The ferryboat carrying real data to eternity: An overview of Web3 permanent cloud storage projects

Written by: Kyle @ Contributor of PermaDAO

Reviewed by: Sandy @ Contributor of PermaDAO

With the explosion of the DePIN concept, the decentralized storage sector has once again attracted widespread attention from the market. Decentralized storage is an important infrastructure in the Web3 field, but for ordinary users, it may be difficult to intuitively appreciate its charm. However, cloud storage products have always been one of the best choices for the general public to experience storage services.

The earliest cloud storage project in the traditional internet, Xdrive, was born in 2002, and the now most popular cloud storage service, Google Drive, has been around for nearly 12 years, boasting over 3 billion users. Cloud storage products have indeed "entered the homes of thousands of families," but at the same time, the real world has also seen continuous data loss or theft due to centralized cloud storage. Data has gradually become an important asset for people, and decentralized storage is becoming the new guardian of private property. Among the many decentralized storage solutions, people often first notice the higher market cap FIL, but I would like to explore the more unique Arweave and its ecosystem of cloud storage projects.

Since the launch of its mainnet in 2018, Arweave has been running steadily for nearly 6 years. It is designed for permanent storage and features a unique Blockweave data structure, a simple and elegant SPoRA consensus mechanism, and a mature economic incentive mechanism. Additionally, Arweave has introduced a native smart contract standard—SmartWeave, allowing developers to build applications on it. Furthermore, Arweave is an open protocol that supports any application integration to achieve permanent storage functionality.

As of the beginning of 2024, according to incomplete statistics, there are already over 130 projects built around Arweave, which can be subdivided into 12 tracks. Arweave has become a large and active ecosystem. This article will focus on the cloud storage projects within the Arweave ecosystem—WeWeave, ArDrive, Akord, and Moss—and conduct a multi-dimensional comparative analysis of the four.

WeWeave

WeWeave is a lightweight and easy-to-use cloud storage service, with a website that does not have excessive flashy designs. Users can seamlessly store files upon entering the official website, making it particularly suitable for users who value storage usability. WeWeave is built on Arseeding (Arweave lightweight node gateway) and utilizes ANS104 (a transaction scaling protocol on Arweave), making it especially suitable for scenarios with a small number of files.

Currently, WeWeave only supports MetaMask wallet, and users can choose assets from three public chains to pay for storage fees, including Ethereum chain (USDT, AR, ETH), BSC chain (BNB), and Moonbeam (GLMR).

Users can enjoy a smooth storage experience on WeWeave, where they can tag files during storage. Additionally, WeWeave supports indexing functionality, allowing users to search by entering keywords or tags, covering all files stored on-chain through WeWeave. This means that currently, all uploads to WeWeave are publicly visible, and users can access their stored files online or download files uploaded by others.

ArDrive

Founded in 2020, ArDrive is a relatively mature cloud storage project. From the perspective of the web interface and product experience, it is closer to traditional internet cloud storage and can be likened to a Web3 version of Dropbox or Baidu Cloud.

Users can easily store their data permanently with a one-time payment, and it supports data encryption that is only visible to the user. Users can also create folders to manage categorized data. Developers can use the ArDrive CLI tool to upload data, monitor network operation status, and check transaction status.

Currently, ArDrive only supports login via the Arconnect wallet (Arweave's native wallet), and users must hold AR tokens in their wallets to pay for storage fees, while new users receive a free upload quota of 500KB. Considering that users may be unfamiliar with the Arconnect wallet, ArDrive has optimized its application to support one-stop creation of a new Arconnect wallet within the app, significantly reducing the entry cost for users.

Additionally, through collaboration with payment provider Stripe, ArDrive has launched ArDrive Turbo, allowing users to pay for storage fees using fiat currency (credit or debit cards). In 2023, ArDrive issued its native token ARDRIVE, which users can trade on the decentralized exchange Permaswap.

Akord

Akord is a collaborative cloud storage service that provides end-to-end encrypted storage functionality and supports multi-user collaboration and private messaging. However, to be precise, Akord's project positioning is actually a decentralized digital vault, but its product functions are highly compatible with cloud storage. Especially after its rebranding, Akord has shifted from a one-time payment model to a subscription model, focusing the product direction on secure storage and content publishing, which is an extension of its cloud storage business.

