Arweave's Token Value's Plummet Amid Controversial Forking Plans

By: Eva Baxter

The AR token value of the decentralized storage platform, Arweave, has taken a significant hit, with a more than 13% dip. This downward spiral follows the drama incited by ongoing controversy regarding a possible hard fork of the blockchain network. Cryptoslate data demonstrates a drop of 13.06% in AR's token value, reducing it to $8.9 as of the time of publication, effectively counteracting a 15% seven-day gain.

Arweave, which ranks as the fourth-largest filesharing blockchain network by market capitalization, serves as a decentralized permanent storage solution, essentially preserving humanity's most significant data. It has become a preferred choice amongst NFT artists and digital collectors, primarily attributed to its impressive partnerships with major technology companies such as Meta and alliances with blockchain networks like Ethereum and Solana. These collaborations have facilitated NFT process incorporation on their platforms.

The news about a potential Arweave fork, raised by the network's founder, Sam Williams, has become a hot topic amongst the community. Williams accused Irys, a storage solution provider, of plotting to fork the platform. He highlighted the necessity of forks for permanent storage platforms but censured Irys for opting for an unethical approach. This debacle led to Arweave advising Irys users to switch to other bundlers, while planning to counter Irys's operations within the Arweave ecosystem.

On the other hand, Irys adamantly pushed back against these allegations, accusing Arweave of censoring their platform and reassuring their users about continued service without interruptions. The aspersion of such controversy has led to unrest in the community, which has likely reflected in the 13% decline of Arweave's AR token.