Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Arweave Offers $100k Grant to Information Archiving Projects
As tensions between Russia and Ukraine simmer, increasing the likelihood of the two countries going to war, Arweave is offering grants to developers and archivists collecting relevant information from the two countries.
Announcing the $100,000 grant on Twitter on Monday, Sam Williams, Arweave’s founder, said information would be collected over the next few weeks and asked developers to post their plans in order to get the grant.
“Global history must be remembered permanently, publicly,” Williams wrote.
“Be aware, given the size of the grants, we will need to perform KYC (know your customer) prior to issuing payments. Subsequently, we won’t be able to take anonymous participants this time”.
🚨 Offering flash grants to devs building archivers collecting information out of Ukraine+Russia over the next couple of weeks.
Global history must be remembered permanently, publicly.
$100k committed from @ArweaveTeam. Post below with your plan and we will issue grants live.
— 🐘🔗 sam.arweave.dev (@samecwilliams) February 14, 2022
On concerns about the credibility of information that would be collected, Williams said it was important to collect and store data in actual time for subsequent analyses.
“Store_everything_. Let the historians figure out what is true or not. The most important part while an event is on-going is making sure that the data is collected in real time such that it can be effectively analysed later,” he said.
Ideas and plans began pouring in shortly after William’s announcement.
“I can convert websites pages with news into pdf documents. Which I can send to you. I can do this for 4 weeks. Or even store on @ardriveapp. Currently only have a (sic) private ones but I can do a public drive too,” VeldNdops commented.
Or even store on @ardriveapp. Currently only have a private ones but I can do a public drive too.
— lrdmnd.eth (@VeldNdops) February 14, 2022
Impressed by the idea, Williams offered grants for a few days and renewal if output meets quantity and quality. Other ideas include collecting videos, audio and text from mainstream and social mediums.
Five ideas were offered grants in one hour. “Incredible to see the enthusiasm in the community for archiving history inside a blockchain. We must permanently remember our collective past,” Williams stated.
Arweave offers a decentralised storage system that allows data and other valuable information to be preserved for over 100 years.
This is not the first time Arweave will be used to preserve data from events that have gained global attention. Last year, activists used Arweave to preserve Apple Daily’s content before it went dark in the aftermath of pressure from authorities in Hong Kong backed by the Chinese government.
Over 100,000 Russian troops have gathered at the border with Ukraine raising concerns that the latter could be invaded. The United States and other countries have threatened economic sanctions against Russia if it invades. Russia denied it’s planning to invade Ukraine, claiming it was responding to aggression by NATO allies.
On Tuesday, media reports say some troops were withdrawn from around Ukraine, a potential sign of de-escalation of the conflict, although military drills continue.
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