Arweave is a decentralized data storage protocol that leverages blockchain technology to enable permanent and sustainable data storage through a serverless web. It is described as a global, permanent hard drive with a new type of storage that allows users and developers to truly store data securely forever. AR is a native cryptocurrency of the Arweave network and it is used to incentivize participants in the network.^[1]

History

Arweave was founded as a start-up Archana in early 2017 by Sam Williams and William Jones. The Archaic was rebranded as Arweave while completing the start-up acceleration and mentorship program conducted by Techstars Berlin Accelerators, Germany. In April of 2018, Arweave graduated from the program, weaving itself a network of advisors and collaborators.^[2][3][4]

Company and Team

Arweave is registered by the name, Minimum Spanning Technologies Limited in the United Kingdom. It has a headquarter located in London, UK, and currently has 11-50 employees.^[5]

Founder Sam Williams is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. He has done Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kent and has worked as a Technical advisor at Minespider. William Jones was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) when Arweave was founded and he left in August 2018. Jesper Noehr joined Arweave as a new CTO in December 2019. The other notable team members include-^[6][7]

Fundraising

Arweave has raised a total of USD 22 million over 6 funding rounds so far till date. It raised an undisclosed amount of funds in a couple of pre-seed rounds in Q4 2017 and Q1 2018. In June 2018, the team raised little more than USD 8,700,000 through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) round. The ICO round was backed by Arrington XRP Capital, 1kx, Benjamin Kong, and Coefficient Ventures Grand Renfield One. On November 6, 2019, Arweave secured USD 5M in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz and contributions from Union Square Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and a16z Crypto. In another seed round on March 5, 2019, led by Andreessen Horowitz and participation from Coinbase Ventures and a16z Crypto, they raised a total of l USD 8 million. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 1, 2020, from an ICO round backed by Karnika Yashwant.  ^[12][13]

Initial coin offering

Arweave ICO started on June 3, 2018, and within 4 days it raised a total of l USD 8,700,000. The AR token was priced at 0.73 USD and 20.6% of the total supply was available for the round. Before that, the team conducted a pre-sale in march 2018.^[14][15]

Overview

As mentioned in the introduction, Arweave is a decentralized data storage protocol built on the blockchain to enable permanent and sustainable data storage for everyone. It describes itself as a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets and It enables users to remember and securely preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. Preserving history, o prevents others from manipulating or rewriting it. ^[16]

Arweave learned a lesson from all of the knowledge lost in the burning Library of Alexandria. From Plato's writings which had to be rediscovered to the dreadful rewriting of history in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Arweave is taking from the past to ensure that all of the recorded human knowledge is captured for posterity. By levleveragingecentralized and censorship-resistant technology susuchlockchain Arweave aims to protect data from this kind of unfortunate incidents and manipulations and preserve it permanently.

It addresses problems such as faulty storage architectures and solutions, mishandling the data, maandmanipulatingg and rewriting the history associated with centralized storage solutions. It wants to protect and preserve the sum of human knowledge from the complications that occur from centralized power. Thbuiltlt-in redundancy removes the possibility of human error. ^[17]

It proposes several technical innovations, including BHL, WL, BlockWeave, Proof of Access, Wildfire, and Blocand shadows to not only efficiently store massive quantities of data as immutably but also address existing blockchain issues. In addition, it creates crypto-economic incentives for miners to replicate as much data as possible. Their storage costs are covered innovatively, with an up-front fee whose interest accrual perpetually covers the cost of storage over time. All the incentives and transactionstransactionid in native token AR.

