What is Arweave?

Arweave is a decentralized storage network that ensures data is permanent, affordable, and scalable. Think of it as a global, tamper-proof hard drive where your files—photos, documents, or apps—stay accessible forever. It's the foundation for the AR.IO Network, powering a "permaweb" where data never disappears.

Below, we break down Arweave's core features in a simple, beginner-friendly way.

A Datachain for Permanent Storage

Arweave is like Bitcoin, but for data. It solves one problem really well: storing data permanently. Once uploaded, your data—whether a tweet, NFT, or website—is immutable and preserved indefinitely.

How Does It Work?

• Blockweave Architecture: Unlike a blockchain's single chain, Arweave's blockweave links each new data block to the previous one and a random older block. Data is split into 256 KiB chunks in a secure Merkle tree, ensuring miners keep all data to add new blocks.

• Succinct Proofs of Random Access (SPoRA): Miners prove they store multiple data copies by accessing random chunks, verified efficiently with Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs). This combines proof-of-work and proof-of-storage, making data loss nearly impossible.

In Simple Terms: Picture a library where new books reference older ones, and librarians must keep every book to add more. SPoRA ensures they prove they’ve got the books, keeping your data safe forever.

Pay Once, Store Forever: No Recurring Fees

Pay a one-time fee to upload data, and it's stored "forever"—no subscriptions or renewals.

How Does It Work?

• Endowment Fund: Your fee, based on 200 years of storage for 20 replicas, goes mostly into a fund that slowly pays miners in AR tokens to maintain data. It assumes storage costs drop over time, making the fund sustainable.

In Simple Terms: It's a “forever stamp” for data. Your payment funds a pot that keeps paying storage keepers, lasting longer as tech gets cheaper.

Practically Unlimited Storage

Arweave can practically store unlimited data, from small files to entire digital archives, without hitting a ceiling. The theoretical limit is 2^256 bytes which for scale is more atoms than there are in the universe.

How Does It Work?

• Layer 1 Transactions: Data is stored as 256 KiB chunks on the blockweave, replicated across many nodes. As more nodes join with standard hardware, storage capacity grows limitlessly.

• Bundling with AR.IO Network and Turbo: Bundling packs multiple files into one transaction, reducing costs and congestion. AR.IO Network and Turbo (a Layer 2 tool) optimize this, enabling fast, cheap uploads of large datasets like websites.

What Arweave doesn't solve well? Access

Arweave solve's one problem and solve's it well. Storing your data for a very long-time.

It doesn't, however, incentivise the indexing and access for data.

Ready to Dive Deeper?

Arweave powers a permaweb where apps, websites and data live forever. For AR.IO Network developers, it's the bedrock for unstoppable decentralized applications. Learn more in the next section: What is AR.IO Network.

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