How Arweave works and why it exists

This article briefly introduces how Arweave works and its value, helping you understand the vision of the Permaweb and Arweave.

Today, the Internet environment is very bad, with misinformation, fake news, and broken links everywhere on the Internet... While historical buildings around the world have stood the test of time, our nascent digital world is being damaged at an alarming rate.

If there was a solution that could safely store our knowledge, permanently record our wonderful moments, and never tamper with any data, how great it would be! Arweave is helping you achieve this goal.

The risks of relying on centralized storage

Since the implementation and widespread use of global network architecture and storage practices, the situation has changed dramatically in a short period of time. At first, the feat of being able to connect computers around the world was exciting, as if it had ushered in a new era of free flow of information. However, today, we are facing an embarrassing reality: a large amount of data is being controlled by a few large storage service providers, and this trend of centralization has aroused a lot of attention and discussion.

This centralized data control is not without risks. As George Orwell said in "1984": "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Although there are solutions like the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive, they cannot always guarantee the security and authenticity of data.

How Arweave solves this problem

Arweave proposes a solution to the problems of censorship, data loss and deletion, which uses a decentralized permanent data storage ledger. By distributing infrastructure among multiple independent storage providers around the world, Arweave operates as a storage solution without relying on centralized control.

The benefits of this solution are numerous, to name just a few:

• Permanent storage solutions mean broken hyperlinks and persistent “404 page not found” errors become a thing of the past.

• Authors of publications such as news articles, research papers, and court documents can be confident that their resources will be permanently accessible.

• Consumers and investors can rely on verifiable timestamps and edit histories to protect against fraud.

• Digital information can be traced back to its origin, a useful tool needed to combat the proliferation of misinformation.

Of course, there are other projects working towards this goal, but what makes Arweave different is: "pay once, store forever". This is in stark contrast to the current rental model of various storage solutions.

The decentralization of the Arweave protocol and its incentive scheme to keep node operators running the system are key to the platform's ability to remain up and running. Arweave has many unique features that cannot be expanded one by one in this short introduction, but an overview of some core concepts will help you grasp the overall picture.

Technical Features of Arweave

To maintain impartiality and immutability, Arweave uses cryptographic proof of storage as a method of verifying network data.

Node operators who contribute to the network should be rewarded to cover their costs. This is achieved by automatically issuing Arweave's native $AR cryptocurrency. $AR is used to pay transaction fees, store data, retrieve data, and interact with Permaweb applications. There are 66 million $AR in total, 55 million of which were minted in the genesis block in 2018. The remaining 11 million are gradually released as mining rewards.

Arweave's protocol currently redirects approximately 83% of network transaction fees to a Storage Fund, which is used to support the long-term operating costs of the network. In the first quarter of 2024, more than 11,400 $AR were allocated to the Storage Fund, which was worth more than $500,000 at the exchange rate at the time. Storage costs are based on the assumption that the cost of data storage decreases over time, and are calculated based on a model that extends storage into the future 200 years.

Arweave's approach to recording data and rewarding miners is similar to other cryptocurrency protocols (such as Bitcoin), but there are also significant differences. While Bitcoin requires nodes to maintain a complete list of every transaction (called a blockchain), Arweave only requires miners to show proof of the latest block and another randomly selected block. Arweave is therefore not a traditional blockchain, but a Blockweave, with a unique miner selection technique that forms part of the Succinct Proof of Random Access (SPoRA) consensus mechanism.

Since miners cannot be sure which random block will be chosen, they are incentivized to store as much data as possible. Factors such as read and write speeds, network speed, and computing power can quickly give owners of high-performance devices a competitive advantage. This is evident in the Bitcoin ecosystem, where powerful pools of computers are required to compete for block rewards. Over the past few years, Arweave has addressed these centralization risks through multiple iterations of its protocol. In the most recent network upgrade, a cryptographic clock called a hashchain was introduced, which effectively limits the scope of computation to that of a standard mechanical hard drive.

Currently, Arweave costs about $35 per GB of storage, which seems a bit more expensive than other Web2 or Web3 solutions. However, Arweave provides a service that is permanent storage with a one-time payment, which seems to be very cost-effective.

As for the content storage method, it is public and unencrypted by default (although there are Permaweb services that provide additional encryption services).

Since the Arweave network is like a public archive, it faces the risk of storing sensitive, harmful or even illegal materials. Therefore, if the storage provider does not want to, it can choose not to store these files.

The content policies supported by the protocol and various layers provide a security mechanism for users and operators. Imagine how embarrassing it would be if you were a miner and needed to explain to the local government why some illegal content was stored on your device.

While we can go into more detail about the technical features of Arweave, these concepts should give you a basic understanding of the Arweave network and how it is maintained. The fun is just beginning!

Permaweb and Other Applications

Arweave’s network is like a trusted archive, but it can be used for much more than that. The Arweave ecosystem will truly come to life when people and applications are able to leverage the data on Arweave and integrate it into their daily lives, and this is where the Permaweb comes in.

The Permaweb is a second-layer network built on Arweave. It is like a bustling shopping mall, and various Permaweb applications are like unique stores in the shopping mall with different functions. Users can access these applications through “gateways” that look and feel like ordinary websites. More importantly, Permaweb sites use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which means that users can access the Permaweb just like any other site on the World Wide Web.

There are a ton of projects being built in this ecosystem, from the hyper-parallel @aoTheComputer, to Arweave Name Service (https://ans.gg) and @viamirror.

Arweave and the Permaweb bring countless novel use cases to decentralized storage. For a more comprehensive look at the projects, services, and applications built on Arweave, visit https://arweavehub.com/discover.

Given Arweave’s goal to be a permanent archive of the world’s information, it’s well suited to meet the stringent storage requirements of other crypto projects. As the industry continues to grow, so too does the scale of the underlying protocols and the need for suitable storage solutions. Collaborative tools like KYVE make this possible.

Learn more and how to participate

Whether you are uploading data, hosting a node, or building a decentralized application, Arweave can support you. But new technologies are often difficult to learn. In order to help you smoothly start your journey in the Arweave ecosystem, we have compiled some useful resources below.

Auxiliary tools and materials

• Arweave official website:

  http://arweave.org

• Arweave White Paper Book: 

  http://arweave.org/files/arweave-lightpaper.pdf…

• Arweave Cost Calculator: 

  http://arweave.net/71giX-OY-3LwXtfr44B2dDyzW8mPHEAKA-q0wGT0aRM…

• Arweave Wiki: 

  http://arwiki.wiki

• Arweave browser: 

  http://viewblock.io/arweave

• Arweave ecological project:

  http://arweavehub.com/discover

Related Communities



• Developer Guide:

  < p style="text-align: left;">http://cookbook.arweave.dev

• Arweave Fund: 

  http://arweave.org/funding

• Only Arweave: http://onlyarweave.com Permaweb Pioneers Podcast: http://permaweb-pioneers.simplecast.com Conclusion Arweave is the best choice if you want to record historical data in a fair and transparent way. We should avoid placing our hopes for storage on a few centralized companies that are only for profit, and with the current massive spread of false information, decentralized storage is undoubtedly the best way. Arweave's distributed platform provides a permanent storage solution for the increasing risk of centralized control.