Arweave is a decentralized storage protocol that leverages a form of blockchain technology known as a blockweave to ensure data permanence and immutability. Blockweave differs from a conventional blockchain in that each block contains data from not only the previous block but also a randomly selected block, giving strong assurances that each node is storing all previous data. Arweave's native currency, AR, incentivizes nodes and serves as a means for users to pay for data storage. William Jones and Sam Williams conceived Arweave while working on doctorates in distributed computer systems. According to Williams, the proliferation of "fake news" during the 2016 U.S. presidential election inspired them to create Arweave as a means of storing data in a way that ensured malicious entities could not later amend it.