Kyle from Multicoin once had an ‘extreme theory’ that, with the development of technology, Gas fees will approach 0 indefinitely - as Solana, SUI, and other high-performance public chains and L2 solutions rise, this point of view is gradually being accepted by the market, becoming a new Consensus.
In the field of on-chain data, a similar scene is also being replayed: AI, memecoin, DePIN, IP, and even NFT have brought completely different demands for the storage and processing of on-chain data. If blockchain is only used for accounting or simple token transfers, there is no need for a large amount of data throughput; but once it involves massive metadata, complex verification, or high-frequency read and write operations, the old infrastructure will be as inadequate as ‘dial-up internet access’.
Ethereum is a typical example. It has been calculated that storing a few hundred KB of data on Ethereum could cost tens of thousands of dollars; if you want to put large-scale data sources on it, the real cost is almost impossible for people to accept. Even though the Blob space was added through EIP-4844 later, allowing Rollups to store transaction data in the “dedicated lane,” the data still cannot be stored for a long time and will be automatically “cleaned up” in a few weeks. Although it can temporarily relieve the congestion of Ethereum, this “temporary availability” is simply impossible to meet the needs of those who truly need to retain important files on the chain, build large databases, or support AI training scenarios.
Current plan, each fighting on its own
Each public chain is trying to cope with the challenge of ‘data expansion.’ Solana’s approach is State Compression, which means moving large chunks of data off-chain, storing only fingerprint information on-chain, significantly reducing the on-chain burden. However, it also means that once external storage fails, the original data is difficult to reproduce. Filecoin tends to provide temporary storage through a ‘market mechanism,’ but the retrieval time may be long, lasting several days, which is not friendly to applications requiring real-time calls. Arweave has pioneered a model of permanent storage, but it is difficult to achieve perfection in performance and verifiability, and it is not closely integrated with smart contract platforms. In this patchwork state, developers often need to combine ‘on-chain + off-chain’ into a complex system, increasing reliance on third parties and reducing composability and speed.
In summary, today’s solutions can be roughly divided into two categories:
• One type is the short-term “data availability layer” (blobs of Ethereum, Celestia), which ensures that data can be accessed by all nodes when packaging blocks, but does not provide permanent storage;
• Another type is off-chain storage solutions (Solana’s compression method, IPFS/Filecoin/Arweave), which map off-chain data through “on-chain tags”, effectively reducing on-chain costs, but heavily relying on external networks, limiting composability, and preventing smart contracts from direct invocation.
In other words, there is currently no solution that can provide a scalable, persistent, and composable data layer on the chain, allowing data to be naturally stored on the blockchain and be directly called by the execution environment at any time.
Meanwhile, AI, DePIN, NFT, and an increasing number of Web3 applications require a large amount of verifiable data in daily operation. However, high costs, fragmented on-chain and off-chain connections, and a lack of structured and persistent pain points have discouraged numerous projects.
What has changed with the emergence of Irys?
At this time, Irys appears with a ‘data + execution integration’ approach. It is not simply aiming to be a ‘storage network’, but through the built-in EVM compatible execution environment, data can be directly read, used, and combined on the same chain, eliminating the need for additional cross-chain or offline operations.
Imagine that in the past, if we wanted to store an NFT image on the blockchain, we had to set up an IPFS or centralized server, worrying that someone might not ‘Pin’ it properly and lose it; now, if the creator uploads the image to the Irys network, it can permanently stay on the chain, and smart contracts determine access rights and revenue distribution, developers do not need to prepare additional gateways or cross-chain bridges. Just like in the past, when you bought various hard drives and servers to store data, now you only need one machine in the cloud to handle everything.
Irys’s ‘dual ledger’ architecture is also quite interesting: newly submitted data will first be processed quickly (Submit Ledger), and after verification, it will enter the final permanent storage (Publish Ledger). It’s a bit like a logistics process, first using a high-speed express to transport goods to the transfer station, and then safely moving the goods into a long-term warehouse. In this way, it not only takes into account the upload speed but also ensures that the data can truly be retained, without evaporating automatically after a few weeks like Ethereum in the ‘temporary lane’.
More importantly, Irys not only needs to be able to ‘store’ but also needs to be able to ‘use’. It embeds an executable environment directly in the chain, remains compatible with the EVM, and developers can still use familiar tools or languages (such as Solidity) to develop ‘on-chain logic’. In terms of performance, it is reported that Irys’s throughput can far exceed that of traditional public chains, making it very attractive for businesses that require high concurrency or frequent data reading and writing. If you are a company looking to conduct large-scale AI training on the chain or deeply integrate with the NFT ecosystem, you don’t need to worry about issues such as cross-chain transactions, high Gas fees, or slow retrieval. Just hand the data directly to Irys, as if renting all servers on the same cloud platform, and the on-chain contracts can retrieve the data whenever they need.
