Arweave is a decentralized storage network and blockchain project that aims to provide an endless storage platform for data.
The network, which bills itself as a “collectively owned hard drive that never forgets,” is chiefly responsible for hosting “the permaweb” — a permanent, decentralized web comprised of a variety of community-driven apps and services.
What is Arweave (AR)?
1. Who Controls Arweave (AR)?
Arweave has more than 1,000 nodes, 150,000 users and 157 million files, Arweave co-founder Sam Williams said through a spokesperson.Arweave is a software that seeks to store files permanently across a distributed network of computers. Its goal is to build something not unlike the fabled Library of Alexandria: a digital archive that persists in perpetuity.
2. Who Created Arweave (AR)?
Arweave was founded by Sam Williams and William Jones, two Ph.D. candidates at the University of Kent. Williams came to the project with experience in decentralized and distributed systems, having developed an operating system called HydrOS as a part of his studies, while Jones’ focus was on graph theory and neural networking. While Williams dropped out of graduate school to focus on the company, Jones left the project early on in mid-2018 and completed his Ph.D.
According to Williams, he came up with the idea while walking up a mountain in Scotland, later bringing the concept to Jones, with whom he developed the technical details. After launching Arweave, Williams was later named an advisor to Minespider, a company providing blockchain-based supply chain tracking for the raw materials industry, and he has served as a mentor for the Techstars accelerator program.
Although Arweave was founded with centralized leadership, it launched a decentralized autonomous organization in January 2020 comprised of core community members to further the development and expansion of the network and its ecosystem.
3. Arweave (AR) Pros and Cons
Arweave (AR) Pros:
- There are a lot of benefits that Arweave’s strategy brings to the market. For one, it’s among the first decentralized networks dedicated to permanent data hosting. The platform provides borderless access to the global market. Anyone, from anywhere, can leverage Arweave’s network to support their advanced creations.
- Arweave integrates a variety of top-level security features. For example, the system integrates enterprise-grade encryption to keep your data safe. This data is not accessible by the nodes hosting the information. Impressively, even Arweave can’t view your data.
- Additionally, there is no risk of loss because your data is hosted across multiple nodes simultaneously. If one goes down or is corrupted, the others can fill the void and keep your data accessible. In this way, Arweave users enjoy more security than its centralized competition can provide.
Arweave (AR) Cons:
- Despite the validation the Arweave blockchain has received, it is still a relatively new concept that could easily fail to be scalable enough to capture a wider market. Suppose it fails to hack the scalability issue, it may lose the market and eventually be detrimental to AR holders.
- Arweave utilizes new technologies to provide a service that is undoubtedly needed in the computing and information management world. However, there is stiff competition in the blockchain industry and suppose a better project is introduced, the AR token could plummet and hurt AR holders financially.
4. The Difference Between Arweave (AR) and Traditional Currencies
The main difference between them is, the traditional currency is a centralized system and bitcoins are decentralized one and peer-peer systems. Hence there are no central authorities to regulate rules and regulations on a bitcoin transaction. But a traditional currency is strictly regulated by the governmental authorities. Both the bitcoins and fiat currency have values which can be used for buying and selling of goods in the market.
- Flexibility
With traditional currency functioning for five days a week and die to transaction restriction, there is a chance of freezing of currency. There is no limit in the number of currencies, being printed, and hence when there is inadequate currency, it will affect the buyers and sellers, resulting in inflation.
- No Fraudulent Activity
If you want to transact with a traditional currency system, the users have to provide personal details like name, address, phone number, and lots more. So, with the internet technology, the malicious user will be able to hack the account details of the traditional currency system easily. Traditional currency can suffer from double-spending, where the same money is used for more than one transaction.
- Reduced Cost
In a traditional banking system, for making a national transaction, it will take 2-3 working days, and the transaction fees will be high. In the case of international transactions, the transaction fee will be very higher, and it will take 15 days to complete the transaction. In a Cryptocurrency system like bitcoins, there is no transaction fee for making a national transaction. The transaction will also take place in seconds or within 24 hours.
5. Is It Safe To Use Arweave (AR)?
The files are encrypted and stored safely and only backup data that you approve thus protecting you against ransomware. Since all the data you save is stored on Arweave it will always be safe and available.
Arweave is a new type of technology that uses a form of database to store data that cannot be deleted or changed, and uses economics to incentive people to store the data for long periods of time for the first time ever. This combination makes either public or private data permanent.