Akord is very user-friendly for Web3 newcomers; users can log in with a simple account registration, and it automatically generates a mnemonic for each successfully registered account to recover account information. Additionally, Akord allows users to directly import files from Dropbox and Google Drive for storage.

Moreover, Akord not only supports permanent storage services but has recently launched a temporary storage feature, allowing users to store files on traditional cloud storage platforms and delete this temporary storage data at any time, providing more flexible options. Furthermore, Akord has introduced token-gated access functionality, allowing users to set access rules for stored files, broadening its application scenarios.

Moss

Moss is a social cloud storage service launched by the 4EVERLAND (Web3 cloud computing platform) team, combining both centralized and decentralized storage methods. According to the current product design of the Moss cloud storage service, it adopts a model similar to Friend.tech, encouraging creators to build communities based on it for value exchange. The storage functionality may be just a side dish; the social features of Moss are the main course.

In terms of basic cloud storage functions, Moss offers a variety of options. For storage services, users can choose traditional cloud storage, decentralized temporary storage via IPFS, and Arweave's permanent storage service. In terms of data sharing, users can open data access permissions or set access passwords.

The core components of Moss include personal folders, Mystery of Moss Origins NFT, Moss Stone, Key, and Mossyland.

Mystery of Moss Origins NFT: Holders have the right to create Moss Stone.

Moss Stone: A shared space for creators on the Moss platform, storing valuable data and featuring a built-in chat room.

Key: Each Moss Stone has its corresponding Key, which users must purchase to join the Moss Stone.

Mossyland: A large plaza that gathers all Moss Stones, making it easier for users to explore and join.

For ordinary users, Moss can store data and allow them to join interesting Moss Stones. For creators, the economic model of Keys will encourage them to continuously provide high-value content for the community, creating a positive economic flywheel.

Comparison of Cloud Storage Products

The functions and characteristics of the four cloud storage projects are shown in the following list.

Based on the characteristics of the projects, the following analysis compares WeWeave, ArDrive, Akord, and Moss from multiple aspects:

Data Security: All four projects support Arweave for permanent and immutable data storage, ensuring data security.

Compatible Storage Methods: Akord also supports traditional cloud storage services; Moss supports both traditional cloud storage and decentralized IPFS temporary storage services.

Multi-chain Support: Only WeWeave is a multi-chain cloud storage service, allowing users to pay for storage fees using assets from multiple public chains, while data is stored on Arweave.

Storage Costs: Currently, the storage cost on Arweave is about $9/GB, with a one-time payment for permanent storage (theoretically for 200 years), and a monthly fee of only $0.00375/GB. Additionally, ArDrive offers a free upload quota of 500KB, while Akord provides a free upload quota of 100MB.

User Threshold: Akord has the lowest user threshold, allowing login with simple registration; WeWeave and Moss support the more widely used MetaMask wallet, while ArDrive requires login via the Arconnect wallet, which incurs user education costs.

Basic Functions: All four projects have batch upload, online preview, sharing, and downloading file functions.

Data Search: Among the four, only ArDrive does not currently support search/filter functions, while WeWeave integrates the full-chain data indexing functionality of Adot (a Web3 search engine based on large models), allowing users to directly retrieve mainstream content from the Arweave network through WeWeave.

Collaborative Sharing: Moss has a chat room feature, facilitating community interaction; Akord performs better in collaborative sharing, with a built-in chat room, support for setting access management permissions, and log query usage records, making it particularly suitable for multi-user collaboration.

Conclusion

Web3 is not just about hype; a batch of genuinely usable products has emerged today. Although Arweave dominates the permanent storage sector, it is often undervalued by the market due to its weak financial attributes. As a storage infrastructure dedicated to solving problems, Arweave focuses more on long-term stable development rather than pursuing short-term wealth effects.

Currently, the Arweave ecosystem already has a series of cloud storage projects with different characteristics, such as WeWeave, ArDrive, Akord, and Moss, which can be directly used by users to meet their real needs. Decentralized cloud storage, as a product that is both familiar and unfamiliar, has the potential to become an entry point for people to experience decentralization as more application scenarios are continuously explored.