Arweave vs NEAR Protocol

Arweave3.8/5

VS

NEAR Protocol4.1/5

Feature	ArweaveVisit	NEAR ProtocolVisit
Ratings
Our score	3.8/5	4.1/5
User rating	No reviews yet	No reviews yet
Performance	3.5	4.5
Fees	4.0	4.5
Ecosystem	4.0	3.5
Decentralization	4.0	4.0
Developer experience	3.5	4.0
Specs
Layer	Layer 1	Layer 1
Consensus / design	Other	Proof of Stake
Native token	AR	NEAR
EVM compatible	No	No
Smart contract languages	Not disclosed	Rust, JavaScript
Block time	Not disclosed	600ms
Typical transaction fee	One-time upfront fee in AR, dynamic based on data size and network conditions	Not disclosed
Finality	Not disclosed	1.2s
Validators / sequencer	Miners and validators	Not disclosed
Mainnet since	2,018	2,020
Throughput (TPS)	Not disclosed	1000000
Sequencer	Not applicable	Not applicable
Data availability	Decentralized permanent storage through the Arweave weave and storage endowment model	NEAR Protocol
Gas paid in	AR	NEAR
Company
Founded	2018	2020
Headquarters	—	Switzerland
Investors	Not disclosed	Andreessen Horowitz, Accomplice, Metastable Capital, Arrington Capital +6
Strengths and weaknesses
Pros	One-time upfront fee for permanent decentralized data storage Proof of Access consensus rewards nodes for preserving historical archives AO Computer enables parallel computing on top of immutable storage	Fast 1.2-second transaction finality with 600ms block times Cross-chain swap execution across 35+ separate blockchain networks Sub-cent execution fees on NEAR Intents transactions Annual token issuance reduced from 5% to 2.5% in October 2025
Cons	Data uploads are immutable and cannot be deleted or modified Addresses are incompatible with standard Ethereum accounts despite shared secp256k1 curves Node operators face legal and GDPR compliance risks for hosted content Malicious packages targeted ecosystem npm developer libraries in June 2026	Not natively EVM-compatible at the primary Layer-1 execution level Cross-chain intents face reorg exposure on connected networks, including a $600K incident in April 2026 Historical exploits in third-party ecosystem contracts, including $3M lost on Skyward Finance in 2022
Best for	Permanent decentralized web hosting, Long-term data and AI archive preservation, Developers deploying autonomous on-chain agents	Developers writing smart contracts in Rust, Users swapping across chains without manual bridges, Teams deploying autonomous AI agent systems

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