What is Irys (IRYS)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose

Blockchains can be costly or awkward for applications that need to store and use large amounts of data. Irys presents itself as infrastructure for those data-heavy applications, with storage options that can vary by duration. Its project documentation describes Irys as a permissionless, programmable data layer.

2. Technology

Irys combines data storage with computation: smart contracts can interact with data held on the network, rather than treating it only as a separate file to retrieve elsewhere. IrysVM is the project’s execution environment, described as compatible with Ethereum’s virtual machine, which may make it more familiar to developers building smart contracts. (Irys website, project documentation)

3. IRYS token

IRYS is the network’s native token. It is used to pay storage and execution fees and can be staked to support network validation, according to The Defiant. Staking means locking tokens to help support the network; the project’s documentation is the best place to check the latest details on token functions.

Conclusion

Irys is a blockchain data layer that aims to make stored data usable by applications and smart contracts, with IRYS serving as its network token. How well can its storage and execution design support data-heavy applications?