What is Arweave (AR)?
AR is the native coin for the Arweave decentralized storage network that runs on the blockchain of the same name. Alongside its permanent data storage solutions, Arweave aims to build an immutable internet archive – sometimes described as “the modern Library of Alexandria”.
The AR coin acts as a utility and governance asset. Arweave is known for employing a unique blockchain architecture, known as the blockweave, and securing the network via the Proof-of-Access consensus mechanism. It’s a decentralized network with a community-based governance system. The current Arweave price and its historical performance can be seen above.
Who Founded Arweave?
Arweave was co-founded by Sam Williams and William Jones. Williams is the CEO at Arweave. He studied computer science and started working on Arweave when both he and Jones were PhD candidates in Computer Science. However, Jones left the project in 2018 to keep pursuing his PhD.
The goal of Arweave, as stated in the title of its whitepaper, is “an open, irrevocable, unforgettable and uncensorable archive for the internet”. It aims to immortalize the data available online while using a unique model of blockchain technology to reduce the storage and scalability issues experienced by other networks.
The scalability issue is two-fold – regular blockchains, such as Bitcoin, experience these problems as the userbase grows. As of 2022, the Bitcoin blockchain size exceeds 400 gigabytes. However, it’s incomparable to the entire size of the history of the internet. Arweave aims to provide permanent storage that can handle immense amounts of data.
Work on the project, which was initially titled Archain, started in August 2017. Several months later, in February 2018, the title was changed, and Archain became Arweave. However, the intention of the project remained the same.
The Arweave crypto platform 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. Upon this launch, the AR price was around $0.70.
While the larger part of the first year from its launch showed relatively low volatility, the AR price started experiencing more frequent fluctuations starting in March 2021. Although the $10 threshold was briefly passed in February, during spring, the asset value climbed up to $30, reaching its peak for the first 365 days in the market.
As the platform's recognizability grows, one of its key goals is to increase its reach and expand the user base for mass adoption. In November 2021 and April 2022, the storage services offered by Arrweave were integrated on Polygon and Avalance blockchains, respectively.
The latter part of 2021 showed even more market activity. Following the broader crypto trends, the asset peaked in November, when the Arweave price reached $90. The second year for the platform closed with a lower position, as the value dropped to roughly $13. However, the trends are subject to change due to crypto market volatility.
What Are the Features of Arweave?
Arweave token supply is capped at 66 million. Of this amount, 55 million were minted upon launch in June 2018. The remaining supply is set to be gradually released on the network as part of the mining rewards. Arweave is deflationary. This means that as the supply grows smaller, the AR price value is expected to rise.
Arweave positions itself as a storage platform that offers permanent, censorship-free, and immutable data hosting. The services are low-cost, and the data access is fully decentralized.
The main utilities of the AR coin are paying for the network services and granting rewards for block mining. Developers pay transaction fees to be able to work on decentralized applications. The Arweave price value depends on the scale and complexity of the project. Arweave supports bundled and off-chain transactions.
The team describes the Arweave hosting model as the permaweb. The web is maintained not by a traditional blockchain but by a unique structure known as the blockweave. Here, each block is connected not just to the prior block on 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 broad range of blockchain-based apps. As of 2020, Arweave also works as a project incubator, providing technical support for new applications that will be stored on the platform’s permaweb. It has opened a “Boost” program that offers some of the project storage and industry resources free of charge.
Additionally, Arweave can be used to program smart contracts. However, unlike Ethereum, which can be considered as the most popular blockchain ecosystem for smart contracts, Arweave uses the JavaScript programming language. The AR price for the smart contract services depends on the project scale.
As on many platforms, miners are rewarded for creating new blocks. The blockweaving technology means that the miners are more incentivized to validate the information and build blocks since each block needs a random counterpart to connect to. The more blocks that the validators produce, the more random combinations are possible.
The network is secured using a type of Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Access (PoA). Since each block is tied not just to the previous block but also to a random one within the blockweave, each new block contains a unique hash with the data of the two blocks.
With PoA, miners are not required to store the data of the entire blockweave, making this a more energy-efficient consensus mechanism as it reduces energy consumption and storage requirements. However, the miners must prove their access to the random blocks involved in the “weaving”. This acts as an incentive to continuously validate the data and earn rewards.
Since January 2020, Arweave has acted as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), titled the ARCA DAO. The community-based governance platform is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain. Developers, miners, and blockchain backers are eligible to participate in ARCA.
The ARCA DAO is responsible for making decisions regarding the Arweave ecosystem and its protocol. Members can vote on fund allocations, network changes, and any initiatives that may improve Arweave and its community. The model is completely decentralized, and members may also join or leave as they wish.
Prior to establishing the ARCA DAO, the network was partly centralized, as most of the decision-making was done by the project team. There is no set AR price or additional financial prerequisites to apply for DAO membership.