Arweave forms a network that connects those with disk space to spare with those who need permanent data storage. This system offers unparalleled levels of data replication and security for users, as well as financial incentives for those storing data, without a middleman. Through decentralization, It offers a new standard of data archiving and storage in which information is globally replicated on hundreds of machines, unaffected by fire, flood, or intentional damage.  ^[18][19]

After conducting multiple testnets in Q1 2018, the first version of the mainnet was launched on June 8, 2018, with a select group of 1800 hand-picked participants across various countries.  ^[20][21]

Technology

Arweave is a complementary system to the Internet, using the blockchain approach to permanently store data, which cannot be changed, and using token incentives to achieve sustainability. To achieve its decentralized storage goal and also solve current blockchain problems such as scalability, slow performance, and high transaction fees, it introduced technologies including BlockWeave, Proof of Access, Wildfire, BHL, Welland, and Band lacks shadows. These innovations complement each other to the Arweave solution. ^[22]

Block weaves

Block weaares is the core technology on which, Arweave is based. This differs in structure from standard blockchains like Bitcoin or Litecoin. In a typical blockchain network like bitcoin, a chain is formed by linking blocks linearly containing transactions while, a block weave is a set of blocks that contain data, linking to multiple previous blocks from the network. In this way, BlockWeave is more of a data structure than a chain. This data structure allows the network to force a criterion that miners provide a ‘Proof of Access’ (PoA) to old data to add new blocks. Doing this reduces miner costs and also allows more on-chain storage.  ^[23][24]

In the Areweave network, each block is linked to two prior blocks: the previous block in the ’chain’(similar to blockchain) and a block from the previous history of the blockchain (the ’recall block’). So this doesn't form a linear chain like other blockchains but ins, head it forms a slightly more complex graph structure known as block weave. The 'recall block' selection depends on thethesh of the previous block and the previous block’s height. This results in a deterministic approach, but the unpredictable choice of the block from the weave’s block history. ^[25]

Proof of Access

The Arweave network uses a Proof of Access (PoA) consensus mechanism to validate blocks before adding to the structure. Proof of Access is an enhancement of Proof-of-work (PoW). A typical PoW system generates the next block only based on the previous block, but the PoA algorithm combines the data of the previous block to randomly select a recall block. As mentioned earlier, It is determined by getting the hash value of the current block and calculating its modulus relative to the height of the current block, ”, which is to be merged into the next block. This gives miners an advantage that they don’t have to store all the blocks (forming a blockchain) which ultimately helps to use storage space efficiently.

To achieve PoA, the miners need access to random blocks from the block weaves history to mine new blocks and so they are incentivized in the form of mining rewards to mine successfully. The PoA algorithm also rewards miners to store ‘rare’ blocks more than it incentivizes them to store well-replicated blocks. This is because when a 'rare block' is chosen, miners with access to it compete amongst a smaller number of miners in the PoW puzzle for the same level of reward. As a consequence of this, miners earn more for storing rare blocks on average compared to the t.^[26][27]

Upgrade to SPoRA

In a recent development, on February 24th, the Arweave network upgraded to use the Succinct Random Proofs of Access (SPoRA) consensus mechanism. It is a new type of consensus mechanism and until block 633720, Arweave was running Proof of Access (PoA). Block 633719 was the last PoA block on the Arweave network before the upgrade and The first SPoRA block mined is 633720.

This upgrade will achieve two things, First, SPoRA will make data retrieval more competitive. It will achieve that by improving incentives for retrieval miners for replicating data more efficiently and more swiftly, ending the era of CPU domination. In simwordsorks, SPoRA will make block weave more decentralized and efficient by disincentivizing resource pooling among CPUs. Secondly, It will reduce the energy required to maintain the network. SPoRA’s architecture requires less energy to maintain, resulting not only in lower overhead for miners but in a cleaner and more efficient system overall. This architecture is a more elegant alignment between resource spending and utility. ^[28]

Black shadows

Black shadows is a new approach to data distribution and it speeds up the propagation of the consensus block. In traditional blockchain networks, newly mined blocks are distributed to every node in the network which greatly limits the amount of data that can be sent in each block. So these blockchains are constrained by the size of the block and If too much data is transferred during block acceptance, the time required to achieve consensus becomes too large and forks emerge in the network. In Areweave, new technology is used that decouples transactions from blocks and when a new block is created and ready for the broadcast, it only sends a "black shadow" to nodes that can be reconstructed by peers. Sending block shadows instead of entire blocks improves the efficiency and speed of computations of transactions on the system. Black shadows allow weaves to reach speeds of up to five thousand transactions per second.

