From "Affordable to Store" to "Accessible to Use": How did Irys become the "Cloud Computing Foundation" of Web3?

Multicoin's Kyle once had a "radical theory" that, with technological advancement, Gas fees would approach zero indefinitely—along with the rise of high-performance blockchains like Solana, Sui, and various Layer 2 solutions, this point of view has gradually been accepted by the market and has become a new consensus.

In the on-chain data field, a similar scene is currently playing out: AI, memecoin, DePIN, IP, and even NFTs have brought entirely different demands for on-chain data storage and processing. If a blockchain is only used for accounting or simple token transfers, then there is no need for a high data throughput; however, once it involves massive metadata, complex validation, or high-frequency reads and writes, outdated infrastructure will be inadequate, just like "dial-up internet."

Ethereum is a typical example. Some have 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 actual cost is almost impossible to accept. Even though later EIP-4844 added Blob space to allow Rollups to store transaction data in a "dedicated lane," the data still cannot be stored for long periods and will be automatically "cleaned up" in a few weeks. Although it can temporarily alleviate Ethereum's congestion, for those who truly need to store important files on-chain, build large databases, or support AI training scenarios, this kind of "temporary availability" is simply not enough to meet their needs.

Current Solutions, Each Fending for Themselves

Each public chain is trying to address the challenge of "data bloat." Solana's approach is State Compression, which moves 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 challenging to reproduce. Filecoin tends to provide temporary storage through a "market mechanism," but retrieval times may take several days, which is not friendly to applications that require real-time calls. Although Arweave has pioneered a model of permanent storage, it is difficult to achieve perfection in performance and verifiability, and it is not closely integrated with smart contract platforms. In this makeshift state, developers often have 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 roughly be divided into two categories:

• One type is the short-term "data availability layer" (Ethereum's Blob, Celestia), which ensures that data can be retrieved by all nodes when blocks are packaged but does not provide permanent storage;

• The other type is off-chain storage solutions (Solana's compression method, IPFS/Filecoin/Arweave), which map off-chain data through "on-chain markers," effectively reducing on-chain costs but heavily relying on external networks, limiting composability and the direct invocation of smart contracts.

In other words, there has not yet been a solution that can provide a scalable, persistent, and composable on-chain data layer, allowing data to naturally reside on the blockchain and be readily accessed by the execution environment.

At the same time, AI, DePIN, NFT, and an increasing number of Web3 applications all require significant amounts of verifiable data in their day-to-day operations. However, high costs, fragmented on-chain/off-chain connections, and a lack of structured and persistent data have been pain points causing numerous projects to hesitate.

What Does the Emergence of Irys Change?

Now, Irys has emerged with a "data + execution integration" approach. It is not merely aiming to be a "storage network" but, through its built-in EVM-compatible execution environment, enables data to be directly read, utilized, and combined on the same chain, eliminating the need for additional cross-chain or offline operations.

Imagine previously needing to store an NFT image on the blockchain, requiring an IPFS layer or centralized server to ensure it is properly "Pinned" to prevent loss. Now, if a creator uploads the image to the Irys network, it can permanently reside on the chain, with smart contracts determining access rights and revenue distribution, eliminating the need for additional gateways or cross-chain bridges. It's like in the past when you had to buy various hard drives and servers to store data, but now you can manage everything on a single cloud-based machine.

Irys's "dual ledger" architecture is also quite interesting: newly submitted data is rapidly processed (Submit Ledger), validated, and then enters the final permanent storage (Publish Ledger). It's somewhat akin to a logistics process, initially using a high-speed express to deliver goods to a hub and then securely moving them into long-term storage. This approach ensures both upload speed and true data preservation, avoiding scenarios like Ethereum where data could evaporate automatically after a few weeks in a "temporary lane."

More crucially, Irys aims not only to "store" but also to "utilize" data effectively. It directly embeds an executable environment within the chain, remaining compatible with EVM. Developers can still use familiar tools or languages (such as Solidity) to develop "on-chain logic." In terms of performance, Irys is said to achieve throughput levels far beyond traditional public blockchains, making it highly attractive for businesses requiring high concurrency or frequent data read/writes. If you are a company looking to conduct large-scale AI training on-chain or deeply integrate with the NFT ecosystem, you no longer need to worry about cross-chain operations, high Gas fees, or slow retrievals. Just hand over your data directly to Irys, as if renting all your servers on a single cloud platform. When an on-chain contract needs data, it can access it instantly.