Plug-and-Play On-Chain AWS
Why is it said that Irys’s approach is like the “AWS on the chain”? We can use the history of Web2 to make an analogy. The reason AWS was able to rise rapidly back then was that it packaged all “common requirements” such as computing, storage, databases, access management, etc., into cloud services, allowing enterprises and developers to not have to build and maintain servers and machine rooms themselves, but to hand over these tedious tasks to a specialized platform. This not only greatly improves efficiency but also unlocks many scenarios that were previously unimaginable.
What Irys wants to do in Web3 is similar - to allow developers to solve the large-scale on-chain storage and computation ‘one-stop’ with lower barriers and better performance. If you are a team that wants to build on-chain games, needs to upload massive game assets and scene information on-chain, and quickly execute contracts to verify item ownership or player achievements, using Irys, game data and contract logic can interact on the same network, eliminating tedious operations such as ‘storing part of it on Arweave, executing logic on Ethereum, and introducing a centralized oracle to retrieve data.’ Developers can focus more on game mechanics and user experience, rather than spending time on various infrastructure assemblies.
This kind of composability will form a positive cycle: when more data, more protocols, and more services converge on Irys, everyone can call each other, like building blocks in the cloud, spawning more innovative applications. Web3 has long been criticized for high development costs and difficulty in interoperability between different chains, one of the reasons behind this is the lack of a ‘universal platform’ that can both store and execute. If this challenge is overcome by Irys or similar solutions, then the prosperity of the on-chain ecosystem is expected to experience a new wave of explosion like the Internet did after the emergence of cloud computing.
Now is the perfect time for Irys
Looking back at the current development of the blockchain industry, we will find that the calls for ‘big data + blockchain’ are becoming increasingly louder. While Layer-2 scaling has alleviated transaction congestion, it has prompted more projects to start thinking about how to process data in a cheaper and more flexible way. The AI training datasets are becoming larger and larger, and the demands of creators for on-chain rights confirmation and revenue sharing are increasingly strong, all sending signals to the market: existing data infrastructure is no longer sufficient to support the next stage of explosion.
Projects such as Celestia and Story Protocol have each raised over $100 million in financing. The post-TGE valuation also ranks high on the leaderboard, proving capital’s particular focus on the “on-chain data layer.” Ethereum’s promotion of scaling improvements like EIP-4844 also indirectly confirms that the entire network is looking for alternative or complementary persistent storage solutions, aiming to prevent “insufficient temporary space” from becoming a bottleneck for further development.
As a strong competitor, Irys is not nobody. If you are not familiar with Irys, then you must have heard of the star project Bundlr from the team. As the L2 of Arweave, Bundlr successfully expanded the daily transaction volume of the Arweave network from 10,000 to over 15 million, supporting 98% of the network’s activity and successfully helping more than 300 projects access the ecosystem. From Bundlr in 2021 to today’s Irys, the team’s technology and industry understanding have made a qualitative leap.
Irys has raised approximately $10 million in seed funding and is currently in the process of Series A financing. Among its early investors are well-known VCs such as Lemniscap, Primitive, and Framework, as well as Permanent from Arweave and a co-founder from Bear Chain. The support from both capital and projects proves to us that Irys not only has the funds and technology but also possesses strong experience and industry resources. Compared to projects that are still in the ‘concept validation’ stage, Irys already has the elements needed to truly move towards large-scale application.
The moment of Web3’s AWS is about to come
History tells us that whenever the underlying infrastructure undergoes major upgrades, it will lead the next wave of innovation.
Irys’s answer is to truly put the most underestimated sector, ‘data’, at the center of the chain and seamlessly integrate it with the execution environment. Developers can write, retrieve, and process massive data on Irys at any time, just like using cloud services, without encountering outrageously expensive gas fees or worrying about data being cleared in just a few weeks.
In Web2, AWS almost dominates the world with its perfect cloud service ecosystem, but this also means that developers face the risk of being ‘locked in’ once they encounter platform price increases or policy changes while enjoying convenience. Irys stands in another dimension - in its decentralized network, you can build verifiable AI, flexible on-chain automation, and globally shared status, without worrying about being kicked out of the platform or paying high rent one day. In other words, Irys does not directly confront AWS, but does what AWS cannot reach: providing developers with an on-chain environment that does not rely on centralized access, operates on a cost basis, and allows various applications to be freely combined, allowing the Internet to return to its open and composable nature.
Of course, whether all of this can truly become the ‘on-chain AWS’ depends on the landing of the ecosystem. Only when enough projects and protocols are willing to settle in Irys, can the true combinable magic be unleashed. Just like AWS in the early days only supported Amazon’s own business, and later gradually grew into a globally leading cloud computing platform through a series of developer services and word of mouth. Perhaps Irys also needs a process of ‘from 0 to 1, and then from 1 to N.’ But at this critical moment of large-scale blockchain upgrade, its vision is grand enough and meets the demand. Whoever can be the first to solve a series of pain points such as cross-chain, offline, and inability to combine at once, will have the opportunity to become the underlying cornerstone of the next era.
