Introduction

TL;DR

AR.IO seeks to create a decentralized and incentivized cloud network aimed at attracting more gateways to the Arweave network therefore making the permanent web more accessible to all. At the core of AR.IO’s incentivization mechanism is the ARIO Token, a utility token used for joining the network, payments, gateway accountability, and protocol incentives. The network features modular and composable gateway infrastructure in addition to the Arweave Name System (ArNS) – a system for assigning friendly domain names to permanent data.

What is AR.IO

AR.IO is the world’s first permanent cloud network, providing the infrastructure to ensure data, applications, and digital identities are timeless, tamper-proof, and universally accessible. Built on the foundation of the Arweave storage network, AR.IO forms a global ecosystem of gateways, protocols, and services that connect users to the permaweb – a web where information is permanent and free from centralized control.

The AR.IO Network is an open, distributed, and ownerless system, supported by operators, developers, and end-users from around the world. It’s decentralized nodes, known as AR.IO Gateways, act as “Permanent Cloud Service Providers” delivering the critical services needed to read, write, index and query data stored on the permaweb. These gateways provide a unified, resilient interface between users and the permaweb, featuring a permanent domain name system and seamless, location-independent access to permanent storage and applications.

Gateways operate using standardized protocols to maintain consistency across the network. They also engage in an observation and reporting protocol to monitor performance and ensure accountability, helping to maintain a healthy and reliable ecosystem.

The AR.IO Network is powered by a utility token, ARIO, which drives the network’s functionality and accessibility. ARIO serves as a currency for services such as the Arweave Name System (ArNS), staking to join the network as a gateway operator, delegated staking, and as rewards for contributing to the network’s performance and reliability.

Together, these elements form the backbone of a permanent cloud network designed to preserve data and expand the possibilities of the web.

Why AR.IO ?

Arweave (a Layer 1 blockchain network) offers scalable and permanent onchain data storage in a sustainable manner. It does this by incentivizing miner nodes through a tokenomic endowment model which ensures data is globally stored and replicated for hundreds of years without the need for continual payment or maintenance by its uploader.

However, the Arweave protocol does not incorporate all the needs of modern applications like data indexing, querying, retrieval, and other vital services. Consequently, over the past few years, infrastructure services have been independently developed and deployed to meet the demands of the permaweb at scale. Users and apps have come to rely on these gateway utilities, but they are closed source, have complex codebases, and are expensive to operate.

Arweave does not offer any tokenomic incentives to offset the expenses associated with operating a gateway, which has led to the community’s reliance on a single centrally controlled gateway subsidized for the betterment of the network: arweave.net. While arweave.net currently caches and indexes the entire weave with a high quality of service, it is a single bottleneck and point of failure for the whole ecosystem.

AR.IO seeks to reduce the barriers of entry and attract more gateway operators to the permaweb with the goal of further enhancing its overall health, resiliency, and functionality through decentralized mechanisms that are as trustless as possible.

The solution will be applied in two directions:

By reducing gateway overhead costs with open source, efficient, modular networked architecture.
By creating an economic incentive layer with the ARIO Token.

The overall goal of this white paper is to present the framework for a healthy and sustainable decentralized gateway network.