Arweave
Arweave is a decentralized permanent data storage solution allowing anyone to store and preserve data for a one-time fee.
Website: https://www.arweave.org/
HQ: Holborn, Camden, United Kingdom
Active Markets: Global
Problem Addressed
Permanency of information found on the internet is undercut by phenomena such as link rot, gated publishing models, and surveillance. This information is subject to potential manipulation, censorship, or removal.
Project Description
The Arweave platform provides a permanent information storage solution. Permanent storage has many applications, from the preservation of humanity's most important data, to the hosting of truly decentralized and provably neutral web apps. Arweave offers a “pay once, store forever” model that makes data storage accessible and permanent. It matches people who have hard drive space to spare with individuals and organizations that need to store data or host content permanently. Data is stored on-chain, benefitting from the immutability of a decentralized blockchain network.
Business Data
Status: Active
Constituency Served: Creatives, general public
Networks: L1 Agnostic (L0)
Known Investors: a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Iron Key Capital, Karnika Yashwant, Unanimous Capital, Union Square Ventures, 1kx
Additional References: Arweave Wiki
Progress to date
Founded as “Archain” in 2017, the Arweave team eventually rebranded to their current name after completing the Techstars Berlin mentorship program in 2018. Arweave raised $27 million between 2018 and 2020. The company expanded chain interoperability to Polygon and Avalanche in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
In March 2023, Arweave introduced their alternative to existing blockchain governance systems with “protocol evolution.” Instead of governance mechanisms like token voting, anyone on the Arweave protocol can introduce their own fork with the intention of competitive market force adoption to drive change in the ecosystem.
Business Model
Arweave relies on an interest accruing endowment which storage fees are deposited into.
Traction
Arweave experienced 427% total transaction YoY growth between 2022 and 2023. On-chain addresses grew by 40% compared to 2022.
The Arweave ecosystem has more than 1,000 nodes, 150,000 users and 157 million files. A record of over 58 million transactions were registered for the month of January 2023.