Arweave

Arweave is a decentralized storage network that aims to provide a platform for the indefinite storage of data. It describes itself as "a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets," hosting the "permaweb" - a permanent, decentralized web with numerous community-driven applications and platforms. The Arweave network utilizes a native cryptocurrency, AR, to compensate "miners" for indefinitely storing the network's information. The project was initially announced under the name Archain in August 2017. However, the project later underwent a rebranding process, and in February 2018, it became known as Arweave, then officially launching in June 2018. Arweave was created by Sam Williams and William Jones, two Ph.D. candidates at the University of Kent. Williams brought experience in decentralized and distributed systems, while Jones focused on graph theory and neural networking. After launching Arweave, Williams went on to serve as an advisor to Minespider and a mentor for the Techstars accelerator program. One of Arweave's unique features is its "blockweave" technology, a variation of blockchain where each block is linked to both the previous block and a random earlier one. This incentivizes miners to store more data, as they need to be able to access random previous blocks to add new ones and receive rewards.