Wallet List (WL) and Block Hash List (BHL)

The WL is a list of all active wallets in the system and BHL contains a list of hashes for all previous blocks. The two are introduced to solve the problem of the slow addition of new nodes in traditional the blockchain. In the regular blockchain, a new node joining requires synchronization of all nodes and verification before it can start participating in the consensus. It consumes a lot of storage and computing resources and also takes a long time. blackjack shadows contain minimal information including a 'hash of the Wallet List' and 'Block HashList', and a list of transaction hashes (instead of the transactions inside a block). By using this information, a node that already holds all of the transactions inside the block, plus an up-to-date 'Block Hash List' and 'Wallet List' can quickly reconstruct an entire block of almost arbitrary size. So this speeds up the entire process and nodes can join the network and participate almost immediately.  ^[29][30]

Wildfire is Arweave’s self-organizing network analysis and ranking system. As a data storage system, Arweave not only needs to be able to store large amounts of information but also needs to provide access to the data in the most convenient way possible. To make this simpler for users, It has added a layer of incentives to encourage miners to freely share data, known as wildfire. It ensures that miners are selfishly incentivized to store and share data as quickly as possible with other miners in the network, in or to a positive reputation. As nodes in block weave networks require fast access to data too mine efficiently, they are selfishly incentivized to give data to other members of the network promptly and continuously, autonomously improving the sharing to lightning-fast speeds. A Wildfire creates a ranking system locally on each node, with each peer ranked by its rank, and the overall network blacklists its peers for poor performance. Peers are encouraged by the economy to maintain their position in the ranking of each other’s nodes.  ^[31][32]

Content Strategy

The Arweave protocol supports a blacklist system which gives nodes the freedom to choose what they want to store. It provides a blacklist system, using which any node has the option to blacklist content that an individual or group of nodes wishes to reject, for example, the hash or string of children of some data it does not want to store, and will never write a matching disk content. The content that is rejected by more than half the network will be rejected across the entire network. These blacklists can be created individually or collaboratively, or imported from other sources.  ^[33][34]

Permaweb

In January 2019, Arweave launched Permaweb, a new form of web or internet. It is an immutable, decentralization web that puts the power back in the hands of the masses. The permaweb offers incentivization and information permanence across a globally distributed network. It’s the web that users can use and run. Permaweb looks just like the traditional web but the difference is anything published on the permaweb is available forever and there will not be errors like HTTP 404!

The permaweb is a layer built on top of the Arweave’s core Arweave data storage layer or global permanent hard drive. It is similar to how HTTP protocol is used to expose the web, which itself is built on top of internet protocol suite typically known as TCP/IP. The permaweb is a collection of interlinked documents and applications similar to the traditional web except all contents are entirely permanent. It is accessible using traditional web browsers as the Arweave network itself is built on top of HTTP.

Incentives

For content creators, the permaweb offers low-cost, zero maintenance, permanent hosting of their web apps and web pages. It enables users to store information and build websites that live forever on a smart blockchain, all while keeping costs low and speeds high. As the Arweave network itself is skeptical about its contents, the permaweb can be used to all kinds of information -- from wikis to PDFs, to videos, and web applications. Once included in the network, these files are always accessible, from any place in the world, at any time. Further, once submitted nobody (including their original uploader) can alter them in any way enforcing consumer integrity for applications, and verifiability for documents, forever.

The miners in the Arweave network are incentivized to serve the permaweb by earning tokens for putting their unused storage space to work. This system provides an incentive to store user data without compromising their privacy.

Server-less Web

The traditional web is built with utilizedized, overpriced servers. These machines are often owned by huge companies like Google and Amazon and wait for requests to provide anyone with web pages. Most of the times, website creators are often paying for capacity they never use. This is not the case with the permaweb and its server-less structure is much more efficient, saving us time and money. Just like Uber or Airbnb lets users make money from their unused car or home, Arweave helps its user to make money from their spare hard drive space by connecting them with people that need web hosting.

