When was the last time you seriously wondered where to store your files, or how safe that data is? Chances are it’s a long time ago, as most of us simply go to our preferred cloud solution (or the default one on our device), never stopping to think about the fact our data could be lost in an instant.
The same is true for enterprises, where Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates the cloud market with 31%, followed by Azure with 20% and Google Cloud with 12%, as of 2024. Last year alone, the market grew by $60 billion and is slated to be $1 trillion by 2030. This is all thanks to ChatGPT and the broader AI trend, which is putting increasing pressure on cloud storage.
Unsurprisingly, AWS, Google and even Microsoft have admitted to struggling to meet the demand for cloud storage that AI is bringing. And this is because – quite simply – centralized models simply cannot accommodate the enormous amount of data that AI is bringing into the world.
More than this, centralized models are prone to single points of failure, data breaches and hacks while – contrary to popular belief – the data stored with these providers is not stored permanently. Moreover, centralized data is open to manipulation, censorship and bias – a growing concern with the exponential growth of AI under the just a handful of companies.
Decentralized solutions
The good news is that the obvious limitations of centralized cloud services have led to strong growth in the decentralized sector. For the uninitiated, decentralized cloud services rely on people running nodes or gateways from their own machines in a way that doesn’t rely on any single entity. In short, rather than huge warehouses full of machines owned by a single company, decentralized cloud services promote a global network that is run by the people that use it.
The benefits of this system are clear. A decentralized cloud removes the risk of single point of failure, while the wider distribution of data also increases data security, privacy and immutability. Built on the permanent storage Arweave blockchain, the decentralized cloud network AR.IO can also store data permanently – a world first that ensures your cloud data will never be lost or tampered with.
Meeting new AI challenges
This is important because AI solutions don’t just need vast amounts of training data. To be useful, they also require continuous feedback and access to data that must be stored for much longer to validate their results and comply with regulatory requirements. Permanent data storage is also essential in order to understand why AI models are making certain decisions or predictions.
This creates new challenges for existing storage solutions, such as flexibly adjusting their capacity and ensuring they have the bandwidth to serve a stream of near real-time data and, quite frankly, centralized data storage often isn’t reliable enough to meet these needs.
AR.IO’s permanent solution to the storage problem
As mentioned above, AR.IO – the world’s first permanent cloud storage network – is leading a host of upstarts challenging these centralized models to prepare for a safer and more secure AI future. Thanks to a globally distributed network AR.IO addresses the need for scalable AI storage while ensuring transparency, verification, replication, all with permanent access to the data.
Its foundation layer – the Arweave blockchain – was created as an alternative to IPFS – the Interplanetary File System. IPFS was one of the first p2p-based storage networks, but suffered from issues such as the lack of an incentive structure and consequent failure to store files permanently. By combining permanent storage with the blockchain component, Arweave has built a reliable platform with a sustainable endowment model that is designed to decrease the cost of storage over time, ensuring long-term sustainability.
That said, directly storing one’s files on Arweave isn’t straightforward for the less tech-savvy. With AR.IO and its premier app, ArDrive, this is possible for the everyday user. ArDrive is an easy-to-use interface that enables anyone to store and share their files on top of Arweave. It’s as simple as Microsoft or Google Drive, but immutable and permanent. And, thanks to the “pay once, store forever” model, users won’t have to worry about forgetting to pay their subscription. Additionally, users can pay with a variety of cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum or Solana, or even a credit card.
AR.IO also operates gateways that facilitate data access and storage. To keep the ecosystem operating seamlessly without creating centralized chokepoints, the team has launched the $ARIO token, whose primary purpose is to foster participation and ensure service quality.
Gateway operators must stake this token to provide services and, in return, are rewarded with this token for doing so. Other network participants can then delegate tokens to curate service quality. The $ARIO token further serves as a medium of exchange on the AR.IO platform, enabling users to pay for services and storage.
Following the successful launch of its mainnet in February, AR.IO is launching the $ARIO token today, Wednesday, March 19, on the cryptocurrency exchange, Gate.io. By widening access to the token, AR.IO will be able to expand its domain name system and gateway network, opening the door to new growth in the reach and capacity of the network.
AR.IO is more than just a cloud for AI
As a permanent data storage solution, AR.IO is crucial in providing long-term data to enable AI products to operate smoothly. Thanks to an infrastructure of peers, it does not suffer similar scaling constraints as centralized providers while offering greater transparency for the entire data storage process.
However, it’s not just AI that benefits from long-term storage, but also culture. We still talk about the burning of the library of Alexandria, but ignore the figurative fires burning across many corners of the Internet.
The myth that “nothing ever gets deleted on the Internet” is just that – a made-up story. Last year’s Internet Archive outage served as a stark reminder of that. When this internet archive went down, it sparked fears over the loss of billions of archived web pages.
Similarly, in 2019, MySpace lost all records from before 2016, while Google has shut down so many services over the years – along with the loss of corresponding data – that there is an entire website to keep track of the Google cemetery.
A truly permanent Internet
More recently, the Pew research team found that almost 40% of the web pages from 2013 no longer existed in 2024. While not all pages might be relevant and worth preserving, it is worrying when it starts affecting news outlets and primary sources. Last year, 23% of news pages contained at least one broken link, while 54% of Wikipedia entries had at least one link pointing to a page that no longer existed.
AR.IO effectively solves this problem (known as link rot) bringing us closer to a truly immutable Internet, where nothing is deleted.
On top of this, transparent and decentralized file storage provides creators greater control of their rights, while NFT holders won’t have to worry about their artwork files disappearing. With its promise of tamper proof storage for at least 200 years per the current endowment, AR.IO is an efficient tool in the fight against data ephemerality.
For individuals, it offers a reliable way to store important documents securely without the risk of a cloud provider accidentally leaking or losing them in a breach. For documents shared, AR.IO is a source of truth that prevents censorship. In a world where we’re increasingly storing our entire lives online, AR.IO empowers users with a transparent, reliable, and secure alternative to the centralized behemoths that dominate the cloud space.
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