Berlin company Arweave (Forbes JAPAN) fighting Russian speech control on blockchain --Yahoo! News

(c) arweave.org

There is a saying that "history is written by the winner", but Berlin-based blockchain startup Arweave is trying to counter it. Ukraine's history and important relics are at stake as Russian troops continue to attack Ukraine and evacuate in large numbers, but also content such as important news articles, videos and social media posts. There is a danger of being erased. Alweave is trying to create a Noah's Ark-like platform called "permaweb" to store this content forever. Permaweb, which stores virtually unlimited data inexpensively and permanently, has collected more than 6.5 million pieces of information on the Ukrainian conflict in recent weeks, with data capacities exceeding 50 terabytes. Alweave network participants are given a token called AR in return for providing the node. AR is currently priced at $ 28 and has a market capitalization of $ 1 billion. The number of participants has now reached about 1000, with participants from the United States, Germany and, interestingly, China. Alweave was founded in 2017 by Sam Williams and others with a PhD from the University of Kent, and in August 2020, $ 8.3 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures. I procured it. Williams states that he created the platform to make up for the shortcomings of existing centralized data storage. "Companies can't create storage that lasts forever, because they can change their business model or cause errors. Our platform is censorship resistant, very low cost and everyone archives. You can contribute to the history and leave articles that you think are important in history. ”■ Supporting independent media in Hong Kong Alweave has been demonstrating its power even before the crisis in Ukraine. One example is the episode in November 2018 when the Russian Navy seized a Ukrainian ship near the Crimean Peninsula and detained 24 people. The Russian media Sputnik, which first reported the incident, initially published a Ukrainian claim that "the Russians first fired on a Ukrainian ship," but the article was deleted only 14 minutes after its release. Was done. However, members of Alweave kept it in the archive. Sputnik then published a Russian-friendly article stating that "the responsibility for the case lies with the Ukrainian side who committed the territorial invasion," but Alweave was able to preserve the facts. Alweave also drew attention during the democratization demonstration in Hong Kong in April 2019, and 12,000 articles of the independent media `` Apple Daily'' that was forced to be discontinued under the pressure of the Chinese government. Created an archive of. In addition, Alweave has recorded news about sexual assault cases that the Canadian Department of Defense tried to remove from the news feed and hide. Of course, there was some opposition to Alweave's efforts, and the participants' computers were seized by the Chinese government. In addition, Williams and the company's CTO have received a warning from Google that "government-backed hackers have attempted to break into their accounts." Williams and his team are focused on storing as much information as possible for the time being, but they may face even more difficult situations in the future.

Steven Ehrlich