Cryptopedia - Arweave

## What Is Arweave (AR)? Arweave is a decentralized storage network that seeks to offer a platform for the indefinite storage of data. [Describing](https://www.arweave.org/#arweave-intro) itself as "a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets," the network primarily hosts "the permaweb" — a permanent, decentralized web with a number of community-driven applications and platforms. To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Arweave. The Arweave network uses a native cryptocurrency, AR, to pay "miners" to indefinitely store the network's information. The project was first [announced](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2066098) as Archain in August 2017, later [rebranding](https://arweave.medium.com/archain-now-known-as-arweave-432f0708eed0) to Arweave in February 2018 and officially [launching](https://arweave.medium.com/arweave-network-launch-report-b7e7ffac0f75) in June 2018.