Where you store your NFT matters. Make sure it’s stored permanently.
It’s NFT NYC! We love to see developers, artists, and collectors come to New York City to share knowledge and celebrate how far web3 has come. In honor of one of our favorite events of the year (just our humble opinion), we wanted to talk about an important topic that is often overlooked.
NFT data storage.
How often do you think about where your NFT is stored? Probably not very often, but if you did, you would realize the importance of this decision.
What if you looked back on the NFTs you purchased 50 years ago but found that they were gone? What if they had been deleted forever because no one paid the monthly storage fee required by non-permanent data storage solutions, including the ones that are decentralized.
This is not only possible but probable.
Billions of dollars have been invested in NFTs. Some are purchased for a quick flip, others to gain exclusive membership, but many are a long-term investment. What if those investments were deleted? After all, an NFT is made up of data, and if some of that data is deleted, the entire NFT could be worthless.
We encounter deleted or corrupted data all the time. If you’ve ever clicked on a dead link, you’ve experienced deleted data. According to a recent study, 49% of the hyperlinks in Supreme Court decisions no longer work because of this. Is it really that far a stretch to imagine your NFT data facing a similar fate?
We believe this risk shouldn’t be an option. NFT holders should be guaranteed that their NFTs will last forever.
There is only one way to guarantee that your data will be preserved forever is to store it on Arweave via Bundlr. Bundlr makes web3 data storage accessible by making it as fast, easy, and reliable as traditional data storage. Arweave is the only permanent, decentralized data storage solution.
All it requires is a one-time payment and your data is stored forever.
What does it mean that the data is stored permanently?
We define data permanence as data that has a maintained high replication rate. Your data is stored on an immutable blockchain, and that data is replicated across many nodes, sometimes hundreds of nodes. This means if one of the nodes on the network shuts down for some reason, your data is still safe as it has been saved across multiple nodes.
Arweave is able to do this by:
- Paying nodes over a period of time rather than a one-upfront lump sum
- Requiring nodes to have a specific piece of random data from the past in order to mine a new block
- Encouraging nodes to replicate “rare data”
Let’s dive into each of these concepts.
Paying nodes over a period of time rather than a one-upfront lump sum
Arweave knew it needed to create a system that incentivizes nodes to hold onto data for a long period of time. Therefore, rather than paying the node the entire lump sum for storing a piece of data, it will pay the nodes over a period of time, which requires them to keep the old data.
The payment received goes into an endowment that gains value over time. The nodes are rewarded for storing data with payments that are distributed over time.
In summary, while you only have to pay a one-time fee, the nodes are paid over a period of time to store your data.
Requiring nodes to have a specific piece of a random data from the past in order to mine a new block
To increase data replication, nodes must have a specific byte of random data from the past in order to mine a new block. Mining a new block is how the nodes make money, so in order to reap the financial benefits, they must replicate past data.
Since the nodes do not know which piece of data they will be required to have in order to mine a new block, they benefit from replicating and storing as much data as possible. This will increase their chances of having the required byte of data and therefore increase their chances of mining the block.
This process ensures that the data replication remains constant and high.
Encouraging nodes to replicate “rare data”
Rare data is data that has a lower than average replication rate.
Nodes have an incentive to store rare data since it has a lower replication rate and the other nodes are less likely to have it, therefore increasing their chances of mining when competing for a new block. As a result, miners are constantly looking for rare data to store in order to increase their probability of mining the block and therefore getting paid.
This ensures that all data is replicated many times over.
Confused? Let’s break it down even more:
- Rather than paid a lump-sum upfront, nodes are paid over a period of time to store data
- In order to mine a block, a node is required to have a specific random piece of data. If they do not have this data, they will not mine the block and therefore will miss out on the financial benefits.
- As a result, nodes are incentivized to store as much data as they can, specifically rare data since it has a lower replication rate and the other nodes are less likely to have it.
Why is this better for NFT storage?
Your data will not be deleted in the future.
Simply put, your NFT is made up of data. All of that data must be stored somewhere. Right now, the most common way NFT data is stored is with non-permanent solutions. While these may work in the short term, what happens if the platform paying for your data storage shuts down and stops paying?
The bottom line is, that your NFTs should be stored in a safe, decentralized place where they will never be at risk of deletion. You wouldn’t store your rare card collection in a damp cellar and you wouldn’t store your fine wine collection in a greenhouse.
Why would you store your NFTs on a non-permanent solution? It’s just not worth the risk.
So how can I ensure my NFTs are stored permanently?
You need to ask your NFT marketplace or the solution you use to mint your NFT to use Bundlr. If your NFT is minted on a solution that uses Bundlr, such as Metaplex, your NFT is protected forever and can be sold on any marketplace, however, if it uses a different data storage solution, it is at risk.
If the solution used to mint your NFT does not use Bundlr, then you can purchase your NFT from a marketplace that does including SolSea, FormFunction, and OltaArt use permanent data storage.
Your NFTs are an investment and should be treated as such. Ensure that they are protected with permanent web3 data storage on Bundlr.
To learn more about Bundlr and its technology, check out Bundlr’s documentation. For more information, feel free to reach out on Twitter, Discord, or email caylin@bundlr.network
A big thanks to DMac who helped polish the fine details of this article! You can follow his company, MyMailProtocol, on Twitter
