Your Guide to the Permaweb
What is ar.io?
- 🐘 a community
- 🐘 a decentralized network of gateway nodes
- 🐘 a protocol to facilitate indexing, sharing, and serving of permaweb data
- 🐘 a currency to align network incentives and promote ecosystem health, the IO Token.
Are you a Gateway Operator?
The Arweave protocol doesn’t exist on its own.
The various nodes on the ar.io Network, known as Gateways, are the interface between users and the Arweave network. Each Gateway acts like a “Permaweb Service Provider” and supports multiple, value-added, low-trust services for users and applications that need to read and write data on Arweave. Gateway services are modular, extendable, and configurable to include:
- seeding layer one transactions to the greater Arweave network
- caching and serving chain and transaction data
- resolving friendly names to transaction data with the Arweave Name System
- indexing and querying layer one and two transactions
- proxy for Arweave nodes serving the Arweave HTTP API
Gateway operators keep the front doors to the permaweb open by running reliable and performant systems for their own use cases, their community or even the whole Permaweb.
Get in on the action. Becoming a gateway operator is currently one of the biggest opportunities in the Arweave ecosystem. A good gateway operator will be able to generate revenue as they increase network traffic, optimize their servers, and take part in network governance. and follow us on Twitter to track the release of the ar.io Gateway Protocol.
Are you a Developer?
Arweave is easier, cheaper and more fun to build on than most developers ever imagined.
Within the Arweave community there are many great development tools to help build your app such as arweave.js, warp contracts, and many other community tools and protocols.
One of the premier tool for building on Arweave is the Arweave File System (ArFS). ArFS enhances the Arweave protocol by adding the ability to create data hierarchy (folders), private encryption, file versioning, controlled sharing and more. It lets you harness the power of the permaweb for the projects you have in mind.
As Arweave’s founder Sam Williams says:
ArFS really is awesome! Arweave is a hard drive at heart -- focused purely on permanent data replication. ArFS turns that hard drive into a filesystem, complete with directories, file names, updates etc. Pretty sure ArFS will end up in the stack of most Arweave apps.
Get started. We’re developers building for developers. And we’re available to help you get launched. To see how ArFS can help you get started on your first Arweave dapp, head over to our GitHub to browse through docs, connect with us on Discord to ask the team and community questions, or visit our YouTube channel for coding demos.
Are you a Creator?
One of the first groups to explore web3 technology were artists and creatives. Digital artists, electronic musicians and video game creators were intrigued by the blockchain and what they could build with it.
They quickly learned that provenance and permanence matters to maintain the value of their art - read some of their stories on the ArDrive site. This led many to Arweave and the importance of permanent data. It also opened new possibilities as permanent data pushed their work in new directions - like BT’s songs that never end and never repeat.
The ar.io Team is building tools to help artists and entrepreneurs explore the potential of the permaweb. For example, the Arweave Name System (ArNS) enables creators to assign a friendly name to permaweb data. So instead of being stuck with a random, 90-character URL, your art or new business website could launch with a more memorable name.
Art explores the unexplored. We are excited to see what sparks your imagination as you tap into the power of permanent data.
Are you an IO Token Holder?
The IO Token powers the permaweb. IO token holders play a crucial role in making permanent data available to everyone.
For example, token holders will be able to stake their tokens with ar.io Gateways, helping support a robust gateway ecosystem and giving them a chance to take part in governance and generate revenue.
IO Token Holders will also be able to lease ArNS names so they can buy and trade permaweb URLs.
Last but not least, token holders will have a say in the overall governance of the ar.io Network and will help shape our dynamic community. The ar.io Network will become what we make of it together!
Help build the permaweb, and watch it grow from the inside! Follow us on Twitter for announcements regarding the launch of the IO Token.
