bctd.news
The team behind decentralized storage app ArDrive closed a $17.2 million investment round led by Arweave Team, Blockchain Capital, and Sino Global Capital.
The corporate-focused ArDrive solution runs on the Arweave protocol. The latter is positioned as an eternal "collective hard drive" with a one-time payment for data placement based on one cent per megabyte.
Arweave stores millions of files from all over the world, including texts, articles, photos, and videos. Keeping the history "with a guarantee for 200 years", the service prevents its subsequent adjustment.
According to Arweave creator Sam Williams, the technology is "like a blockchain" but uses the blockweave structure, which is better suited for storing large files. Network users earn AR tokens.
Previously, the Arweave team raised $8.3M from Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, and Union Square Ventures
The app gained popularity in the summer of 2021 among Hong Kong activists. They used it to store content that was suppressed by the local government during the crackdown on pro-democracy media. Enthusiasts managed to save 5,600 pieces of news from the local Apple Daily.
“The impotence of the Chinese authorities to destroy the media” thanks to the blockchain in those days was assessed by US Senator Pat Toomey.
In recent days, 6.6 million materials related to the latest events in Ukraine have been placed on the Arweave network. The content growth rate increased 15 times from February 15 to February 24.