You’re imprisoned by big tech companies… but Web3 is your escape.
For every action you make on the internet, your footprints are created. These footprints are your data. How they are used is beyond your control. This rules out the ethics of decentralization which values privacy and control. Instead, the internet operates a capitalist economy that empowers a select few who have enough resources to buy and hoard your data to gain competitive advantage — the more data they control, the more money they make. Your footprints on the internet have enabled the likes of Meta (Facebook & co),Tiktok, Open AI of ChatGPT and other tech companies to become stinkingly rich. Such exclusivity normalises internet monopolies by reducing competition and concentrating power in the hands of the minority. You’re forced to follow rules set by algorithms built using your own data, at the expense of your user experience. All without your permission. A decentralized internet can fix this.
Under the Hood Web3 Manages Data Like Web2
Many times, the word ‘decentralization’ is merely used as a buzzword to appeal to Web3 audience. By such claims, decentralization means the team retains 100% control while bribing community members with airdrops, Discord roles and other giveaways. But that’s a far cry from what a decentralized internet should look like especially given the explosion of more content online and better amplified algorithms.
Yet despite these challenges, the Web3 journey has come a long way. From the cypherpunk mailing list in 1996, to mining Bitcoin on the dark web, to cryptocurrency gaining global recognition, to building applications across DeFi, SocialFi, and real-world assets, and to major payment platforms like PayPal introducing their own stablecoins, all contributing in their own way to shaping what a decentralized internet could look like.
If decentralization is the goal, exclusivity should be shadowed. The proliferation of blockchains has given users various options to meet their onchain needs. However, relying on a single blockchain could reduce the barrier to entry. For this reason, the omnichain infrastructure exists. (Read more about omnichain in my previous note here). I recently came across a similar project building a multichain token platform. They are building a platform where a creator can mint an NFT on Solana and have it available across other chains. This opens up collections to larger communities. Decentralization is for everyone.
Despite building towards decentralization, many blockchain applications depend heavily on centralized platforms like AWS for cloud storage, because storing all data on-chain is expensive and centralized solutions are often easier to use. While the front end of these applications may appear decentralized, the back end is fully centralized, making them vulnerable to single points of failure or censorship.
Building an application that relies solely on onchain data is both expensive and challenging. Onchain data is difficult to query because it is fragmented across multiple APIs. At the same time, most decentralized solutions are costly, not user-friendly, and lack scalability and programmability. As a result, developers turn to multiple tools to store and manage data, which increases costs and reduces scalability. This leaves some data static, siloed, and unused.
To solve this problem, chains strictly for data storage were built, they are called datachains.
How is a blockchain different from a datachain? Blockchains are designed to run smart contracts, while datachains focus on storing data onchain. Since blockchains are not inherently built to manage data, they struggle to combine smart contract execution with data storage. This is why many blockchains keep only essential data onchain and store large files off-chain to save space.
However, many datachains exist merely as glorified onchain data storage solutions, still very much centralized and lacking programmability — the ability to set rules for data using code. Data is like social bodies that are lifeless except they interact. What is the use of storing data if it can’t be used?
I found a programmable datachain
Quick back story…
My last full-time role in Web2 was with a data infrastructure company, where my love for data began. I was fascinated by the many moving parts that help businesses store and process data efficiently. To the extent that I didn’t mind going the extra mile to learn how to write Python programs and SQL queries to clean and visualize data, even though my role was that of a content marketing manager. To be honest, the Web3 space piqued my interest after I read several think pieces on how it could transform individual control over data. After a few years of being in this space, I found a project building something to solve this problem.
Irys is transcending the world of degens to build a data stack for everyone. They are building the first programmable datachain. You can call them the onchain AWS, a fully decentralized platform that houses all types of data and allows it to freely interact for better insights. But then there’s more. The aim is to bring ALL data fully onchain — a world where information is not gatekept whilst security is maintained and speed accelerated.
Today, most data is locked away or underused. Irys plans to unlock this value by making data accessible, enabling it to be sold to AI companies to build better models, and rewarding the original data owners in return.
On Irys, your data isn’t just sitting there. You can tell your data what to do : who can access it, when it can be used, how it pays you, and what rules others must follow when interacting with it. You see, that’s control on display.
To top it off, Irys offers a solution that’s up to 20x cheaper than Web2 alternatives like AWS.
What makes programmable data possible on Irys?
Irys connects your data directly to a system that acts on it —Irys virtual machine (IrysVM). This means your data can follow rules and do things automatically, without needing extra tools. Whereas, traditional systems store data in one place and run actions in another. To make them work together, devs use separate services or off-chain tools, which adds complexity and cost. Irys keeps everything in one place. See it as a one-stop shop for all data needs.
