Arweave Caught in Fork Controversy as Founder Slams Storage Solution Irys
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Arweave Caught in Fork Controversy as Founder Slams Storage Solution Irys
Out of greed, Irys is considering abandoning the dataset and resetting the token supply to fork Arweave.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Sam Williams, Founder of Arweave
Translation: Paimeng, Foresight News
The perpetual storage protocol Arweave is embroiled in a fork controversy, as its storage solution Irys (formerly Bundlr Network) is considering forking Arweave—abandoning maintenance of the ecosystem's dataset and resetting its token supply. Sam Williams, founder of Arweave, has publicly criticized Irys for pursuing this move out of greed, calling it an "antisocial fork."
Below is the full text of Sam Williams' social media post:
This week, Irys plans to fork Arweave.
Forks are necessary for long-term resilience in permanent storage. There are both prosocial and antisocial ways to fork Arweave—unfortunately, Irys is pursuing the latter. Let’s discuss this issue today.
TL;DR
-
Motivated by greed, Irys is considering abandoning the dataset and resetting the token supply in its Arweave fork.
-
There is an established mechanism within the network called protocol evolution that enables secure forks and network upgrades, but Irys appears to be ignoring it.
-
A brand-new, 100% free, and fully Irys-compatible bundler is available at this website. Simply replace your current Irys node URL to use it—this completely resolves the issues faced by Arweave users.
-
Given this situation, ar.io network has decided to remove Irys’ bundler from the trusted bundler set on Arweave’s main gateway. This will result in significant delays before user data becomes available.
Background
Forks are an essential part of blockchain governance. They allow communities to experiment with different approaches and collaboratively solve problems.
However, for a permanent storage network, forks must be conducted properly—by preserving and extending state, not destroying it. When done correctly, forks enable the network to self-improve over time and navigate around challenges, thereby securing the dataset. If not, it means all data will be periodically wiped, making information permanence impossible.
To facilitate smooth protocol evolution through forks, our ecosystem has established Protocol Evolution Guidelines. You can read more about them here.
These guidelines can be seen as a form of social contract for blockchain networks.
A Brief Overview of Arweave Protocol Evolution
In short, the rules for forking are as follows:
-
Anyone can create a fork at any time.
-
The fork should inherit the network’s dataset and token supply.
-
The fork may also mint any amount of new tokens to compensate its builders.
This system allows forks to compete and improve the protocol in a socially beneficial way: ensuring data safety while creating a market for new ideas and rewarding innovators. It also allows token holders to accumulate tokens across various forks or actively trade between them when they prefer one over another. This is a win-win for everyone.
So What About the Irys Fork?
We have learned from reliable sources that Irys is considering forking Arweave. Despite the existence of Arweave’s evolution framework, they plan to abandon the dataset and reset the token supply.
When asked why, they said they don’t want to support existing data or “give tokens to a bunch of **.” Beyond greed, we struggle to find any other explanation.
Setting aside their disrespect toward the ecosystem, this short-sighted approach even undermines their own permanent storage ambitions. If datasets and token supplies are constantly reset, no fork can ever succeed in achieving long-term storage.
We still hope they will ultimately build their fork the right way. We remain open to communication with them and will support their experiments—as long as their approach benefits the ecosystem.
What If Irys Users Don’t Want to Be Part of This Drama?
Irys can stop uploading your data to Arweave at any time.
Fortunately, switching bundlers is simple and solves the core issues affecting our entire ecosystem.
@fwdresearch is currently operating a free (100% subsidized) Arweave bundling service. We will continue providing this service into the foreseeable future as users migrate. In the long term, both ar.io network and EverVision offer excellent hosted bundling services. Users may also choose to run their own bundler.
To switch to the free Arweave bundling service, simply replace the Irys node URL in your code with https://up.arweave.net.
Currently, Irys is part of the trusted bundler group, meaning content uploaded via Irys can appear on major Arweave portals even before being fully committed to the chain. However, since Arweave has now lost trust that Irys will eventually fully upload data, Irys’ data caching will be disabled on Arweave and related portals maintained by ar.io network. This will cause noticeable delays—approximately 20 minutes to one hour—before content previously uploaded via Irys becomes viewable.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@samecwilliams