6. Is Arweave (AR) Legal?
Yes, it is. While it has never had to be used, Arweave possesses a unique decentralized Content Policy Mechanism that assures a democratic consensus on moderation policies.
Each node could state policies on what is worthy of being stored on its servers. If its rules are too harsh and it rejects too many transactions, this will lead to fewer rewards; if the node’s rules are too permissive, it will end up storing data that the rest of the nodes didn’t want. Now, you can already see here that if a public body, let’s say the EU, wants harsher content policies they only have to become a part of the network and run their own nodes.
Is this mechanism bulletproof? Of course not, but counter-intuitively it’s perfect for the network’s final goal. Usually, our views of what is good or not, or what is essential or not, are linked with biased mindsets. As little as it is, my background in archaeology gives me the means to appreciate the “unwanted” parts of history, which sometimes is preserved without the willingness of late generations. The dicks carved on Pompei’s walls are equally important as exquisite mosaics. An archaeologist will take more information from a gutter than from the walls of a palace.
How Does Arweave (AR) Work?
According to its yellow paper, Arweave seeks to ensure the “collective ability to store and share information between individuals and across time to new generations.” In order to accomplish this goal, its flagship permaweb is built on top of Arweave’s “blockweave,” a variation of blockchain technology in which each block is linked to both the one immediately prior and also a random earlier one. Arweave says this incentivizes miners to store more data because they need to be able to access random previous blocks to add new ones and receive rewards.
Arweave is focused on building a sustainable ecosystem around the network. In June 2020, it unveiled “profit sharing tokens,” which allow developers to receive dividends when network transaction fees are generated from their application, and it hosts incubators to support the building of permaweb-based apps. The project also works with startups through its “Boost” program, offering free storage and access to the Arweave team and industry investors.
In March 2020, Arweave announced that it had received $8.3 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. This followed an earlier November 2019 investment also from Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, as well as Multicoin Capital.
How to Make Money with Arweave (AR)?
Here are quite a few approaches for us to make money with Arweave (AR), such as Mining, Buying & Hold Bitcoins, Accept Payments in Arweave (AR), Earning Arweave (AR) by turning into an Affiliate, Lending Arweave (AR), and Micro Earnings, and Trading.
- Arweave (AR) Mining
- Buy & Hold Arweave (AR)
- Accept Payments in Arweave (AR)
- Determine how you’ll use Arweave (AR)
- Find a Arweave (AR) wallet
- Find a Arweave (AR) payment processor
- Accept Arweave (AR) payments
- Becoming an Affiliate
- Lending Arweave (AR)
- Micro Arweave (AR) Earnings (Faucets, Offer Wall, Short Links, Surf Ads……)
- Arweave (AR) Games
- Micro Arweave (AR) Tasks
- Trade Arweave (AR)
How to Buy Arweave (AR)?
1. Things To Know Before You Buy Arweave (AR)
Buying Arweave (AR) and holding onto it in hopes it will appreciate in value, is the most common form of “investing”. As with all investing, you should never invest more than you are willing/able to lose. This is especially true with Arweave (AR), since it’s still a very risky investment.
The most important thing to keep in mind when buying Arweave (AR) is to make sure to buy only from exchanges that have proven their reputation.
Another key tip is to make sure you don’t buy all of your Arweave (AR)s in one trade. Instead use a dollar cost averaging method—buy a fixed amount every month, week or even day throughout the year. This ensures that you buy the most Arweave (AR) when it’s on the rise, and less when it’s going down in price.
2. How to Buy Arweave (AR) on a Crypto Exchange
- Coinbase – Secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency.
- eToro – Trade and invest in a diversified portfolio, starting at $10, or practise risk-free with a virtual portfolio.
- Bitfinex – Digital asset trading platform offering state-of-the-art services for digital currency traders and global liquidity providers.
- Binance – Low trading fees, a generously wide range of leverage, and high liquidity.
- KuCoin – A large cryptocurrency exchange offering the ability to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies
3. How to Buy Arweave (AR) with Cash
- Find a seller in your area who accepts cash.
- Select amount of coins and place an order.
- Receive account number from the seller.
- Deposit cash into the seller’s account.
- Upload your receipt to prove you made the deposit/trade.
- Receive Arweave (AR)!
4. How to Buy Arweave (AR) with Credit Card
Not all platforms will allow you to use a credit card to make your Arweave (AR) purchases. If you do choose a platform allowing such transactions, keep in mind that there may be extra fees associated with the purchase. Many credit card companies process cryptocurrency purchases via credit card as cash advances, which can incur high interest rates, among other fees.
