What Is Arweave? All You Need to Know About AR

What Is Arweave?

Arweave is a data storage protocol built on blockweave technology. Arweave is developing an underlying network where data can be stored forever and accessed on its permaweb, a secondary layer where data is accessible in a human-readable manner (e.g. via web browsers)

In order to enable a permanent internet and produce really permanent data storage, Arweave would characterize itself as a “new data storage blockchain technology.” It uses a one-time payment concept model.

The Arweave protocol is based on four primary technologies, according to the whitepaper: Blockweave, Proof of Access, Wildfire, and Blackshadows. According to the protocol, these technologies aid in cost reduction, throughput improvement, and the creation of permanent storage on new blockchains. Hash list and wallet list, two Blockweave concepts, enable Arweave nodes to carry out network operations without having access to the entire chain. Small, interconnected servers, known as blockchain nodes, communicate and share information inside the network.

History

After being established in 2017 under the name Archain, the business changed its moniker to Arweave in 2018 when it finished the Techstars Berlin mentorship program. The goal of Arweave is to make affordable, long-term storage a reality. With the help of the Arweave network, a block-based data structure known as a “blockweave,” the company hopes to achieve its objective.

In June 2018, the Arweave mainnet was introduced. The original whitepaper for the protocol, which was originally known as Archain, was published on August 2, 2017. On April 24, 2018, the most recent whitepaper bearing the new name was made public. Samuel Williams and William Jones, the platform’s co-authors, wrote both publications. Jones is the current AI and machine learning lead of Embecosm, and Williams is the CEO at Arweave.

The Arweave permaweb, a collection of data, websites, and apps that are housed on the blockweave, is supported by Arweave’s blockweave. Modern web browsers like Brave or Google Chrome can access the permaweb since the Arweave protocol is based on the HTTP protocol. The Arweave protocol enables people with extra hard drive space to store data in return for AR tokens, with the goal of storing data on the network forever. Arweave utilizes a formula to determine how much it will cost to store a specific piece of data and forecasts that storage costs will continue to decline. Arweave’s yellowpaper contains all of its presumptions.

In June 2018, the Arweave mainnet officially debuted with 1800 carefully chosen volunteers from different nations. The Arweave team also held a restricted inaugural token sale before the launch for whitelisted people.

Arweave obtained a $5 million fundraising round from various venture capital firms in November 2019 in exchange for $5 in Arweave tokens. The Arweave team raised an additional $8.3 million in exchange for AR tokens six months later. However, following this round, the company declared that it will use the fresh capital to promote neighborhood adoption and expansion.

What Is the Permaweb?

Built on top of the Arweave protocol, Permaweb is a collection of modular and interchangeable protocols. According to the network, Permaweb is the next step in the evolution of the current web, enabling users to share a robust knowledge base that can be continuously reproduced around the world. The Permaweb protocol will host decentralized applications (dApps) that are managed by unique codes in addition to keeping permanent data. Profit-sharing communities (PSCs) from Permaweb can be implemented by developers in dApps based on the protocol. PSCs are governance protocols that assist dApps in real-time revenue distribution among stakeholders.

Arveave’s Features: from Blockweave to Blockshadow

Blockweave

A data storage technology that revolutionizes decentralized proof of access and enables inexpensive storage is referred to as “blockweave” in the IT world today. Professionals note that this new kind of blockchain system is intended to address the twin issues of on-chain data restrictions and unstable access methods while lowering the cost of chain storage.

Since Blockweave is a relatively recent addition to the blockchain decentralized technology ledger, there isn’t much public information available regarding the system as a whole. Stakeholders have linked the term “blockweave” to the Arweave technology, and Arweave representatives are behind some of the more thorough explanations of blockweave systems on Medium and elsewhere.

As stated: “The blockweave is a blockchain-like structure designed to enable scalable on-chain storage in a cost-efficient manner for the first time … Proof of access is a novel consensus mechanism that produces a positive externality of data storage. Instead of competing to burn as much electricity as possible, miners compete to provide as many replications of the data held in the system as they can. Further, as the blockweave expands in size, the amount of electricity expended in the mining process decreases.”

Proof of Access (PoA)

In order to demonstrate the shortcomings of Proof of Work (PoW), the Arweave team developed an enhanced substitute for the Bitcoin consensus algorithm. A more effective method for encouraging secure, decentralized data storage is the Proof of Access technique. A significant quantity of electricity is saved throughout the mining process since miners do not need to store all of the blocks; as the network grows, less electricity is used. The Blockweave architecture, which requires less and less hashing power for consensus as data is added to the system, makes this inverse correlation possible.

