The ArDrive Difference
We know you have many storage options. In 2022, subscription services require you to pay monthly to store your digital photos, personal files, business documents, or NFTs. Whether you are a content creator, digital native, or simply someone who cares about the data that lives and breathes on your devices, it is hard to know which service is the best. If you truly care about storing your data permanently, safely, and economically, why use ArDrive?”
The current digital storage options
When we survey the current landscape most people use a combination of cloud applications, social media sites, and personal hard drives to store their digital files.
- Cloud applications like Dropbox and Google Drive have developed a great user experience, but they are still prone to data loss, security breaches, and have subscription payments
- Social Media Sites have become a defacto personal archive for most users, but data loss, lack of ownership of data, and termination of accounts are common place
- Personal Hard Drives are often inconvenient and are becoming obsolete - not to mention the horror stories and expense of trying to recover faulty hard drives!
And, the most common problem they all share is that they are temporary and require subscription payments. None of them offers a long-term storage solution.
ArDrive is Permanent
ArDrive is built upon the Arweave blockchain, which provides permanent technology that enables any type of digital data to be stored for at least 200 years but probably much longer.
No longer do you need to worry about the complex and multifaceted approach to storing your most valuable data. No longer do you need a combination of cloud storage, hard drives, memory sticks, and third-party solutions.
With ArDrive, all of your files become part of the Arweave blockchain where they will never be deleted. And you have the choice to keep those files private forever or share them publicly. Once your most important files are uploaded through ArDrive they will outlive you, your children, and your great-grandchildren.
This allows not only our personal data to be kept safely, but will, also, allow new types of applications to be built and business problems to be solved with the foundation of permanent data Learn more
ArDrive is Pay Once
We're all far too familiar with paying monthly subscriptions. With data storage, this usually equates to paying for a bunch of storage space you actually do not actually need.
ArDrive does away with subscriptions. Any file that you upload is only paid for once, then stored forever.
Your data will be secured by your initial payment and you will never be asked to pay another penny more for what you uploaded (or want to download in the future). You will only ever be asked to pay a one-time fee when you upload new data through ArDrive.
The fees are reasonable and will always come out as the low-cost option within a few years compared to other storage alternatives. See a breakdown of our pricing
ArDrive is a Platform
Although ArDrive can perform similar functionality to a Google Drive or Dropbox, it is, also, an infrastructure foundation for the entire Arweave ecosystem.
Permanent data is not only about longevity, but about the unique applications you can build now that you have a permanent data layer.
ArDrive provides a set of tools that allows developers to play in the playground of Arweave.
This infrastructure includes:
- Arweave File System (ArFS) - Protocol that gives you the power and flexibility of a hierarchical file system and encrypted private data on Arweave
- Integration and Automation Toolkit - Scriptable tools for customizable, reliable, uploading, downloading and organizing
- Core Libraries - Flexible code and support docs to integrate apps and workflows into ArDrive
- ArDrive CLI - Allows the power of ArFS to be leveraged from the terminal, which is easy to support and script, supports advanced functions, network utilities, custom metadata etc.
Check out our developer section for an in-depth look at all the tools and potential uses.
ArDrive is Community Run
ArDrive is not business as usual. We have a growing team right now and are headed towards being community owned and run. This is all governed by our very own token: ArDrive Token (ↁ). The token gives the holder the right to vote on important community initiatives and to receive ‘tips’ from the fees generated by uploads onto ArDrive.
What we want is the users and the developers of the application to be aligned so we can, together, create something great for the world, and all get to benefit from its success.
ArDrive is for You
So why use ArDrive? At ArDrive our mission has always been to make permanent data available to everyone. We are excited about all of the different people and groups who have been able to benefit from the power of permanent data.
Individuals - Everyday new people from around the world are storing their most valuable items through ArDrive. All of its out-of-the-box functionality makes it an easy to use app for your permanent data needs.
NFT projects - ArDrive has become the home for a number of small-to-large NFT projects. From digital art to gaming to music, a growing number of artists have chosen to use ArDrive to organize and manage their files on the permaweb.
Developers - With ArDrive powered by ArFS and our core library developers can save time when building in the Arweave ecosystem with the power and flexibility of our file system, toolkits, and CLI. ArFS is open-source and free to use. Learn more
Enterprise Solutions - Organizations have noticed the power of ArFS and are working with the ArDrive team to manage their internal documents and work flows. If you have any questions about enterprise applications feel free to contact us through ArDrive Valet.
Take the tour of ArDrive
We have so much more to show you. Visit our Learning Center or take our Tech 101 course to learn more about the topics described above. Or here are a few places to start:
As well, you will learn that ArDrive has many great features:
Finally, check out how some of our ArDrive community is already using ArDrive to keep their most important files saved forever: