Arweave

Arweave stores data through a signed, funded transaction submitted to its blockweave. Its normal model is intended permanent publication rather than IPFS pinning or a fixed-term storage agreement, so the decision to upload has lasting consequences for accessibility and correction.

Publication is an onchain transaction with a durable identifier

The uploader prepares data and transaction metadata, signs with a funded wallet, and broadcasts through the network or a compatible upload service. The transaction ID addresses the uploaded data, so an application needs to retain and publish that identifier as part of its retrieval design.

Tags can describe the data, including its content type. Correct metadata affects how gateways and browsers interpret retrieved bytes, while an unsuitable or missing type can make stored content render incorrectly despite the underlying data being present.

Gateways deliver the data but are a separate access layer

An application can request transaction data through an Arweave gateway using the transaction ID, giving the stored content HTTP-style delivery. A gateway does not guarantee that every gateway serves every request at the same speed or under the same policy, so resilient applications should plan gateway choice and fallback behavior.

Storage incentives are tied to the network’s endowment model rather than to the uploader renewing a fixed-term deal. The uploader pays at publication time, and accepted data does not gain a conventional delete or overwrite control afterwards.

Immutability contrasts with Filecoin’s renewable deals

Correcting or replacing content requires a new transaction and a new transaction ID. A publisher that needs a stable human-facing reference must manage its own naming, manifest or pointer scheme; sensitive data that may require deletion, replacement or access revocation is a poor fit unless encryption and key-management decisions are made before upload.

Filecoin is the close contrast for time-bounded storage deals that a client can select, replicate, renew or replace with providers. Arweave favors an upfront-funded, immutable public-publication path for data intended to remain retrievable over a long horizon, rather than ongoing client-managed retention.