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Face-to-Face Interview Arweave Ecosystem Project——“Forward Research”
Web3 is booming, and Arweave is becoming a popular infrastructure choice for developers. PermaDAO is a community where everyone can contribute to the Arweave ecosystem. It's a place to propose and tackle tasks related to Arweave, with the support and feedback of the entire community. Join PermaDAO and help shape Web3!
Author：Xiaosong HU @ Contributor of PermaDAO
Translator: Xiaosong HU @ Contributor of PermaDAO
Reviewer: Forward Research
Hello everyone! Our Arweave ecosystem project interviews have entered the fifth edition. This edition is a bit different from usual because, in such a volatile market, I suddenly noticed that more and more Web3 professionals, project teams, or complete newcomers to Web3 have been asking me questions like, "What is Arweave?" and "How can they get in touch with the official team?" At first, I was curious about how, in just two short weeks, so many people have suddenly started paying attention to Arweave. It wasn't until I saw the recent market volatility candlestick chart that I realized the market's sentiment and the performance of the Arweave token have made the term "Arweave" sizzle hot.
So, we decided to conduct a new interview on short notice, and we would like to invite official representatives from Arweave to visit PermaDAO. It's in this context that we have this special interview with Tom, the head of "Forward Research." The purpose is to provide an official introduction, from their perspective and relevant industry experiences to all friends who are concerned about the Arweave ecosystem. We also want to share their insights, dispel any uncertainties, and reveal how the real Arweave ecosystem operates within the Web3 space.
As usual, before the interview, please allow me to share with everyone from a non-technical perspective what I understand about Arweave:
Regarding my feelings about Arweave
I first heard the term "Arweave" in 2021, and it was because I've known Outprog, the founder and CEO of everVision, for many years. It was a sudden, coincidental opportunity when I heard him start preaching about Arweave on Twitter Spaces. As I gradually learned more about the Arweave ecosystem, my biggest impression can be summed up in one sentence: "This is a group of purely technical development teams with Web3 ideals.”
The most typical example is when I attended the Token 2049 conference in Singapore in September this year. At that time, I took two photos: The left picture shows the Arweave ecosystem conference, mostly male programmers in round-neck shirts, focusing on technical discussions in a meeting room. The right picture shows the cryptocurrency ecosystem conference, with elements like swimming pools, beautiful women, and parties, not missing any. I think, just as Arweave's founder Sam said in his tweet, "If you are serious about building the decentralized web, the @ArweaveEco is the place to be”
Regarding the Introduction of Arweave
In fact, there are many informative articles online about the concept of Arweave, so I won't go into lengthy explanations here. However, for the convenience of readers who are hearing about Arweave for the first time, I'll provide a brief summary:
Arweave's founder and CEO, Sam Williams, is a decentralization enthusiast with rich experience in distributed system design and implementation.
You can think of Arweave as a decentralized cloud storage solution that aims to disrupt the traditional storage market using blockchain technology.
What sets Arweave apart from other cloud storage solutions is that it not only offers the security advantages of decentralized storage but also allows users to make a one-time payment for permanent storage (approximately 200 years).
In addition, for inquiries about Arweave’s blockchain-related real-time data, you can click on the link below for real-time viewing:
The following is the official content of the interview:
Part I: Regarding Forward Research & Arweave
Q1: Hello Mr. Tom! I'm glad you can accept our interview today, Could you please introduce the background of Forward Research and how it was established?
A: Forward Research was established by Sam Williams and Sebastian Campos Groth in 2022 as an Arweave-focused app studio, with the purpose of incubating and supporting founders in the Arweave ecosystem who are building innovations to grow the Arweave community and help realize the full potential of Arweave as a better internet.
Q2: What are some significant milestones in the history of Forward Research？
A: Released projects in early and complete phases
Alex Protocol
Stamp Protocol
Fair Protocol
Universal Data License
U Token
Universal Content Marketplace
Bazar Marketplace
DataOS
Q3. What is the future vision and plan for Forward Research？
A: To continue to move the vision of a better internet forward.