Succinct Proofs of Random Access (SPoRA)

The Arweave network now uses Succinct Proofs of Random Access (SPoRA), a novel kind of consensus method. Up until block 633720, Arweave was using a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism with the additional requirement that blocks contain a reference to previous data on the network (a structure essential to the system’s blockweave architecture). This requirement and the Proof of Access concept are collectively referred to as the “PoW” consensus mechanism (PoA). Up until February 24, there were two opportunities for PoA consensus for Arweave that were made better by a new consensus process:

Align Mining Profitability With the Speed of Data Access

Arweave’s main objective of permanent storage and data access was accomplished by PoA, but no significant incentives were placed on miners to retrieve data fast. Without an advantage in data retrieval, miners discovered a way to gain from employing a remote storage pool as opposed to keeping many, decentralized nodes. The era of CPU dominance comes to an end with SPoRA, which encourages miners to copy data more quickly and effectively. Every joule added to the network today requires an additional share of the dataset. In a nutshell, SPoRA creates a more decentralized and efficient blockweave by disincentivizing resource pooling among CPUs.

Reduce the Energy Required to Maintain the Network

PoW is an incredibly energy-intensive consensus process, despite being secure, dependable, and resilient. Because SPoRA’s architecture uses less energy to maintain, miners have less overhead and the system as a whole is cleaner and more effective. Additionally, mining on the Arweave SPoRA network uses energy for data storage and retrieval rather than energy for energy’s sake, as is the case with traditional PoW networks like Bitcoin. The utility and resource spending are more elegantly aligned with this approach.

Wildfire

The download speeds of earlier decentralized storage networks were constrained by crude structures, making it difficult to encourage quick data sharing. For instance, Siacoin uses a Proof of Work consensus where blocks can take hours to confirm, causing transactions to be excessively delayed. Arweave designed Wildfire to solve this problem and move quickly.

Nodes need near-instant connectivity to other network users in order to mine efficiently. All participants are ranked according to how soon they reply to inquiries in order to ensure this. They have a strong financial incentive to perform because peers with higher rankings receive preferential treatment during mining. In this way, Arweave’s self-propelling mechanism ensures that all nodes are motivated to share data at maximum bandwidth at all times.

Blockshadow

Arweave proposes a novel idea called Blockshadows that provide secure decentralization, quick block consensus, and high throughput. Blockshadowing sends a “shadow” that recipient nodes rebuild throughout a transaction as opposed to broadcasting a whole block. A blockshadow just keeps a list of transaction hashes rather than a list of transactions included inside a block. Any node that has access to the complete list of transactions, wallet information, and hash tables can recreate the entire block using this essentialized variant. This procedure not only separates transactions from blocks but also enables a flexible, affordable network with a throughput of up to 5000 tx/s.

Storage Endowment

Arweave’s data storage is supported by transparent, sustainable economics that let users replicate information indefinitely.

The economic structure of the Arweave is comparable to a conventional economic endowment structure. A “principle” is paid up front when a piece of data is uploaded to the Arweave network, and “interest” is accrued in the form of storage purchasing power. Those that contribute hard drive space receive interest on this one-time payment over time so they can benefit from their storage contributions. Arweave protects the long-term stability of the network’s endowment by utilizing incredibly conservative assumptions for storage pricing.

Source: Arweave

Use Cases for Arweave: Decentralization and Authentication

1. Decentralized Data Storage: Arweave’s strong architecture makes it especially well-suited for decentralized data storage in large quantities, providing a censorship-resistant, incorruptible way to store data of any scale.
   Documents and data must meet these criteria in order to be accepted as authentic in a sector where fraud, misreporting, and inaccurate modification are frequent occurrences. Paying a one-time subscription allows both individuals and organizations to access their data almost instantly, eliminating ongoing costs associated with subpar storage facilities (like Google Drive’s $10 monthly fee for 1TB of data), and ensuring that their data remains undamaged.

2. Decentralized Data Sharing: While data sharing has evolved into a saturated industry, centralized peer-to-peer networks fail to offer the guarantee of immutable storage. Where governments and institutions remove files arbitrarily, Arweave allows any file to be stored and shared forever — safeguarded from the agendas of third parties.

3. Authentication of Documents: An integral society must have legitimacy; for instance, maintaining legal documents is essential to the fields of law, medical, insurance, and education. Data breaches, fraud, and theft have been caused by the weaknesses of earlier systems, and Arweave is providing a trustworthy method to make up for all of these shortfalls. The author’s identity is recorded when a file is added to the blockchain and is accessible for the duration of the file’s unlimited existence. All parties gain from this process, which establishes the file’s authorship and verifies its authenticity for anybody who accesses it.

What Is the AR token?

AR is the native cryptocurrency of the Arweave protocol. Users need AR tokens to access the dApps built on the protocol by paying miner fees, endowment fees, tips, etc.

Arweave tokens (AR) are created using the mining technique of block validation. The protocol deploys proof of access, a modified version of the proof-of-work consensus mechanism, to add new blocks to the chain.