5. How to Buy Arweave (AR) with Paypal
- Login to Paypal and Select Cryptocurrency
- Select ‘Arweave (AR)’
- Select ‘Buy’
- Choose How Much You Want to Buy
- Select Payment Method
- Hit the ‘Buy’ button
How to Sell Arweave (AR)?
1. Things to Know Before You Sell Arweave (AR)
To get started with Arweave (AR), you’re going to need three things: an exchange, a wallet and the knowledge of how to buy the cryptocurrency. This last one is easy with our guide on how to buy Arweave (AR), but the other two are still important. The exchange allows you to buy Arweave (AR) from sellers, and the wallet gives you somewhere to store it long term.
When choosing an exchange, you should look for one with many users, good customer support and low fees. Three particularly popular exchanges with newcomers are Coinbase, Robinhood and Binance. However, there’s nothing really tying you to a specific exchange, so you can try new ones and quickly change at any time.
On the other hand, wallets can be much more complex. “Cold wallets” — physical devices holding cryptocurrencies offline — come with a steep up-front cost, but “hot wallets” — pieces of software that hold your coins on a computer — are often less secure. However, since hot wallets are fine for short-term storage and free to set up, it’s a good idea to start with them.
2. Sell Arweave (AR) in Cryptocurrency Exchanges
- Step 1: Set up an exchange account
- Step 2: Transfer your Arweave (AR) to your exchange wallet
- Step 3: Place a sell order
3. Sell Arweave (AR) in P2P Trading
- Step 1: Go to the P2P Trading Page
- Step 2: Choose to Sell and Set Your Currencies
- Step 3: Find a Buyer
- Step 4: Choose How Much You Want to Sell
- Step 5: Send the Offer
- Step 6: Confirm the Release
4. Sell Arweave (AR) in Arweave (AR) ATMs
- Step 1: Choose withdraw cash
- Step 2: Choose Arweave (AR) (these machines normally may support other cryptocurrencies)
- Step 3: Choose amount to withdraw
- Step 4: Send Arweave (AR) to given address QR code
- Step 5: Receive cash immediately as Arweave (AR) transaction is propagated on the network
What Is Arweave (AR) Mining?
Arweave (AR) mining is the process of creating new Arweave (AR) by solving extremely complicated math problems that verify transactions in the currency. When a Arweave (AR) is successfully mined, the miner receives a predetermined amount of Arweave (AR).
1. How Does Arweave (AR) Mining Work?
If you do not provide a wallet address on the command line when starting the miner, a new wallet will be created for you and stored in the ‘wallets’ directory. When you run the miner again, you will want to pass the generated wallet address on the command line. Any valid Arweave wallet address will work for mining. For example, you can use a wallet that was generated in the Arweave web extension for mining purposes — you just need the wallet address.
You don’t have to store the whole weave to mine, there’s no set minimum requirement. However, the more data you store, the more likely you are to receive mining rewards from the network.
2. How to Mine Arweave (AR)?
Download the .tar.gz archive for your OS from the releases page.
Extract the contents of the archive. It’s recommended to unpack it inside a dedicated directory. You can always move this directory around, but the miner may not work if you move only some of the files. The weave data would, by default, be stored in this directory as well, but we recommend to override it using the data_dir command-line argument.
If your OS/platform architecture is not in the list, check the source code repository README for how to build the miner from source.
How to Get Free Arweave (AR)?
Most genuine websites that allow you to earn free Arweave (AR) require you to spend money on other things like buying cloud computer mining power, connecting your CPU for mining, playing a game, or completing micro-tasks.
In other words, they offer free Arweave (AR)s as an advertisement for their services. Otherwise, it takes time and effort to get free Arweave (AR) given its current high value.
- Arweave (AR) Faucet
- Arweave (AR) PTC Sites
- Arweave (AR) Airdrop
- Arweave (AR) GameFi
- Arweave (AR) Bounties
- Learning About Arweave (AR)
- Shopping Reward
- Arweave (AR) Interest
- Owning a Arweave (AR) Faucet
- Write about Arweave (AR)
- Arweave (AR) Affiliate Program
- Free Arweave (AR) Cloud Mining
What is a Arweave (AR) Wallet?