Q4. Is there a specific timeline currently in place, and what additional resources are needed for its implementation?
A: Every project is focused on an incremental improvement release process that delivers updates and improvements weekly.
Q5. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge that Arweave faces?
A: The biggest challenge is adoption, the current mainstream mindset is using a legacy web that is not secure and encourages the transfer of rights from the user to the service provider. Arweave provides an alternative approach to bring back the rights of content to its creator, by allowing you to use your content with any service provider, instead of keeping it simply owned by a single service.
Part II: Regarding TOM
Q6. Could you please share your educational background and professional experience?
A: If you are interested in my background, I would recommend you visit my linked in profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/twilson63/
Q7: How did you become familiar with Arweave, and how did you join in Forward Research?
A: I found Arweave online first with some ads on Brave and some videos about the Open Web Foundry, and as I started learning about the Permaweb and Smartweave, I started to practice learning in public. I created some video tutorials about the permaweb and arweave, and @OnlyArweave reached out to me. We collaborated on some projects to help developers learn more about Arweave and the Permaweb. Then Forward Research reached out to me and asked me to work as a developer relations contractor to help create more content about Arweave. After a few months, I was accepted as a Founder in Residence to create the STAMP protocol, a Universal “like” button for any content on Arweave. You can learn more about the STAMP protocol here: https://stamps.arweave.dev
Q8: In such a bear market environment, what advice do you have for those who want to enter web3?
A: To build, learn, and release projects as early and often as you can, with the permaweb, it is very easy to deliver highly scalable software without having the burden of maintaining infrastructure. So you can deliver permanent applications that can be used by millions of people instantly.
Part III: Regarding PermaDAO and everVision
Q9: How did you come to know about everVision?
A: I met Romain at Eth Denver in March of this year, and Outprog at Arweave Day in Berlin, this June, and I came to learn about everVision and their love for Arweave and the Permaweb.
Q10: How do you perceive the team and business development of everVision?
A: As a team of talented engineers and focused leaders in the Arweave community, they have done tremendous work on PermaDAO, PermaSwap, EverPay, and more. Honored to know them and excited about their work in the community.
Q11: In your view, how should PermaDAO and Forward Research collaborate in the future?
A: Continue to communicate and share ideas, work together to strengthen the Arweave Community, and share and create composable protocols, like ANS-110, SmartWeave, SCP, etc.
Q12: Lastly, is there anything else you would like to say to the audience?
A: Thank you so much for the interview. I appreciate your time, and I wish everyone much success. Arweave is a world-changing technology, and its growth continues to rise at a massive rate. If interested, consider signing up for the Permahacks Hackathon - @permahacks on x.com.
Summary
This is the transcript of an interview with Forward Research, the official representative of Arweave. During the interview, there was an interesting moment. While preparing the interview questions, I wanted to ask some pointed questions, such as in the field of decentralized storage, besides Arweave, there are other projects like IPFS and Filecoin. Especially in terms of marketing, some projects invest resources that are many times greater than the Arweave ecosystem's. This is a topic that is often discussed: Arweave's ecosystem appears to be very focused on project development and seems rather quiet. But when I shared my view with Tom, saying that I actually don't like the way Filecoin is promoted in the market, and compared to Filecoin, Arweave's marketing seems too quiet, he cleverly responded, "I have put all my attention on Arweave and not on other projects." This reflects the wisdom, calmness, purity, and singular focus of Arweave ecosystem participants. It is because of this that the Arweave ecosystem can attract a group of outstanding and dedicated individuals working together for the betterment of Arweave and the vision of Web3!
After the interview, we also introduced PermaDAO's collaborative tools to Forward Research and invited them to experience onboarding. By contributing to the DAO, they can receive corresponding incentives. We also look forward to PermaDAO providing quality services to more ecosystem projects. Ecosystem leaders, feel free to contact us!
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