Arweave

Decentralized Storage Network

Permanent, pay-once decentralized storage network built on a blockweave data structure, where miners are incentivized through Succinct Proofs of Random Access (SPoRA) to store rare data perpetually. Hosts the 'permaweb' — an immutable, censorship-resistant web of permanently stored applications and data.

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Details

License Libre (GPLv2)
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released
Owner Minimum Spanning Technologies Ltd. / Sam Williams (CEO)
Governing Body Company-controlled (Minimum Spanning Technologies Ltd.)
Country UK (registered); globally distributed network
Start Year 2017
Stack Erlang
Funding VC + ICO
Last Investigated Mar 9, 2026

Topology view

This tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.

Topology view: ArweaveThis tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.ArweaveDecentralized Deliberation Stack (DDS) (Basis for, Composes with)DecentralizedDeliberation…UCAN (Interoperates with)UCAN

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Use Case Domains

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty Co-Creation & Knowledge

Affordances

Local-first storage Provenance tracking

Decentralized Storage Network Attributes

Origins Permanent data archival / decentralized web hosting
Database Blockweave (DAG variant with dual-block linking)
Query Language GraphQL (via gateway layer); REST API
Data Formats JSON + arbitrary binary (any file type); ANS-104 bundled transactions
Mobile Support N/A (protocol/storage layer)
Web Support Yes (permaweb accessible via HTTP gateways in any browser)
Native Apps N/A (protocol layer; apps built on top)
Terms Self-hosting (run a node); pay-per-transaction (one-time fee)
Funds $14.4M total (ICO 2018 ~$8.7M; $5M a16z/USV/Multicoin 2019; $8.3M a16z/Coinbase Ventures 2020)
Based On Novel (original blockweave; not built on existing protocol)
P2P Architecture Public blockchain (blockweave with SPoRA consensus)
Overlay Network Global
Content Addressing Yes (transaction IDs are SHA-256 content hashes)
Local-First N/A (miners replicate; clients are ephemeral)
E2EE No (data is publicly readable by default; encryption is opt-in at app layer)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance Yes (SPoRA consensus; democratic content policy for node-level moderation)
Signature RSA-4096 (wallet signatures); SHA-256 content hashing
Permissions N/A (fully public by default; access control at application layer)
Semantic Web Compatibility N/A
Smart Contract Yes (via SmartWeave / Warp contracts on-chain)
Protocol Stack Position Application-layer (built on TCP/IP)
Asset / Value Embedding Native (AR token embedded at transaction/block level; storage fees paid in AR)
Protocol Maturity / Standardization De Facto Standard (stable, widely adopted permaweb; no formal standards body)
Update Policy Immutable / Append-only (data written to blockweave cannot be deleted or modified; IPNS-like mutable pointers available via SmartWeave)
Storage Proof Mechanism Proof of Access (PoA) / Succinct Proofs of Random Access (SPoRA) — miners must prove access to a randomly selected historical block to mine new blocks, incentivizing wide data replication
Economic / Incentive Model One-time endowment (permanent storage model): upfront AR token fee funds a storage endowment; interest from endowment pays miners indefinitely as storage costs decline
Retrieval Guarantee Best-effort (incentivized but not formally guaranteed; data persistence depends on endowment viability and miner participation)

Relationships

How this tool connects to other tools and organizations, from relationships reviewed by the OpenHaven data steward. They describe how projects connect, not how good they are.

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