Title: The Dilemma of NFT Projects: Arweave vs. IPFS
Introduction:
Running an NFT project often entails a difficult decision: “Should I pay a one-time fee with Arweave or use Filecoin for pay-as-you-go storage?” Another concern is the longevity of file storage. This article explores how Arweave and IPFS store, maintain, and access files, and the impact on the reliability and permanence of digital assets.
Arweave’s File Lifecycle:
What is Arweave?
Arweave is a decentralized blockchain designed to store your data permanently and securely on the chain. With a one-time upfront payment, you can ensure your data is stored for at least 200 years, equivalent to two lifetimes.
Arweave eliminates the need for monthly maintenance fees, retrieval fees, or any hidden costs, guaranteeing the permanence and immutability of your data.
The predictability of Arweave’s costs is a significant advantage. As an NFT project owner, this ensures the permanent accessibility of artwork to buyers, thereby enhancing the project’s value.
Your one-time payment guarantees a minimum of 20 copies of your data backed up in the network. Redundant backups enhance data security and ensure stable operations in case of node failures or network issues.
File Lifecycle using IPFS and Pinning Services:
IPFS is not a storage platform but a decentralized file-sharing protocol.
IPFS uses content addressing to identify files, allowing any host worldwide to access the data without relying on centralized entities. As long as at least one node stores the data, it remains accessible in the network.
This is where pinning services come into play. File pinning serves as an economic incentive layer to maintain data on IPFS nodes. Services like Filecoin and Pinata provide monthly subscriptions to keep data pinned and reward IPFS nodes, similar to Google Drive or Dropbox.
Pinning services typically store your data on only 3 to 6 nodes. This limited redundancy poses a risk to long-term data security, as any failure or disconnection of these nodes puts the data at risk.
According to blockchain explorers, data stored using Filecoin’s pinning services has a relatively short average lifespan, usually less than a year. Beyond this timeframe, without renewal, there is a risk of data deletion.
To manage the accumulation of unpaid files, IPFS has a “garbage collection” mechanism that automatically cleans up unpinned data from node caches, freeing up resources for new files. Similar to losing access to data when you stop paying for Dropbox, over time, the data gradually gets deleted. This is another concern that you can avoid by using Arweave, as data uploaded to Arweave is permanently stored.
Risks Faced by Your NFTs on IPFS:
When running an NFT project, you have to balance multiple priorities. Worrying about the safety of your NFT assets while paying an additional subscription fee can be a headache.
The costs of pinning services may unexpectedly increase, resulting in higher operational costs. If your NFT project cannot sustain these costs, you will lose access to your NFTs. This can be a challenge for small projects or individual artists.
IPFS warns users that pinning services are not responsible for maintaining their data and cannot guarantee their continued operation. If your pinning service shuts down, your data will no longer be stored.
IPFS cautions that these pinning services’ continuity cannot be guaranteed.
Several pinning services, such as Estuary and alwaysNFT.cloud, have already ceased operations, leaving users to find alternative solutions.
If you are concerned about the permanence of your NFT assets, you need to use multiple pinning services to achieve the same level of security provided by Arweave. This approach increases costs and complexity, while Arweave only requires a one-time payment for permanent storage, making it incredibly simple.
Which Solution Should You Choose?
While IPFS offers flexibility and decentralized sharing, it requires active maintenance, ongoing payments, and reliance on third parties to ensure data security.
For busy NFT projects and creators with large communities, this is an unnecessary burden.
We recommend using Arweave (we admit a slight bias).
We created Akord to help creators like you store valuable assets permanently on the chain.
With no hidden costs and just a one-time payment, your data will have no worries for eternity.
