Arweave AR token value drops 13% amid contentious hard fork debate

Decentralized storage platform Arweave’s AR token dipped by more than 13% following recent drama about a possible hard fork of the blockchain network.

Data from Cryptoslate shows that AR’s token value dropped 13.06% to $8.9 as of press time, reversing a 15% gain it had recorded on the seven-day metric.

Arweave is the fourth-largest filesharing blockchain network by market capitalization, according to CryptoSlate’s data. It functions as a decentralized permanent storage solution dedicated to safeguarding humanity’s most critical data.

The network enjoys substantial adoption among NFT artists and collectors aiming to secure digital art. It has forged significant partnerships with major technological firms like Meta and has built integrations with blockchain networks like Ethereum and Solana to incorporate their NFT processes.

Drama unfolds around potential Arweave fork.

On Dec. 17, Sam Williams, Arweave’s founder, accused Irys, a storage solution provider formerly Bundlr, of planning to fork the storage platform.

Williams asserted that Irys’ intended fork, involving dropping the dataset and resetting the token supply, is driven by greed. He highlighted the necessity of forks for permanent storage platforms but condemned Irys for choosing an unethical approach.

According to him:

“[Irys] approach shortsightedly hampers even their own project of permanent storage. If the dataset and token supply are consistently reset, no fork can ever succeed at the long-term mission.”

Due to this alleged unethical approach, Arweave urged Irys users to migrate to other bundling service providers or create their own bundlers. The decentralized storage platform also plans to eliminate Irys’ ability to “optimistically show their content on the main gateways of the Arweave ecosystem before their content settles onchain.”

Meanwhile, Irys countered that Willams’ actions were unjust and accused Arweave of actively censoring its platform. The bundling service provider further urged its users to use its gateway to bypass the restrictions imposed by Arweave.

It added:

“Irys never has and never will take the choice away from users about where their data is stored. Creating unconstrained access to permanent data for its users is at the core of what Irys does. We remain committed to censorship-resistant, open-source, and permissionless technology.”

Irys also affirmed its commitment to advancing “new provenance tech” while ensuring uninterrupted services for its current users. It reassured users that their ongoing projects and the accessibility of their data will remain unaffected as it continues to develop “new features.”

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