Let’s look at simple examples to better understand how data properties on Irys will play out:
- Execute ownership rights
A piece of data is uploaded to Irys and it includes an access condition : “only wallets that own a specific NFT or token can retrieve or decode this data”.
- Enforce royalty structures
An NFT collection uploaded with embedded metadata that defines resale rules such as : “10% royalty goes to the creator”.
- Uphold encryption standards
A group of data is encrypted and contains a rule: “only decode if the wallet is whitelisted”.
Decentralization Delivered: How Irys Datachain Gets It Right
1. Verifiability
In decentralized systems, people need to trust that data is real, safe, and always available. The method of ascertaining this is called verifiability. Verifiability means being able to prove that data hasn’t been compromised or lost. Building a verifiable datachain stack is a herculean task. Other datachains attempted this but were forced to compromise between reliability and performance. Some verified data only among miners, which failed to earn users’ full trust, while others prioritize speed at the expense of security. In the process, some data was lost, undermining the permanent data promise.
How Irys verifies data
Every piece of data goes through two steps:
- Submit Ledger – A place where new data is first uploaded and checked.
- Publish Ledger – Once the data is verified, it moves here to be stored permanently. This process also includes a proof that confirms the data was uploaded properly and shows who’s responsible for keeping it safe.
How miners work to verify data
In most blockchains, miners secure the network by solving puzzles and validating transactions. Irys works differently. Miners aren’t competing to solve puzzles. Instead, they store data and regularly prove that it’s still intact. They’re rewarded for keeping unique, verifiable copies and responding to random checks that confirm the data is accurate and available. This approach keeps Irys decentralized and reliable, while removing the need for centralized storage providers.
2. Scalability
On Irys, uploading data is made faster and more efficient using bundlers. Instead of sending each piece of data one by one, bundlers group many pieces together into a single package, called a bundle, and upload it all at once.
Why bundling matters:
- Inside each bundle, the individual pieces of data are called DataItems. Each one still keeps important details like who owns it, what it contains, and how it should behave, so nothing gets lost or mixed up.
- Bundlers pay the upload fee for the whole bundle. This means each DataItem doesn’t need to include its own fee, which keeps costs low. Developers can upload large amounts of data without worrying about high transaction costs.
- Because the cost is handled at the bundle level, apps can choose to cover those costs for their users. This makes it easier to build smooth, user-friendly experiences where people don’t even have to think about fees.
- Bundling helps Irys manage large amounts of data without slowing down. That makes it perfect for apps that deal with a lot of activity or need to upload lots of information quickly.
Apps are moving to the decentralized data stack. Here’s what that means for you.
This section explores real projects already building on Irys and how they’re putting power back in your hands as an internet user.
- Simplified access to DeFi
Irys is shattering the ceiling of just existing as a data storage platform. It intends to act as memory, shared memory for AI systems, protocols, and intelligence that improves over time.
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EnsoFi is making DeFi easier to use through AI agents. These agents are storing their data on Irys. That means every move they make is recorded, transparent, and can’t be tampered with. Over time, these agents will start learning from each other to make better decisions. For you, this means more reliable, automated financial tools that work behind the scenes, built on data you can trust.
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FereAI is building a decentralized network of AI agents that monitor crypto markets. Each agent specializes in something unique. Everything they learn is stored on Irys, giving them fast and verifiable access to past insights, long-term memory to support deeper learning and a shared foundation that helps them coordinate and build on each other’s outputs.
- You become the boss of your data
What if AI paid you? YouTube got better when creators started getting paid. The same thing could happen with AI. Right now, big companies train their AI on everyone’s data, including yours, but keep all the profits. OpenLedger is flipping that model. They are building a system where anyone who helps train an AI, by contributing data or insights, gets rewarded. With Irys, every piece of that data is recorded, verified, and stored permanently. So when an AI model uses your contribution, it is easy to track and you get paid.
- As an expert, you can turn your knowledge into AI fuel and get paid
For years, devs have asked and answered technical questions on Stack Overflow. These answers help millions of people solve real problems every day. But when AI models use that knowledge, the original contributors do not get any recognition or reward. Codatta is changing that. They have built a marketplace where experts can turn their hard-earned knowledge into structured, verified data that AI models can train on and they get paid for it. Instead of pulling random information from forums or messy Wikipedia pages, AI can now learn from data packaged directly by professionals who know what they are talking about. Codatta uses Irys to store this data permanently.
Final Thoughts
- Your data is gold so you deserve a rewarding creator economy from it. It is your right.
- AI is exploding through your data without your permission and compensation. OpenAI is not really open. But a decentralized internet will fix that at the expense of data hoarders.
