ArDrive is a blockchain-based storage app that offers true data ownership specifically in the area of photography, digital art, and NFT storage.
As of late February 2022, $17.2 million was raised during a seed round by 13 investors led by ArWeave Team, Blockchain Capital and Sino Global Capital. (FYI, a seed round involves raising the initial capital needed to start a business).
According to CoinDesk, ArWeave will use the funds to develop a decentralized alternative to arweave.net, which serves as a “critical gateway for uploading files to Arweave's on-chain hard drive, the permaweb."
ArDrive is also a Web3 organization, which means that its members have a say in governance and share rewards.
Furthermore, ArWeave has played an important role in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis by archiving millions of tweets, videos and photos, which aids in the preservation of history. This is in line with the goal of Arweave CEO Sam Williams, who stated, "We started this project to build a censorship-resistant ledger of history."
Unlike Dropbox or Google Drive, ArDrive enables users to retain ownership and control over their data on the Arweave blockchain.
Arweave has also been used to store documents associated with Hong Kong protests in 2019/2020.