Arweave.app Web Wallet

If you already have a wallet, you should be familiar with the fundamentals. If this is your first time using Arweave, don’t worry; we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to help you get started right away.

Simply launch Arweave.app in your browser to get started setting up your wallet. A community-developed, open-source project called Arweave.app makes it easy to get started with Arweave. When you arrive, the welcome screen will be displayed.

Arweave.app welcome screen

If you are a new Arweave wallet user, continue on to the next section. If you are an existing user who already has a key file, you can skip to the ‘Existing Users’ section further down the page.

Is Arweave (AR) a Good Investment?

As per CryptoNewsZ.com’s investment advice, Arweave is a good investment option. But the highly volatile nature of the cryptocurrencies may also scare some investors to sell Arweave if a dip happens. Proper risk management is advised when going long on such investment vehicles, so investors and traders alike should do their due diligence. Comparing Arweave with its main competitors, IPFS and Filecoin, is essential for driving your investment decisions:

Arweave vs. Filecoin vs. IPFS

IPFS

Compared to Arweave, IPFS is one of the more established services. IPFS stands for InterPlanetary File System. It is a distributed file system for storing and exchanging data that was developed by Protocol Lab as a hypermedia and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol network.

Pros

• Each file on IPFS is uniquely identified via content-addressing. In other words, if the media file changes after we upload it, the URL will also change.

Cons

• It is not quite like a blockchain. It functions similarly to how BitTorrent does.

• The information is temporary. We must incorporate so-called pinning services, such as Infra or Pinata, in order to sustain data. These pinning services will save the data on the IPFS network and pin the file, preventing its removal and allowing the data to persist. However, these pinning services have certain drawbacks in that they don’t actually offer a long-lasting, permanent, dependable, fully decentralized solution.

To optimize this IPFS, Protocol Labs came up with another solution called Filecoin.

FILECOIN

A solution for persistent data storage is what Filecoin is intended to offer. To ensure that miners have successfully stored the data they committed to saving, it follows Proof-of-Spacetime and Proof-of-Replication. In fact, Filecoin allows users to rent underutilized hard drive space because it is built on top of IPFS.

Pros

• Filecoin is developing a decentralized network, where data is copied across numerous places and accessible from anywhere, in favor of a centralized network where information is held in one spot.

• With a cheap substitute for temporary storage, Filecoin aims to upend the current storage economy.

• It has extremely high scalability, connecting millions of computers worldwide to form a massive storage network and motivating the storage of the data.

• Hackers cannot use it as a centralized point of attack, and its permanent data storage.

Cons

• It only offers a monthly leasing contract-based mechanism for storing data; it does not accept a one-time payment to do so.

ARWEAVE

Prior to the development of permissionless crypto networks, Arweave brings a completely novel economic model to the market: permanent holding.

Pros

• Users using permanent storage pay a one-time, upfront cost to keep the data stored indefinitely.

• By utilizing cryptoeconomic game theory and developing an endowment to pay miners for ensuring data availability, dependability, and permanence, this protocol achieves its goal.

• For the first time ever, it makes use of economics to motivate people to keep data for extended periods of time. Using these two together, data, whether public or private, becomes permanent.

• Over 5,000 transactions can occur on the Arweave blockchain every second.

Cons

• Data cannot be modified or deleted;

• When addressing the worldwide market, it contends with some scaling challenges, according to some study.

How Can You Own AR?

One way to own AR is to go through a centralized crypto exchange, so the first step is to create a Gate.io account and complete the KYC process. Once you have added funds to your account, check out the steps to buy AR on the spot or derivatives market.

News on Arweave (AR)

The Arweave team is happy to announce that Arweave storage is now natively available on Avalanche

For everlasting storage in web3 applications, Arweave remains the standard option. Use Arweave to store arbitrary amounts of data in its current, immutable state and be guaranteed its durability and availability for well over 200 years for any decentralized applications requiring really long-term (or permanent) storage.

Users can now use Avalanche wallets and AVAX tokens to pay for long-term storage. With everything on Avalanche being decentralized, including the user interface, smart contracts, and database, this creates a new design area for developing truly decentralized applications. A full-stack decentralized social network or an Avalanche version of Decentraland that is totally decentralized and unchangeable are a couple examples.

The Bundlr Network, which functions as an aggregator on top of Arweave by gathering numerous pieces of data and sending them to the Arweave network in a single base-layer transaction, makes this interoperability possible. By paying to the Arweave network in AR but settling with its users in a currency of their choosing, this enables the bundlr to provide its users with unique payment choices. The obligatory one-time payment for uploading can now be made using AVAX thanks to bundlr.

Source: Arweave @ Medium

Useful References

For the latest updates about Arweave, you can visit:

• The official website
• The official NEWS website
• Twitter
• NEWS Twitter
• Reddit

Take Action on AR

Check out the AR price today and start trading your favorite currency pairs.

• AR/USDT