1. Arweave (AR) Wallets for Beginners
- ArConnect
ArConnect is a browser extension which serves as Arweave’s wallet management and login pass for apps. It lets you view and transfer assets, manage your balance and see your latest transactions of all of your wallets. It also allows you to interact with many Arweave applications (or dApps).
Since transaction signing and encryption works in the background via the extension rather than the application, your keyfile can’t be stolen. It is a more secure solution than uploading your keyfile, as transactions happen locally on the clients side.
They do not charge fees for AR or PST transfers inside the extension but they do charge a small fee when interacting with dApps. When a third party application uses ArConnect, a small tip is charged which goes to a randomly selected VRT token holder.
- ArDrive
ArDrive is a decentralised, community owned data storage platform offering storage that lasts forever. It offers storage of NFTs, personal photos and videos, documents, and even archives to webpages. ArDrive offers multi-file uploads, secure and public, as well as censorship-free sharing of files. People use ArDrive to share articles, books, recordings, photos and code.
ArDrive offers a “pay-per-life” payment plan rather than a subscription based one meaning you don’t have to pay recurring fees to store and access your data. It also ensures that all data stays with you regardless of the company’s terms and services, for example, in case your account is inactive for a long time.
Since ArDrive lets you store your data on the permaweb, your files will be stored no matter what, you will have full access and control of them even if ArDrive goes out of business.
- Arweave Dev Discord
For support with permaweb development, it’s worth joining the Arweave Dev community. It has the core developers of the Arweave team and ecosystem. It’s a useful server for developers to give and get help with issues concerning development. There are also channels for app ideas, SmartWeave help, gateways, testweave and more.
2. How To Make A Arweave (AR) Paper Wallet?
Although there are ways to manually generate a private key, the vast majority of paper wallet creators use a private key generator. Once a private and public key have been created, you are able to print a paper wallet, which because it’s not online doubles as a cold storage wallet. This will include the public and private key you’ve generated, usually as both a string of characters and QR codes.
Anyone with a paper wallet’s public key can send crypto to it as often as they like. Using the corresponding private key, you can move the crypto balance of the paper wallet into a software wallet. This transfers the funds to a new private key on your software wallet.
3. Ways To Set Up a Arweave (AR) Wallet
There are many Arweave (AR) wallets out there, and all of them differ in their characteristics. Mobile software wallets are great for day-to-day use, while desktop software wallets bring about a great balance between convenience and security. Lightweight web wallets are the best choice for quick online transactions. Cold encrypted hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor are the best for long-term storage of bitcoin. However, unlike other options, hardware wallets aren’t free and cost $50 or more.
Set up a Arweave (AR) Software Wallet
- Mycellium
- Bread (BRD) wallet
- Bitcoin wallet
- Electrum
- Samourai
Set up a Arweave (AR) Web Wallet
- Coinbase
- Blockchain.info
- BTC.com
- Rahakott
- BitGo
Set up a Arweave (AR) Hardware Wallet
- Ledger
- Trezor
- BitLox
- KeepKey
How to Buy and Sell Arweave (AR) In Different Area?
1. How to Buy and Sell Arweave (AR) in India?
You can get Arweave (AR) in India mainly through buying and mining. To buy it, you can use several online exchanges such as WazirX, Coinbase, BuyUcoin, and CoinDCX. Choosing the best online exchange is another task, but here are a few things you should keep in mind while buying the cryptocurrency in India.
- It’s best to go with an exchange that allows you to withdraw cryptocurrency in INR to your personal online wallet for safekeeping
- Make sure that the internet connection is secure. Also, don’t forget to use safe internet practices like two-factor authentication and unique and strong passwords.
- KYC aka Know Your Customer verification is a must, at least in India. For that, you can use a PAN card and valid address proof
- Now, add the bank account that is linked to your PAN card. Verification will take around 2-3 days
After the verification is complete, you can start trading Arweave (AR) in India. Money from your bank accounts can be transferred using NEFT, RTGS, and debit and credit cards. Currently, the value of one Bitcoin is around 27 lakh; however, you don’t have to buy a whole coin to begin investing. You can buy Bitcoin in parts, i.e. small investments for as low as Rs 500. That way, you will own a small percentage of the cryptocurrency.
2. How to Buy and Sell Arweave (AR) in Canada?
- Sign up and get KYC (Know-Your-Customer) verified on a Canadian crypto exchange like Bitbuy.
- Deposit CAD to the exchange directly from your bank account.
- Buy Arweave (AR).
- Store Arweave (AR) on your exchange account or transfer it to a wallet.
