Arweave

What is Arweave (AR)?

AR is the native coin for Arweave decentralized storage network which runs on the blockchain of the same name. In addition to permanent data storage solutions, Arweave aims to create an immutable Internet archive, sometimes called “Modern Library of Alexandria”.

The AR coin acts as utility and management asset. Arweave is known for using a unique blockchain architecture known as block weaveand ensuring network security with Access confirmation consensus mechanism. It is a decentralized network with a community-based governance system. Arweave’s current price and historical performance can be seen above.

Who founded Arweave?

Arweave was founded Sam Williams and William Jones. Williams is the CEO of Arweave. He studied computer science and began working on Arweave while he and Jones were PhD candidates in computer science. However, Jones left the project in 2018 to pursue his PhD.

The goal of Arweave, as stated in the title of its whitepaper, is “an open, irrevocable, unforgettable and uncensored archive for the Internet.” Its goal is to immortalize the data available on the Internet, using a unique blockchain technology model to reduce the storage and scalability issues faced by other networks.

The scalability problem is twofold: conventional blockchains such as Bitcoin face these problems as their user base grows. As of 2022, the size of the Bitcoin blockchain will exceed 400 gigabytes. However, this is incomparable to the entire history of the Internet. Arweave aims to provide persistent storage capable of handling massive amounts of data.

Working on a project that was originally called Archane, started in August 2017. A few months later, in February 2018, the name was changed and Archain became Arweave. However, the goal of the project remained the same.

The Arweave crypto platform was officially launched in June 2018. Initially, the active community was limited to a group of 1,800 users. However, in June 2020, the platform officially released its profit sharing token to the public. At launch, AR price was around $0.70.

While much of the first year since launch saw relatively low volatility, The price of AR began to experience more frequent fluctuations starting in March 2021. Although the $10 threshold was briefly breached in February, the asset rose to $30 in the spring, peaking within its first 365 days on the market.

As the platform’s awareness grows, one of its key goals is to expand its reach and user base for mass adoption. In November 2021 and April 2022, storage services offered by Arrweave were integrated into Polygon and Avalance blockchainsrespectively.

The second half of 2021 showed even greater market activity. Following broader cryptocurrency trends, the asset peaked in November when Arweave reached $90. The platform ended its second year with a lower position as the price dropped to around $13. However, trends may change due to the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.

What are the features of Arweave?

Arweave token supply is limited to 66 million. Of this amount, 55 million were minted at launch in June 2018. The remaining part is planned to be gradually released into the network as part of mining rewards. Arweave is deflationary. This means that as supply decreases, the price of AR is expected to rise.

Arweave bills itself as a storage platform that offers persistent, censorship-free, and immutable data hosting. Services are inexpensive, and access to data is completely decentralized.

Key features of the AR coin: payment for network services and provision of rewards for mining blocks. Developers pay transaction fees to be able to work on decentralized applications. The cost of Arweave depends on the size and complexity of the project. Arweave supports federated and off-chain transactions.

The team describes Arweave’s hosting model as constant web. The network is not supported by a traditional blockchain, but by a unique structure known as block weave. Here, each block is connected not only to the previous block in the chain, but also to a random block that was added at any point in the past.

The Arweave ecosystem is decentralized and hosts a wide range of blockchain-based applications. Since 2020, Arweave also operates as A project incubator, providing technical support for new applications that will be stored on the platform’s persistent network. It opened Boost program which offers some project repositories and industry resources for free.

Additionally, Arweave can be used to software smart contracts. However, unlike Ethereum, which can be considered the most popular blockchain ecosystem for smart contracts, Arweave uses JavaScript programming language. The AR price for smart contract services depends on the scale of the project.

As with many platforms, miners are rewarded for creating new blocks. Block weaving technology means that miners have more incentive to verify information and create blocks, since each block needs a random counterpart to connect to. The more blocks validators create, the more random combinations are possible.

The network is protected using the type Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism known as Proof of Access (PoA). Since each block is tied not only to the previous block, but also to a random block within the block weave, each new block contains a unique hash of the data of the two blocks.

When using PoA, miners are not required to store the data of the entire block structure, making this consensus mechanism more energy efficient as it reduces energy consumption and storage requirements. However, miners must prove their access to the random blocks involved in the weaving. This acts as an incentive to continually check your data and earn rewards.

Since January 2020, Arweave has been acting as decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)entitled DAO ARCH. The community-based governance platform is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain developers, miners and supporters are eligible to participate in ARCA.

The ARCA DAO is responsible for making decisions regarding the Arweave ecosystem and its protocol. Participants can vote about the distribution of funds, changes to the network and any initiatives that can improve Arweave and its community. The model is completely decentralized and participants can join or leave as they wish.

Before the creation of ARCA DAO the network was partially centralized, since most of the decisions were made by the project team. There is no set AR price or additional financial requirements for applying for DAO membership.