Information Freedom

Currently, the traditional web started to become increasingly controlled, monitored, and modified by governments and corporations alike who abuse their power to censor information. This is hugely alarming because the web has become an integral and central way of modern life and it has become an integrated part of our thinking and decision-making Arweave's Permaweb enables users to upload, share and access data and information without any restriction and gives them information freedom. ^[35][36][37]

Web Archiving

Traditional web cannot secure content and information for a longer period and according to the survey, 30% of web link linksk within just two years, Using Arweav's permaweb and wallet extensions on popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Brave and,  Firefox any one archive their favorite content, sites and sources forever. ^[38]

Content Moderation

Similar to tradithetional web, potential abuse of the permaweb is a serious issue. The Arweave community of developers and storers that maintain the network taking this issue seriously and carefully treating this using democratic moderation.

Moderation

In Arweave data, data stores are given the choice of whether to replicate the associated data. The maintainers of the network can filter and screen the transaction in whichever manner they choose,. Using this the. can check against known illicit material, scan the data with computer vision software, etc. Arweave team is working with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to provide network maintainers power to keep their systems safer from any abusive content. As mentioned in content strategy, Data stores can also choose not to replicate any data from the network, if they feel that it is inappropriate.  ^[39][40]

Mining

The users can participate in Arew network by either building applications on top of the Arweave protocol, or they can simply become me miners and earn AR tokens by providing storage space to the Arweave network.

Anyone can mine AR by using t own computer, a dedicated server, or, a VPS/cloud instance. Mining is currently available only on Lthe Linux platform, but other platforms can run Linux virtual macmachinesing VMware or VirtualBox to run mining software. The mining in Areweave is based on Proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism and the mining algorithm used is RandomX. For validating and adding blocksblockse structure, the Proof of Access (PoA) consensus mechanism is used and the hashing algorithm used underneath the PoA is SHA2-384, for which the CPU is the most efficient miner currently available.  ^[41][42]

The users can use CLI wallet or generate a wallet using Google Chrome, Brave or Firefox extensions.  If users don't provide a wallet address on the command line when starting the miner, a new wallet will be created for them and stored in the ‘wallets’ directory. Currently, the users need to consider three major factors to mine efficiently.   ^[43][44]

Building Apps

Developers around the world can interact with the core Arweave protocol using its simple HTTP interface. The Arweave community has built numerous libraries for integrating the protocol in a number of different programming languages, such as JS, PHP, Python, and many others Applications using the weave can be built using a simple REST API. The REST endpoints are HTTP and access the network directly, such that any Arweave wallet is capable of reading and writing data. The user only needs to bring their Arweave wallet to a website through a Chrome/Brave /firefox extension or native application with Arweave wallet integration, to read or write data from/to the net several architectures can be built on top of the weave.  ^[48][49]

Applications

The Arweave community has built many libraries, interfaces and also resources for the Arweave network. Some of these are. The users can find links to these on Arweave's Build page.

Rewards Programs

As part of fostering and improving the ecosystem, the Arweave team introduced 'financial reward programs' to support developers building on the Arweave network.

Tokenomincs

The platform's native tokens are referred to as AR tokens. The token’s main unit is the AR, with sub-unit Winston, where 1 AR = 1,000,000,000,000 Winstons. The tokens are used as a payment for the storage of information on the system. Those payments are then churned out as rewards to miners in the system who participate in the storing and maintenance of information. The token also is used as a means of value exchange.^[54][55]

Arweave Token (AR) has ta otal supply of 66,000,000 AR. 55 million AR were created in the genesis block at the network launch on June 8, 2018. A further 11 million AR, an additional 20% of the genesis block supply, are being introduced into circulation gradually as block mining rewards. AR tokens in circulation are held either in wallets or endowment pools In order a transaction into a block, a user has to pay some AR as a transaction fee. This transaction fee is not transferred in its entirety directly to a miner of this block, unlike in traditional blockchain systems. Rather, most of the transaction fee is contributed towards a storage endowment, which is distributed to the wallets of miners over time.^[56]

Arweave (AR) registered an all-time high of $13.20 USD on May 27, 2020. It is available to trade on Huobi, Hotbit, BittrexeX Bilaxy, and many other cryptocurrency exchanges.^[57][58]

Partnerships

Arweave has already partners with many investment firms and individuals including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Multicoin Capital, a16z Crypto and Coinbase Ventures It has collaborated with Internet Watch Foundation and also supports the Internet Archive.^[59][60]