What is Arweave (AR)? Welcome to permanent blockchain storage (2025)

Arweave (AR) provides permanent blockchain storage through its innovative one-time payment model and unique access proof consensus mechanism. In 2025, Arweave upgraded to the SPoRA protocol, achieving 5,000 transactions per second through the “Blockshadows” technology. The launch of the AO project on February 8th enabled proxy applications to perform parallel computing, allowing AR holders to accumulate AO tokens. Strategic partnerships with Meta, Solana, Polkadot, Internet Archive, and ClimateTrace have strengthened its position in the ecosystem. The AR token has surged from less than $10 to over $40, establishing itself. Arweave As Web3 The status of definitional permanent storage solutions.

Latest developments in 2025

Since its establishment, Arweave has made significant progress in its technical framework and market position. The platform now adopts the SPoRA protocol after upgrading from RandomX, significantly enhancing transaction throughput to approximately 5,000 transactions per second through its innovative ‘Blockshadows’ technology.

A major development in 2025 is the mainnet launch of the AO project on February 8. AO is built on top of Arweave, providing a parallel computing layer for proxy applications, and AR token holders only need to hold AR in their wallets to accumulate AO tokens.

Notable collaborations have strengthened Arweave’s position in the Blockchain ecosystem:

• Partnership with Meta to provide permanent storage for digital collectibles on Instagram
• With Solana and Polkadot Integrated to store ledgers
• Adopted by Internet Archive for web archiving
• Collaborating with ClimateTrace to store greenhouse gas emission data

AR tokens have performed exceptionally well, skyrocketing from under $10 to over $40 following the announcement of the AO project. This growth trajectory has made Arweave an important player in the decentralized storage space, serving as a permanent storage solution for Web3.

What is Arweave (AR)?

Arweave is a decentralized data storage encryption project aimed at creating an infinite storage platform for users, allowing them to store any content they want within a decentralized infrastructure. Think of it as a Web 3-based Dropbox or Google Photos, but not governed by a single entity. Arweave achieves this through the network hosting technology of “permaweb.”

What challenges does the Permaweb face?

Like the issues that the World Wide Web has faced since ancient times, the Permaweb also faces criminal activities and illegal content. However, unlike the traditional internet, the permaweb Tools for democratic review of its content are integrated into the core of the protocol. In addition, Arweave’s core development team is closely collaborating with the Internet Watch Foundation to provide Arweave miners with the necessary tools and technologies to eliminate abuse and illegal content on the permaweb.

AR token

Users can use AR tokens for governance, sell goods to provide funding for the protocol, and pay transaction fees for permaweb content storage. Currently, there are 50 million AR tokens in circulation, while the project’s maximum supply is 66 million AR.

Arweave

is a cryptocurrency project dedicated to hosting data in a decentralized global network. It sounds simple, but it is actually one of the most ambitious projects in the entire cryptocurrency market ecosystem and one of the most appreciated assets of 2021. In one extremely important aspect of digital decentralization, Arweave is at the forefront, but in reality, it has received almost no attention it deserves.

In light of this, this article explains what Arweave is, details about the AR token, and why this project is so important for the future of Web 3.

What is Arweave (AR)?

As mentioned earlier, Arweave is a decentralized data storage encryption project aimed at creating an infinite storage platform for users, allowing them to store any content they wish within a decentralized infrastructure. To some extent, it is often referred to as a collectively owned hard drive that can never be deleted. Therefore, the data you choose to store will permanently exist on the Arweave Blockchain unless you delete it.

Arweave operates through the permaweb. The permaweb is the name of the data storage protocol for a decentralized Blockchain platform, known as the “permanent web.” Within the permaweb, there will be several applications available for users to use on demand. Think of Dropbox, Google Photos, iCloud, anything you can think of — these different storage and personalization options are all within a completely decentralized Blockchain.

Permaweb is realized through blockweave technology, which is the blockchain name of Arweave. Its working principle is very similar to that of Bitcoin’s blockchain, but Arweave uses proof of access (PoA) technology instead of proof of work. In proof of access, unlike traditional blockchain models, miners exchange energy resources through their hardware and can also directly input and replicate valuable data from the World Wide Web in exchange for AR tokens as compensation.

This mechanism compensates miners (who can be referred to as writers in this case) by providing basic information to the permaweb — slowly but surely developing it into a valuable resource in the digital world. In return, they will receive the project’s native cryptocurrency to store the relevant information.

It is equally important to note that before June 2018, Arweave was known as Archain, and it was later unified under one name due to the nature of the blockweave technology itself, maintaining the same name throughout the project development process. In June 2018, the developers ultimately decided to change the name to one that is closer to its original blockweave model—thus, Arweave was born.

What challenges does the Permaweb face?

Similar to the traditional World Wide Web, decentralized internet storage platforms may also encounter various issues such as criminal content, fraudulent information, and more. These problems have existed since the birth of Web 1 in the early 1990s and do not seem to be disappearing anytime soon. However, unlike the traditional internet, tools like permaweb are integrated into the core of the protocol—returning control of the Web to its users and enthusiasts in a way that Web 1 and Web 2 could never achieve.

When someone sends data to be stored in the Arweave permaweb, the data storage protocol may choose to replace the relevant data. Then, network miners can filter transactions based on their choices, using software scanners to verify hidden information, etc., to check if it contains illegal content. If criminal content is found, miners will receive AR token rewards.

In addition, the core development team of Arweave is closely collaborating with the Internet Watch Foundation to provide Arweave miners with the necessary tools and technologies to keep the permaweb free from abuse and illegal content. Furthermore, if data storage providers find that content violates the project’s framework, they can choose not to store any content on the network without providing a reason. If data senders want to verify again, they can attempt to resend the content to see if it passes the second verification.

Investment in Arweave

The white paper of Arweave states that Arweave strives to ensure a collective capability that allows individuals to store and share data with future generations from start to finish. Compared to the goals of other cryptocurrency projects, Arweave’s objective is quite unique, and some institutions seem to have taken notice of this.

In March 2020, Arweave announced that it had raised $8.3 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and even Coinbase Ventures—this is the second round of investment where Andreessen and Union Square injected millions in 2019. Mentioning investors and the Internet Observation Foundation, besides the Watch Foundation, Arweave has also established partnerships with Techstars, USV, 1kx, and MultiCoin Capital.

AR Token

Currently, there are 50 million AR tokens available on the market, with a supply cap of 66 million. Arweave developers state that the network is completely decentralized - this means they no longer have any authority over token governance or distribution.

The native token of the network is a way to finance the protocol by gradually selling its goods, with the profits used to improve Arweave’s venture capital, thereby increasing the value of the token and hoping to create an appreciation cycle.

The information provided on the Arweave official website shows that the protocol token distribution is as follows:

• 19.5% for private sales 2.9%
• Allocated 13% to project advisors
• Give the core team (5-year term, then release 20% of the funds each year)
• 19.1% for ecosystem development
• 26.5% allocated for future projects - also subject to the same conditions as the core team funding.

The security of Arweave is also very high. Its previous mining protocol, RandomX, has consistently passed successful audits by four major companies in the field of cyber security: Trail of Bits, Kudelski Security, Quarks Lab, and X41 D-Sec. Since February 2021, Arweave has upgraded its mining instructions to the SPoRA protocol, which has also undergone multiple reviews by the NCC Group and is frequently praised by long-term supporters of the project.