About Holopolis

Think of them as the guardians of our collective memory. They are on a mission to save ancient history for generations to come.

“Our 3D Library and crowd-sourcing tools empower communities worldwide to participate in the preservation and reconstruction of ancient sites and artifacts”

Here's how they do it:

• People Power: They crowd-source photos of historical sites.

• 3D Magic: Using those photos, they create detailed 3D models of buildings and artifacts.

• Permanent Record: Their goal? To build the biggest, available, most permanent 3D archive of cultural heritage on the web.

The Challenge

Traditional storage methods proved inadequate for their long-term vision due to limitations in collaboration, ongoing costs, and the lack of data permanence.

• Teamwork Troubles: Storing 3D models on individual hard drives made it tough for their global team to work together.

• Money Matters: Monthly cloud storage fees were eating into their budget – not good for anyone especially a non-profit.

• Fear of Vanishing Data: Traditional storage just didn't offer the security they needed. Losing these models would be like losing a piece of history forever.
  
  

“Storing them on a hard drive made it difficult to collaborate, as our team is located in different parts of the world, using cloud storage bothered us as we had to do monthly, never-ending payments. Hence we started our search for decentralized storage options with the hopes of solving permanence, accessibility, and cost at the same time.”

The Solution

Holopolis chose to leverage the Arweave ecosystem, specifically utilizing AR.IO’s Turbo uploader and AR.IO gateways, to address these challenges.

Arweave, a blockchain-based storage solution, provides a permanent and immutable platform for preserving digital assets. Arweave's "pay once, store forever" model eliminates recurring costs and ensures permanent storage for a single upfront fee.

Turbo, an ecosystem system bundler running on AR.IO, facilitates seamless uploading and management of 3D models within the Holopolis library. The ability to adjust folder structures, names, and licenses assured Holopolis’ file organization remained intact and the foundation to share with the world.

AR.IO gateways enhance the accessibility and reliability of the Holopolis archive, ensuring efficient data retrieval and distribution. Not having to interact with the Arweave protocol makes it easy for both team members and the public to interact with the library.

Turbo offered a combination of values including cost-efficient long-term storage, ease of use, clean UI, and in-built tools such as data licensing and bulk download/upload.

Before

• Recurring Storage Costs

• Impermanence of Data

• Inefficient uploading workflow 

After

• Cost-Effective One-Time Storage

• Provenance and Immutability of DATA

• Intuitive UI simplifies uploading process

The Results

The integration of Arweave, Turbo, and AR.IO gateways has significantly transformed Holopolis' operations helping to achieve its mission of cultural heritage preservation:

• Global Access: With AR.IO’s gateways any permanent file is easily accessed from anywhere.

• Cost Savings: The one-time payment model of Arweave eliminates recurring cloud storage costs.

• Data Fortress: Holopolis' 3D models are safe and sound, protected from loss or tampering. They'll be around for generations to come.

• Trustworthy & Real: Thanks to Arweave's transparency and provenance, everyone can be confident that the models are authentic. No fakes here!

• User-Friendly Experience: Turbo's intuitive UI simplifies the process of uploading, managing, and accessing the 3D model library.

“On-chain. Immutable. Permanent.”

Future Plans

Holopolis is on a mission to save as much history as possible. They're doing this by:

• Web Scraping: Rescuing 3D models, such as museum collections, from the depths of the internet and giving them a permanent home.

• Field Trips: Venturing out to scan and document ancient sites firsthand.

Holopolis is proof that AR.IO is more than just tech – it's a force for good. By making data permanent and accessible, they're helping us connect with our past and build a better future. Pretty amazing, right?