The importance of preserving history through Bundlr and Arweave

Information censorship is not a new phenomenon. We’ve seen it throughout history in various forms: the trial and subsequent death of Socrates for his philosophical teachings, ‘sanitation’ policies under Stalin, book burnings, altering art, and more.

With the rise of the internet and distributed technologies, censoring information has become more difficult. It is now much easier to access diverse information and make public posts anonymously to protect your identity. Even blocked content can be accessed with the right skills and programs.

However, while it might be harder, censorship is not impossible. Today we see various degrees of censorship through governments in different countries, as well as private institutions and large private groups. Censorship tends to manifest in media such as the internet, written works, art, movies, and speech. It is enforced with various strategies such as banning websites, controlling social platforms, removing or editing content, blacklisting individuals, and more.

Every time something or someone is censored, we lose a bit of our history. This is one of the reasons permanent data storage is so important. Once a piece of media or any type of data is stored, it cannot be lost or altered.

What does it mean to store something permanently?

Imagine a piece of data that could never be altered or deleted. We’ve all experienced missing data. Perhaps your old blog was erased because the company closed down or maybe you were searching for an old photo that is now corrupted. Maybe something more intentional happened and a social media company deleted your posts because it did not align with their values.

These things wouldn’t happen anymore. We would no longer experience web pages that don’t work or find that old photos you once stored on a cloud provider are now missing because you never paid the monthly fee.

More importantly, we would no longer lose first hand accounts, opinions, and observations that were removed because they didn’t fit the desired narrative.

In partnership with Arweave, Bundlr is preserving history

In collaboration with Arweave, Bundlr is archiving tweets and articles that are coming out of Ukraine and Russia. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are high, with many speculating that Russian forces are preparing for war.

The two countries have had a tense relationship for years, but the tipping point came in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula. Despite a peace treaty signed in 2015, the two countries have fought over the territory ever since, resulting in more than 14,000 people dead according to the Ukraine government.

Bundlr is archiving tweets and articles coming out of Ukraine and Russia, and uploading it on Arweave, a permanent data storage solution. Bundlr is currently uploading at 10 TPS, which means that every second, 10 pieces of data are being saved to Arweave.

This is invaluable. If the Ukraine or Russian government decides to censor what people are saying in either country, there will still be a place where first-hand accounts will not only be recorded and saved, but preserved. They will be untouched by entities that might want to control the narrative.

How do Bundlr and Arweave store data permanently?

Arweave is a data chain that allows users to store their data permanently for a one-time fee. It is also decentralised, so no singular entity is in control of storing the uploaded data, therefore no single entity can alter the uploaded information. Since the data is stored across multiple validators, it is not at risk of being compromised, hacked, or accidentally deleted.

Bundlr enables fast, multichain support for Arweave. Data uploaded to Bundlr is instantly accessible and ~3000x faster than uploading directly to Arweave. As of today, it is responsible for ~70% of Arweave’s data.

Basically, Arweave is a decentralised blockchain where data is securely stored, and Bundlr makes the data uploads significantly faster.

Permanent data storage is what the human race has been trying to for centuries

For centuries, humans have been trying to find permanent ways to preserve our history. The tools we’ve been using have been getting progressively better, but have yet to stand the test of time. Preserving data on a scalable, infinite blockchain is the answer.

Perhaps the conflict between Russia and Ukraine won’t result in censorship and these first-hand accounts we’re seeing through tweets and articles won’t be deleted. One day, there will be a government or entity that decides to censor people, and when that time comes, the technologies that are being built by Bundlr and Arweave will be critical.

It will ensure that years down the line, the people’s stories will be remembered and preserved. We will hear accounts from all perspectives regardless of who they are or what they think.

This is the beginning of a new way to store data, forever.

Interested in learning more about what we’re doing at Bundlr? Join our Discord or email caylin@bundlr.network