Irys's token issuance should be approaching soon. Recently, there was a discussion about why there haven't been any storage projects issuing tokens during this cycle, and today we learned that Irys, which was part of the Arweave ecosystem and later became an independent storage L1 chain, is also moving forward.
In simple terms, Irys is a programmable data chain that focuses on permanently storing information on its own EVM-compatible L1, compared to Filecoin, Story, and others, and has since secured $10 million in funding.
The benefit of this approach is that as long as this L1 chain continues to operate, data can be read, written, and downloaded at any time. Even if one day the Irys chain completely stops, data can still be retrieved through the hard drives of nodes that had previously synchronized the full node.
It's somewhat similar to many websites and blogs from back in the day, which have gradually gone offline, but can still be viewed through snapshots of synchronized site records.
Core issue: Storage cost
Currently, the vast majority of on-chain storage solutions do not support permanent storage. The main reason is that permanent storage usually requires a one-time substantial fee, but the costs involved in hardware replacement, operations, electricity, etc., many years down the line are very difficult to calculate.
If the pricing is set too high, it could deter participants, while a large amount of permanently saved on-chain data could lead to continuous expansion of the on-chain state, increasing the threshold for full node synchronization and storage, thereby affecting network availability.
Although Irys's solution involves a one-time high fee and requires node operators to stake tokens, with rewards only obtainable through long-term availability, it still needs time to assess whether it's a feasible long-term solution.
Overall, it relies on: first collecting enough funds + staking + proving + multiple backups, etc., to ensure the continuous provision of permanent storage.
Current clients that have already been established include Emet, AI Protocol X, P Rights Hub, etc., with Emet being a database built directly on Irys to ensure the accuracy of model transactions and data markets.
Market cap expectations?
Compared to Filecoin and Story, Irys was initially a project within the Arweave ecosystem but has since transformed into an independent public blockchain for data storage through continuous iteration.
However, in this market cycle, the main focus is not on on-chain storage, but rather on related client fields, such as the storage needs of NFTs and blockchain gaming projects, which have seen a significant decrease. Typically, the storage sector needs to interact with NFTs and blockchain games to trigger large-scale speculation.
Therefore, the community's market cap expectation for Irys is between $500 million to $1 billion, which also depends on whether Irys will launch as a top-tier project or go for an alpha launch; the opening market cap difference between the two is usually quite significant.
The advantage is that platforms in Europe and America typically have airdrop distributions to ensure projects lean towards decentralization, avoiding the legal risks of token concentration.
