WHAT IS ARWEAVE (AR)?
Arweave is a blockchain project where users are allowed to store data permanently on the network for a one-time fee. It was built with the objective to connect users and organizations that need permanent data storage to those people who have free hard drive space on their devices. The connection between the two parties is secured through a decentralized network that ensures data is perpetually available, on-demand.
WHO ARE THE FOUNDERS OF ARWEAVE?
Arweave network was initially launched onto the mainnet in June 2018. The protocol was called Archain earlier and the original whitepaper was released back in August 2017. The newer version of the whitepaper was launched less than a year later in April 2018 – both of which were co-authored by Samual Williams and William Jones. Williams is the CEO of Arweave, while Jones is the current AI and machine learning lead at Embecosm.
HOW DOES ARWEAVE WORK?
Arweave functions differently than most other blockchain networks that we know or are aware of. The common aspect is that it is made up of blocks, like every other blockchain out there but in a traditional blockchain network, any block is linked to only the previous and the next block in the chain only. While in Arweave’s architecture, each of the blocks is linked to the following block and two previous blocks – one preceding block and a second block from the network’s history known as a ‘recall block’.
This ‘recall block’ is essential to Arweave’s unique consensus mechanism which is called proof of access (PoA). So it works like the following – the block weave is maintained by miners who provide disk space and replicate the data stored in the network in order to gain AR tokens. In order to mine or verify a new block, miners must be able to provide cryptographic proof that they can access the ‘recall block’ hence called proof of access. This incentivizes long-term data storage because miners must access older, random blocks in history in order to mine new blocks and receive rewards.
KEY ATTRIBUTES OF ARWEAVE
One of the primary attributes of Arweave is that it is a blockchain network that is trying to solve a unique problem statement. On the one hand there are millions of people who have devices at home that have hard disk space going to waste while on the other hand there are other companies and individuals who are in need and are spending millions to get additional storage. Arweave tries to bridge the gap by utilizing the hard disk storage that is going to waste through a decentralized network lending it out to those needing it and in turn creating some value out of it.
HOW TO BUY ARWEAVE (AR) IN INDIA
Use this three-step process to buy your first Arweave token using the CoinDCX crypto investment app
- Sign Up for the CoinDCX account: Enter a valid email address and a user name on the sign-up page. Once the Email ID has been verified, set a strong password to secure your account.
- Verify the account: You need to complete your KYC, to buy AR on the CoinDCX platform. All you need to do is upload the documents and your account will be set up in 15 minutes.
- Buy AR: After the account has been verified, you can deposit any amount of fiat currency you are comfortable with and start your crypto journey!
Additional Read: How to choose a crypto exchange?
