Author: ar.io
Review: 0xmiddle
Source: Content Guild - News
In our first two articles, “Link Rot (I)” and “Link Rot (II)”, we discussed the sorry state of Internet archiving. Turns out, link rot is everywhere: 50 million songs accidentally deleted from MySpace, legal opinions from the world’s highest court vanished from the web, content on Twitter is suddenly behind a paywall.
But are there any counter-stories? Any examples of preventing link rot through persistent data?
Arweave’s Permaweb and its permanent links have been around since 2017.
Many people have never heard of it, but once they learn of its existence, they understand its importance. The ability to have stable, immutable data will allow us to combat link rot.
Here are some examples of using Arweave to combat link rot:
- ArDrive
- Creative Commons and other small projects
- Scientific research
- KYVE’s Origin
Let’s look at these examples one by one.
1. ArDrive — Pages and Apps on the Permaweb
The easiest way for anyone to experience permanent data is through ArDrive, a Dropbox-like application that lets you save any type of file—documents, music, videos, databases, and more.
Additionally, if you upload a file publicly, ArDrive will turn the file into a web page and generate a unique URL.
Imagine this: a document you upload to ArDrive will instantly become a permanently accessible web page. This means the end of link rot.
ArDrive can do this not only for single documents, but also for entire websites or applications.
So if ArDrive disappears, is your data still there?
Most applications only allow you to use the latest version of their software, but with ArDrive, fully functional historical versions of all decentralized applications (DApps) are available to you on the Permaweb. These applications will survive on the Permaweb and beyond our lifetimes.
This means that even if the ArDrive team ceases to exist, your data will not disappear.
You can view all old versions of the ArDrive app on the Permaweb, try one and get your data: Historical versions of the ArDrive dapp .
2. Creative Commons and other small projects
Few would dispute the importance of permanently preserving fiction, philosophy, theology, and history on the blockchain for future generations to use. Fortunately, a large number of Creative Commons works have been uploaded to the Arweave blockchain and will never be lost.
However, not all of them are masterpieces. But aren’t they worth preserving?
Someone created them, put in the effort, and obviously there is value in preserving them.
For example, a member of the Arweave community created Hotdog Rhythm Station .
This is a simple online drum machine that has been saved to the Permaweb.
Its feature set is very simplified at the moment. The creators may or may not want to expand it in the future.
But what is certain is that this little creation will exist forever on the Permaweb and the link will never become invalid.
What other small creations can be uploaded to the Permaweb?
3. Scientific research
Funding for the research was difficult to come by, but once it was, the research team went to work actively to explore the original questions.
When research teams have findings worth sharing, they often publish the results on their websites.
However, what happens to your website and your research when your funding runs out? Who will pay for the domain name and hosting? This is a common question many researchers face.
Thomas Homer-Dixon is one of the leading scholars of global complexity theory. He studies how the scope of global crises is increasing, and how these crises are increasingly overlapping each other. It is not light reading, but his study is still an important record of world events.
Recently, Homer-Dixon's website was rebuilt, but there wasn't enough space for all of his early work. Therefore, his new website has a link in the footer to a "permaweb" - a permanent site containing all of his work. Anyone can access Thomas's work on the Permaweb at homerdixon.ar.io without having to worry about link rot.
4. Traceability and KYVE
Brands are constantly battling knockoffs and counterfeits. Is this a real Rolex or a fake "Fauxlex"? Are products from unknown brands on Amazon as good as the real thing?
As AI advances, fake news is increasing dramatically. Which news should I trust? Which are the real sources?
All of this falls under the umbrella of provenance, or in our case, digital provenance.
Digital provenance is a chronological record of digital content, providing verifiable information that proves its authenticity and origin throughout its existence.
In other words, digital traceability helps us know whether things on the Internet are true or false.
Blockchains, like the rest of the internet, are subject to link rot. But in a blockchain, the incentive to provide misleading information is stronger, especially when financial transactions could be manipulated.
KYVE, as a decentralized data center, aims to solve the link rot problem in blockchain. KYVE is like a super reliable librarian for blockchain data, simplifying access to historical information on the chain. But it does not only store data, it also ensures the correctness of the information. KYVE provides:
- Permanent digital record – tracks the origin of things because the original information can always be checked.
- Digital Fingerprint - Data on KYVE is uploaded to Arweave, and a unique digital signature is generated for each file, similar to a fingerprint. This makes it easy to prove that the file is authentic and has not been tampered with.
- Timestamping — Arweave adds a precise date and time stamp to every uploaded content. This is critical for blockchain history.
- Decentralized Verification - KYVE does not rely on a single company or individual to prove that something is true, but instead distributes this work across multiple computers. This makes it more difficult for anyone to forge or change the source information of something.
Through these features, KYVE creates a trusted system for proving the origin and history of blockchain data. This makes it one of the leaders in blockchain data centers.
The End of Link Rot
In summary, Arweave and its tools, such as ArDrive and KYVE, effectively solve the link rot problem by providing permanent and immutable storage for data. From personal files to news archives and scientific research, they ensure that links no longer break, content is always accessible, and information is protected for the future.
Join us in putting an end to link rot!
English original link: https://ar.io/articles/link-rot-3
