Arweave launched in 2018 as a way to enable truly decentralized storage. Since then, the use-cases of the tech have continued to expand. With the recent launch of AO, a compute network built on top of Arweave, these networks have allowed for a new narrative to take shape: truly onchain worlds.
Let's take a look at how Arweave and AO enables this, projects building in the ecosystem, and what it means for the future of how we interact online.
A Brief Introduction to Arweave and AO
Arweave, much like Bitcoin is a decentralized ledger - with the key difference being data. On most blockchains, data is a second-class citizen, or isn't the main focus of the chain itself.
Instead, it's mostly thought of in terms of state - keeping track of balances, or smart contract values, or calculating the cost of a swap on a DeFi protocol. Most blockchains aren't thinking of data in terms of files, images, or videos.
Arweave is instead laser-focused on these properties, and has a protocol architecture designed for very long-term storage of data (think centuries and beyond!). What's important to note, though, is that data can be anything. You can "store" HTML and CSS on Arweave and host live websites on it. You can serve up a PDF of your resume. Or just keep your photographs there. As data can be anything, you might be able to imagine where this leads. Assets for onchain worlds, and even code, interactions, and the frontend for a world itself. The challenge is getting this to scale.
AO and Scaleable Compute
Arweave scales massively because of bundles, which “bundle” transactions together to be settled on Arweave, similar to Layer 2 networks on Ethereum. Arweave was designed for data, not necessarily computation at the base layer, until AO launched.
AO is often referred to as "the hyper parallel computer". Put simply, it works similarly to lazy-evaluated or modular blockchains, which separates data from compute. A key difference here is that it beautifully integrates into Arweave, augmenting capabilities through permanent storage.
Earlier on, we asserted that Arweave can store any kind of data. This includes code, or computer programs. We can also assert that outside of a network-level attack (akin to Bitcoin), this data is immutable. In other words, we can both access the same code to a computer program.
What AO does is create a decentralized network to calculate the current state of a program, and execute any code or instructions. As mentioned, Arweave can store this data or some code, but it doesn't have the inherent properties to execute it (for example, like Ethereum's EVM).
AO comes in to execute this code, and each node in theory should return the same result. We won't get into the details of how exactly the protocol works, but users can provision nodes to execute programs (compiled to WASM) and fetch state. This means there is no global state to keep track of; state is computed on demand. No global state means different nodes can execute different programs at the same time (i.e. in parallel). This is where massive scaling happens on AO, plus major performance boosts across the board.
What does this mean for onchain worlds?
Arweave and AO lead to two things:
- A scaleable, decentralized storage layer which can store any data
- A compute network (that executes WASM) which stores all program state on Arweave
These properties enable the creation of fully onchain experiences, as Arweave can store any data (assets, the web UI) and AO can execute code on top of this (app interactions, LLMs, etc).
The Reality Protocol is the first framework built out on AO for creating onchain worlds. The framework tracks connections and movements of players - e.g. what tile they are currently on, where they moved to in the world, any messages they've sent, etc.
This is computed on AO (and subsequently logged on Arweave). A UI (such as a web UI) is built to reflect the current state of the world on AO, and displayed to users. This creates a live world that users can view and interact with.
The icing on the cake of all of this, and what sets Arweave and AO apart is that everything is onchain - the process (smart contract), user interactions (state), the web UI, assets, and more. Arweave is quite unique in this regard compared to other web3 games/worlds, which typically just use the blockchain for digital assets. The logic for the world or the interactive UI might instead be stored and served on centralized servers.
Everything being stored onchain means the entire experience is built to last. Imagine if you had the opportunity to go back and actually experience the world's fair of X year. Or enter a digital museum where everything is stored onchain - including the museum itself. It doesn’t matter if the project is no longer updated. No 404 pages, or a website that is no longer available.
With digital world creations on Arweave and AO, this is a real possibility.
Projects Building Onchain Worlds
Here are some of the projects building onchain experiences on Arweave and AO.
LlamaLand
Llama Land is an onchain MMO built on AO, which has both AI agents users can interact with, and real human players. Users can chat in real time, interact with AI agents, and more.
LlamaLand is the first onchain world on AO to be built on top of the Reality Protocol mentioned earlier. This forms the basis of a world which can be used to interact with dApps, trade, and more.
Imagine exploring a world where you can talk to in-game characters to initiate token swaps, maybe explore the world or take part in some competitions with other users, or set up player-to-player NFT trades complete with a live chat. Not forgetting that it’s also built entirely onchain.
Permaverse
Permaverse is a professed "web3 metaverse, gaming hub and launchpad" built on AO and Arweave. Unlike LlamaLand, Permaverse provides a 3D experience as opposed to 2D and similarly lets real users share a world experience together.
Users can collect assets, take part in in-game events, and more. They've also recently announced a Unity SDK to export 3D environments directly to Arweave and AO.
AO GAMES
As the name suggests, AO GAMES are dedicated to building an onchain gaming ecosystem on Arweave and AO. They’ve supported projects such as LlamaLand, and have hosted game jams alongside Forward Research, ar.io, and other prominent teams in the Arweave community.
Video games play a big part of onchain worlds, and teams working with AO GAMES such as Cyberbeavers are already pushing the boundaries of what’s capable with AO.
Loom SDK
Loom is another SDK built to connect Unity developers with the Arweave and AO ecosystem. Unity is a game engine that can be used to create both games and virtual worlds.
Loom’s latest GitHub release includes support for Arweave wallets and the AO message API, as well as built-in logging and support for exporting creations to a browser-friendly format. If you’re a developer you can check out the GitHub release notes here.
Notes on building
AO and Arweave are fast - a lot faster than some other decentralized solutions, but the tradeoff with crypto is that you need consensus, and consensus takes some amount of time. This, alongside the traditional HTTPS focus of accessing and retrieving data, means super low-latency worlds or games can be achieved with a custom solution.
AO has a modular architecture. The team building Cyberbeavers, who also are behind a lot of original Arweave infrastructure like Redstone and Warp, are building their own custom implementation for lower latency. This goes to show what’s possible with Arweave and AO.
What's next for onchain worlds?
As Sam Williams, the inventor of Arweave frequently points out: People are spending more and more time on their computers, mobile phones, and other devices. Therefore, it is essential to create places in cyberspace which are free from external control of big tech and other companies where individuals can meet, chat, and discuss topics freely.
For this to succeed, a strong proposition comes forward for it to happen on decentralized networks with no single point of failure (such as Arweave).
This aim of onchain worlds, games, and experiences that occur on the Permaweb are to be fair. Instead of being at the whim of big tech companies and policies that can change on a whim, you don’t need to trust anyone except the protocol.
It's here to create fun and friendly experiences which also guarantee the rights of users, the ownership of digital assets, and more, and ensuring this right for centuries to come.
In addition to Arweave and AO, ArFleet has also recently been announced which is a time-based decentralized storage network. With this trifecta, it’s not just onchain worlds you can create - but fully decentralized applications. Let’s say it’s a world of opportunity :).