3. How To Buy and Sell Arweave (AR) In The UK?
- Create a Coinbase account.
- Complete identity verification to access fiat payment options.
- Navigate to the Accounts and select the GBP wallet.
- Fund your account using Bank Transfer or other methods.
- Once the deposit is complete, go to the Buy/Sell page and select GBP to Arweave (AR).
4. How To Buy Arweave (AR) in the United States?
The best way to buy and sell Arweave (AR) in the USA is through an exchange such as Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Coinmama, Binance, or Changelly. There is a plethora of options available, so it is best to look at each of the exchanges’ processes for deposits and withdrawals, fees, and transaction speeds to determine which is best for you.
Arweave (AR) FAQs
1. Arweave (AR) History
Founded in 2017 as Archain, the company changed its name to Arweave in 2018 while completing the Techstars Berlin mentorship program. Arweave’s mission is to make permanent, low-cost storage a reality. The company aims to accomplish its goal with the Arweave network, a block-based data structure called a “blockweave”.
Arweave’s blockweave underpins the Arweave permaweb, an array of data, websites, and applications that are hosted on the blockweave. Since the Arweave protocol is built on top of the HTTP protocol, the permaweb is accessible via modern web browsers like Brave or Google Chrome. Aiming to store data on the network in perpetuity, the Arweave protocol enables individuals with spare hard drive space to store data in exchange for AR tokens. Arweave anticipates that the cost of storage will continue to decrease and uses a formula to calculate how much it will cost to store a particular piece of data. All of Arweave’s assumptions can be found in its yellowpaper.
The Arweave mainnet launched in June of 2018 with a select group of 1800 hand-picked participants across various countries. Before the launch, the Arweave team also conducted an initial token sale limited to whitelisted individuals.
In November of 2019, Arweave secured a $5 million funding round from several venture capital firms in exchange for $5 in Arweave tokens. Six months later, the Arweave team raised another $8.3 million in exchange for AR tokens. However, after this round, the firm stated that it would use the new funds to incentivize community adoption and growth.
2. How can I start archiving web pages on the Arweave?
Users who purchased AR.cash tokens in our pre-sale event are able to immediately queue webpages for archiving on the main network after its launch. Pre-sale backers can queue pages by installing the Arweave web extension for Google Chrome, entering their public key obtained during the pre-sale. From then on, users can simply press one button to queue a web page for archiving once the main Arweave network launches. For details of network release dates, please see our dedicated timeline blog post.
Alternatively, pre-sale backers can try out the archiving function by installing the Arweave alpha test network web extension. It’s important to note that web pages submitted to the test network via the alpha test network web extension will not be archived on the main network automatically.
At the moment, the Arweave web extensions are accessible only with the Google Chrome web browser, though in the future additional browser support will be added.
3. When and how will I be able to view information archived on the Arweave network?
Arweave will be releasing an online ‘blockweave explorer’ later this year, which will allow users to review information archived on the Arweave. Additionally, when information is archived on the Arweave, it is given a unique transaction identifier, allowing anyone to retrieve that information from the network at any later point.
I purchased tokens during the Arweave pre-sale. When can I access my tokens?
After the main Arweave network has been launched, individuals will be able to access their tokens for use, transfer, and trade on the Arweave network.
4. Can I load my AR.cash tokens/keys into a third party wallet (e.g. MyEtherWallet)?
Due to the unique scaling benefits of the Arweave network and the novel technology on which it is based, the Arweave is developed on an entirely new platform. AR.cash tokens are therefore not currently compatible with other wallet programs such as MyEtherWallet or Jaxx. Arweave tokens will be usable through the Arweave web extension, the details of which you can read about in our whitepaper.
5. This sounds exciting! How do I start mining for myself?
If you participated in the Arweave pre-sale at the ‘Developer’ tier or higher , you can begin mining on the Arweave test network immediately. You may want to mine on the test network now to ensure that you have your mining environment fully established and ready to go when the main network launches.
After the first non-backer alpha test network has launched (see our timeline blog post for details), those not involved in the Arweave pre-sale will also be able to participate in mining.
What is the difference between the test networks and the ‘main’ Arweave network?
The Arweave test network releases are purely for purposes of ensuring network correctness. Any activities that take place on the test networks will be subject to loss on network reset. Once the main network has been released and the testing phase has been finished, no more hard-resets on the network will be performed, meaning that all activities (archiving, transfers, mining, etc.) will persist indefinitely.
