Arweave
Description
A storage based blockchain that uses proof-of-access (succinct proofs of random access (SPoRA)) as a form of consensus to ensure access to historical blocks of data, and to enable creation of new blocks.
Arweave attempts to enable permanence for the storage of data on its chain by using a "storage endowment" theoretically ensuing the payment of storage for 200 years.
Proof of access
From the 19-25 ArweaveHub weekly digest, SPoRA is designed to incentivize storing large parts of the blockchain's data:
Under SPoRA’s consensus model, miners must prove they have access to a randomly selected piece of data from the network’s history to mine a new block. This creates a massive incentive to store as much of the weave as possible.
A network continuously proving access to user data should also be reassuring to those making use of the network/blockchain's resources.
Storage endowment
An endowment calculation made at the genesis of the protocol ensures perpetual payment for storage for 200 years based on the theory of ever-decreasing storage costs.
From the Arweave protocol:
If a transaction does upload data, the required upload fee scales with the uploaded volume.
A part of the fee goes directly to the miner including this transaction into a block. Its purpose is to incentivize miners to enlarge the Arweave dataset.
The rest of the fee goes to the endowment.
The Arweave network's endowment removes tokens from circulation every time data is uploaded, creating a reserve to pay for data storage over time. The storage purchasing power of the endowment is elastic, changing with the volume of data committed, the cost of data storage, and token value over time. One of the main drivers of change in the value of the endowment is that a decreasing cost of storage creates a corresponding proportional increase in storage purchasing power, leading to fewer tokens needing to be released from the endowment in the future. We call the rate of decline in overall costs for storing a unit of data for a fixed period of time the Kryder+ rate. This rate incorporates the change in price of hardware, electricity, and operational costs surrounding data storage.
Users pay for 200 years' worth of replicated storage at present prices, such that only a 0.5% Kryder+ rate is sufficient to sustain the endowment for an indefinite term, in the absence of token price changes. Under these conditions, the storage purchasing power of the endowment at the end of each year would be equal to that at the beginning. The actual declining cost of storage over the last 50 years has been, on average, ≈38.5% per year.
To determine how much a single byte costs in AR at any given time, the protocol uses the current network difficulty (as an oracle of the total amount of mining resources currently maintaining the network) and the recent history of operations.
A simpler rendition from the 19-25 ArweaveHub weekly digest:
...when a user uploads data to Arweave, a fraction of the fee goes to the miner immediately. The majority is sent to an endowment fund that grows steadily over time.
The fees for this transaction use a calculation that covers 20 replicas of user data for 200 years. This creates a self-executing, sustainable engine that ensures miners are incentivized to keep your data accessible for centuries, not just years.
User Experiences
Development Activity
Arweave API
Release Feed
Below the last 3 release feeds:
- 2025-10-17 13:59:38
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/99137994/N.2.9.5 Release N.2.9.5]
- by github-actions[bot]
- 2025-10-01 14:21:22
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/99137994/N.2.9.5-alpha6 Release N.2.9.5-alpha6]
- by github-actions[bot]
- 2025-08-21 15:14:05
- [tag:github.com,2008:Repository/99137994/N.2.9.5-alpha5 Release N.2.9.5-alpha5]
- by github-actions[bot]
Activity Feed
Below the last 3 commits:
- 2026-02-06 20:53:11
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/1d0ca29335062a1b348bf9486103ef6e192a5c1d fix: if there are peers with the data we seek, but all of them are in…]
- by JamesPiechota https://github.com/JamesPiechota
- 2026-02-05 13:33:42
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/8b76c56b600472b1df85ef4023fa122d386318d8 fix: ar_util:parse_peer/2 (#953)]
- by humaite https://github.com/humaite
- 2026-01-28 07:37:49
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/ad5575027e0856e34c332c0336aa238c65b33fe1 Fix Peer Format bug (#949)]
- by humaite https://github.com/humaite
Arweave standards
Release Feed
Below the last 3 release feeds: Failed to load RSS feed from https://github.com/ArweaveTeam/arweave-standards/releases.atom: Error parsing XML for RSS
Activity Feed
Below the last 3 commits:
- 2025-09-18 13:36:53
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/986f9e9a9b5952d8a869161209cd68d8b51c4626 Update ANS-104.md - owner length]
- by rosmcmahon https://github.com/rosmcmahon
- 2023-09-19 03:09:13
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/65c781b285c14837f7bd391c6880030c0e367abc Merge pull request #35 from LiveDuo/patch-1]
- by rosmcmahon https://github.com/rosmcmahon
- 2023-09-18 22:16:33
- [tag:github.com,2008:Grit::Commit/128d2a90782c859532a5579c61ac591dacbe1152 Update ANS-103.md]
- by LiveDuo https://github.com/LiveDuo
Tools using Arweave
- Arkly Arweave API enabling storage and validation of Bagit compatible archival packages.
References
Informative References
- Arweave Homepage.
- Continuum Arweave Ar.io digital preservation initiative.
- verification of Orcfax packages on Arweave