Plug-and-Play On-Chain AWS

Why is Irys referred to as "on-chain AWS"? To draw a parallel, we can look back at the history of Web2. AWS was able to rise rapidly back then primarily because it packaged all "common needs" such as computing, storage, databases, and access management into cloud services. This allowed enterprises and developers to avoid setting up their own servers and maintaining data centers, instead entrusting these mundane tasks to a specialized platform. This not only significantly increased efficiency but also unlocked many previously unimaginable scenarios.

What Irys aims to do in Web3 is similar—to allow developers to solve large-scale on-chain storage and computation in a "one-stop-shop" fashion with lower barriers to entry and better performance. For instance, if you are a team looking to build an on-chain game, needing to upload a massive amount of game assets and scene information to the chain while also rapidly executing contracts to validate item ownership or player achievements, by using Irys, game data and contract logic can interact on the same network, eliminating the need for cumbersome operations like "storing some on Arweave, executing logic on Ethereum, and introducing a centralized oracle to retrieve data." Developers can focus more on gameplay and user experience, rather than spending time on piecing together infrastructure.

This composability will create a virtuous cycle: as more data, protocols, and services converge on Irys, they can call on each other, like building blocks in the cloud, giving rise to more innovative applications. Web3 has long been criticized for its high development costs and the difficulty of interoperability between different chains, in part due to 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 may experience a new surge similar to the internet's explosion after the advent of cloud computing.

Now is the Perfect Time for Irys

Reflecting on the current development of the blockchain industry, we can see a growing chorus advocating for "big data + blockchain." While Layer-2 scaling has indeed alleviated transaction congestion, it has led more projects to consider how to handle data in a cheaper and more flexible manner. The increasingly large AI training datasets and creators' growing demands for on-chain rights and revenue sharing are sending signals to the market: existing data infrastructure is no longer sufficient to support the next phase of explosive growth.

Projects like Celestia and Story Protocol, each securing over $100 million in funding, and with post-TGE valuations ranking high on the charts, also demonstrate capital's particular focus on the "on-chain data layer." Ethereum's progress on scaling improvements like EIP-4844 indirectly confirms that the entire network is seeking alternative or complementary persistent storage solutions, aiming to prevent "insufficient temporary space" from becoming a bottleneck to further development.

As a strong competitor, Irys is definitely not a Nobody. If you are not familiar with Irys, then you must have heard of the team's previous star project, Bundlr, which as Arweave's L2, successfully scaled the daily transaction volume of the Arweave network from 10,000 to over 15 million transactions, supporting 98% of the network's activity volume and successfully helping over 300 projects onboard into the ecosystem. From Bundlr in 2021 to Irys today, the team's technological capabilities and industry understanding have taken a qualitative leap.

At the same time, Irys has already raised approximately $10 million in its seed round, with a Series A funding round currently underway. Among its early investors are not only well-known VCs such as Lemniscap, Primitive, and Framework, but also backers from Arweave's Permanent and Chainlink's Chainlink Capital. From capital to project support, this demonstrates that Irys not only has the funds and technology but also possesses substantial experience and industry resources. Compared to those projects still stuck in "proof of concept," Irys already has the essential elements to truly move towards large-scale application.

The AWS Moment of Web3 is Coming

History tells us that whenever the underlying infrastructure undergoes a significant upgrade, it heralds the next wave of innovation.

The answer provided by Irys is to place the most underestimated sector, "data," truly at the heart of the chain and seamlessly integrate it with the execution environment. This allows developers to read, write, and process large-scale data on Irys at any time, just like using cloud services, without encountering outrageously expensive Gas fees or worrying that their data will be wiped out in a few weeks.

AWS almost dominated the Web2 era with its comprehensive cloud service ecosystem, but this also means that while developers enjoy convenience, they face the risk of being "locked in" if they encounter platform price hikes or policy changes. Irys, on the other hand, stands in a different dimension—in its decentralized network, you can build verifiable AI, flexible on-chain automation, and globally shared state without worrying about being kicked off the platform one day or paying exorbitant rent. In other words, Irys is not directly competing with AWS but is doing what AWS cannot achieve: providing developers with an on-chain environment that is independent of centralized access, operates on a cost basis, and allows various applications to freely combine, enabling the Internet to return to its open and composable essence.

Of course, whether all of this can truly become the "on-chain AWS" depends on ecosystem adoption. Only when a sufficient number of projects and protocols are willing to join Irys can the true magic of composability be unleashed. Just as AWS initially only supported Amazon's own business, gradually growing into the world's leading cloud computing platform through a series of developer services and word-of-mouth spread. Irys may also need a "from 0 to 1, then from 1 to N" process. But at this critical moment of blockchain's large-scale upgrade, its vision is ambitious enough and meets the demand. Whoever can address a series of pain points such as cross-chain, offline, and non-composability in one go has the opportunity to become the foundational cornerstone of the next era.