliance is achieved. Arweave network rewards AR tokens to the node operator that helps with adding a new bundle of transactions.

Thus, the platform doesn’t only maintain the accuracy of new transactions but also protects the old ones from tampering.

Content Moderation

Arweave network uses a content moderation process that allows users to choose the type of content they want to host. The network sends a request to all the computers when a new file is added to the network. If the data consists of audio and images, the users can choose to host the type that best suits them.

The platform offers a higher percentage of transaction fees to the users who agree upon storing more intensive data.

AR DAO

Arweave network has introduced a decentralized autonomous organization. It enables users to participate in the decision-making process. The voting power of the participants is determined according to the amount of AR tokens they hold.

Arweave Tokenomics

AR is the native token of Arweave network that is used to pay transaction fees and storage fees. The platform rewards AR tokens to the node operators for transaction validation. Moreover, the AR tokens provide voting rights to the holders.

With a circulating supply of 33.3 million tokens, AR has a market cap of $313.6 million. It has a total supply of 66 million tokens that will be released through a rewarding process. AR ranks among the 100 best cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap.

Conclusion

Arweave is one of the leading decentralized storage solutions that provide equal earning opportunities for internet users. The unique thing about this project is that it only charges a one-time service fee for storage. Furthermore, it uses a proof-of-access consensus mechanism to validate transactions.

If you need more information about Arweave, feel free to get in touch with us.