What is Arweave (AR)?

The Arweave cryptocurrency, or AR token, has been introduced as the new generation of decentralized data storage networks. This platform has created a secure and permanent information storage network, and the purpose of introducing this project is to form an Internet network with more durability and reduce the limitations of developers. Using this platform, users and developers can archive sites or resources without time limit. In this way, the Arweave network will lead to the formation of applications with higher efficiency and more ubiquity.

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Arweave was originally launched in 2017 under the name Armchin; yet again in 2018, at the same time as accepting the participation of Arweave team with startup accelerator single stars, it started working with the new title Arweave. Arweave founder and CEO Sam Williams describes the future of the rammer as promising. In 2019, Arweave digital currency was able to generate $5 million in revenue through venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures.

In March 2020, Arweave announced that $8.3 million in additional capital would be used to expand the community of users and developers.

What is Arweave (AR)?

Arweave is a new generation decentralized storage network founded by Sam Williams and William Jones in July 2017. Arweave can be considered a decentralized protocol that uses a blockchain to store global information securely and permanently. Its mission is to minimize developer constraints and create a long-term vision for the entire Internet.

Large amounts of data published on the Internet are lost daily. There are different reasons for this. The storage methods we currently use are vulnerable to hackers, and data published on the network may be lost over time due to user negligence.

One of the main sources of information loss on the Internet is broken links. For many websites, links are usually the only way users can find information. When a link is broken, the website is redirected to a dark web and cannot be found by any search engine. Because of this, all data on the Website is in danger of being lost forever – not to mention the threat posed by centralized organizations, which have the power to manipulate or delete previously published data.

With Arweave, data loss or manipulation on the Internet can be completely eliminated. The innovative blockweave protocol they have developed provides a cheap and scalable solution for on-chain storage, allowing users to archive information on websites forever.

Its P2P protocol allows different users (nodes) with large storage space on their hard drives to connect to the Arweave network and store data for others. The network then rewards these nodes for providing their storage services. As the amount of data stored in a particular system increases, the amount of hashes required for consensus decreases, making data storage more cost-effective.

Aside from storage, the Arweave network is a great platform for developers looking to create more efficient decentralized applications. Flexible network APIs allow programmers to seamlessly build DApps on blockweave. To date, more than 300 applications have been built on the Arweave blockchain.

How Does Arweave Work?

The function of the Arweave protocol can be understood by looking at the two layers involved: blockweave and permaweb.

Blockweave is different from the regular blockchain on which many cryptocurrencies are based. In addition to storing transaction information, blockweave also stores data information in each block. Like other blockchains, each block on the view block points to its previous block. In blockweave, however, this previous block is attached to a randomly selected block called the call block.

The Arweave protocol enables this architecture by employing a completely new consensus mechanism called SPoRA, access proof. This consensus rewards nodes participating in the network to store all Arweave transaction history. Suppose you want to manage a node in the Arweave blockchain. To receive block rewards, you must prove to blockweave that you have full access to the previous block data, along with some randomly selected call blocks.

If you do not have access to the call block, blockweave knows that you are not storing all transaction data in the Arweave blockchain, thus depriving you of any block rewards. These participants encourage the node to store as much data as possible, although they do not have to – it is impossible for them to know which previous data block the system needs to earn the block reward.

Another major component of the Arweave network is permaweb, a decentralized web built on the Arweave blockchain. This is where all Arweave DApps are stored. These DApps can be accessed using multiple gateways that look like regular websites. The Arweave protocol also uses HTTP, enabling permaweb to interact with the WWW.

The team behind Arweave (AR)

British tech entrepreneurs Sam Williams and William Jones founded Arweave in July 2017. The company is registered in Germany. The main Arweave network was launched in June 2018 and its permaweb platform was activated in early 2019.

Sam Williams serves as CEO, while another co-founder, William Jones, served as Chief Technology Officer until August 2018, but has since left the project.

Arweave has raised a total of $22 million in venture capital (VC) funding. The first major round of financing was the initial coin offering (ICO) in June 2018, when the project raised a total of $ 8.7 million. Key investors included Arrington XRP Capital, 1kx and Coefficient Ventures.

In the next major financial rounds, in November 2019 and March 2020, Arweave raised $5 million and $8.3 million, respectively. In both rounds, Anderson Horowitz acted as the main investor. In total, VC funds Arweave with 15 investors, mostly institutional.

In addition to raising VC funds, Arweave has also been active as an investor in a number of blockchain startups. The company invested in four different blockchain projects in five rounds. Funded projects include Mintbase, Meson Network, Redstone and Kyve.

Prior to 2021, AR coins were mainly traded below $5, with a peak price of $7 briefly in late August 2020. AR started 2021 with $2.6. This year proved to be a real breakthrough for the coin.

It crossed its previous high of $7 by mid-February, rising rapidly to $32 by the end of March. However, the collapse of the digital currency market in 2021 did not leave AR coins unaffected. Unlike some other digital currencies, AR was able to recover quickly and confidently from the downturn caused by the market crash. The coin has been on a strong uptrend since late July and is now trading at around $80.

Key Features of Arweave (AR)

These the key features of Arweave (AR):

Ease of Use

Despite the seemingly complex functions of the Arweave network, all the technicalities are covered in its back-end operation, while the front of the network is simplified for the best possible user experience. Storing websites in the Arweave blockchain simply creates a bookmark in your browser via the Arweave browser extension. Pages saved using this extension can be viewed and shared by other users on a decentralized network.

Immutability 

Permanent Arweave Applications – Their rules cannot be changed or altered, even by application developers.

User- & Developer-Centric Ethos 

Since applications cannot be modified or updated, the Arweave protocol rewards developers and encourages them to ensure the quality of the applications they build. It also forces developers to build and engage communities that use their DApps, as this helps streamline migration to a modified version of their DApps.

In conclusion

Arweave is an innovative data storage platform based on a derivative of blockchain technology called blockweave. It has a unique PoA block verification method that helps Arweave to be operational and activates its permaweb platform.

Permaweb is a web-based blockchain of files and applications that is stored in a completely decentralized manner, independent of a central control body. Permaweb is able to store both files, decentralized applications, and support their full functionality.

While permaweb is a decentralized platform, Arweave miners, who also act as storage providers, can delete content that they deem unsuitable for storage on their devices. This criterion, while implying a degree of censorship, is a useful feature to help Arweave avoid becoming an offensive content mess that characterizes some parts of the web around the world.

Arweave is also taking its first steps in delivering DeFi performance through digital payment and DeX solutions. These are being developed under the everFinance brand umbrella.

As demand for data storage services grows rapidly, we expect Arweave to grow confidently and possibly even challenge heavy storage such as Dropbox, Microsoft and Google.