Open Grant Proposal: ARKIVE Personal Vault

Project Name: ARKIVE Personal Vault

Proposal Category: Storage

Individual or Entity Name: Individual

Proposer: neervasa00000000

Project Repo(s): https://github.com/neervasa00000000/ARKIVE

Filecoin ecosystem affiliations: None

Technical Sponsor: None

Do you agree to open source all work you do on behalf of this RFP under the MIT/Apache-2 dual-license?: Yes

Project Summary

Something I kept noticing was that no matter how careful people are, their data can just disappear overnight and there's nothing they can do about it. Skiff had over a million users. Notion bought them, gave everyone a few weeks notice, and that was it. Gone. I've seen it happen with Google accounts, with iCloud, with platforms people built their lives around. And the thing that got me was that in every single case, the person who lost everything did nothing wrong. They just trusted the wrong company.

So I went looking for something that made that impossible. Where even if the company behind it disappeared tomorrow, your files would still be there. I couldn't find it. So I'm building it.

ARKIVE is a personal vault. You upload a file, it gets encrypted right there in your browser before it touches anything, then stored permanently on Filecoin and Arweave. To get it back you sign in with the same wallet. That's it. No company sitting between you and your files. No one who can lock you out. I could shut ARKIVE down tomorrow and every file would still be right there waiting for the wallet that put it there.

This application is for a testing grant. I want to prove this works with real people storing real things before I ask for anything bigger. If it works I'll come back with actual numbers and a proper case for the next phase.

Impact

The people I'm building this for aren't crypto enthusiasts. They're the person who lost five years of photos when a platform got acquired. The freelancer whose Google account got terminated with no warning and no explanation. The journalist who needs to know their source documents can't be wiped by anyone. These people exist in huge numbers and right now there is genuinely nothing built for them that works the way ARKIVE works.

What matters about getting this right is that for the first time someone can upload something they genuinely cannot afford to lose and know with certainty that no company decision, no acquisition, no server failure can ever touch it. What happens if nobody builds this is that people keep losing things that matter to them and keep being told there's nothing they can do about it.

For Filecoin specifically, ARKIVE is one of the few consumer products where permanent storage isn't a technical feature buried in a product, it's the entire reason the product exists. Every file that goes through ARKIVE is a real person choosing Filecoin to protect something irreplaceable. That's not a developer running a test. That's genuine long term adoption from people who will use it for years.

Outcomes

When this grant is done there will be a working product that does the following. You connect your wallet. You pick a file. It encrypts in your browser before it leaves your device. It uploads to Filecoin and Arweave permanently through the Irys SDK, one payment, never again. Your wallet address and the file's content hash go into a smart contract on Base as the permanent record of who owns what. No database anywhere in that flow.

When you want your file back you sign a message with your wallet. It checks against the contract. If you're the right wallet the file decrypts right there in your browser. If you're not, nothing happens. The file just stays encrypted forever.

For this testing phase I'm measuring three things. Does the upload and retrieval actually work for non-technical people without them needing to understand what's happening underneath. Does anything break during the closed beta. And do the 10 beta users feel like their files are genuinely safe in a way they haven't felt with anything else.

Data Onboarding

Month 1: Around 1GB from developer testing and building

Month 3: Around 10GB from 10 closed beta users putting in real documents

Month 6: Around 100GB from the first 50 free tier users after public launch

Month 12: Around 1TB as the user base grows to around 500 active people each storing a couple of gigabytes of personal files

Adoption, Reach, and Growth Strategies

The first people I'm going after have already felt this pain personally. They're in r/privacy and r/selfhosted on Reddit right now talking about exactly this problem. Some of them lost data in the Skiff shutdown. Some of them have been looking for a real alternative to centralised storage for years. I'm not going to advertise to them. I'm going to tell them honestly what I'm building and why, and invite the ones who've been burned before to try it first.

Getting to 100 is about being genuinely present in the communities that care about this. Building in public on Twitter so people can watch the thing get built. Posting in Filecoin and Arweave Discords not to pitch but to be part of the conversation. A simple waitlist collecting emails from people who want to know when it launches.

After that the product does the work. If you trust ARKIVE with something you genuinely can't replace you're going to tell the people you care about. That's the growth engine. A referral mechanic helps too — first 500MB free, refer someone and you both get an extra 500MB. Simple.

Development Roadmap

Milestone 1 — Wallet connection and sign in

Get the wallet connect working with RainbowKit and Sign In With Ethereum so people can log in without ever creating a username or password. One developer on this full time.

August 1 to August 14 2026

$1,000

Milestone 2 — Encryption and permanent upload

File encrypts in the browser before it goes anywhere. Irys SDK handles the upload to Filecoin and Arweave. Content hash and wallet address written to the Base smart contract. One developer on this full time.

August 15 to August 31 2026

$1,500

Milestone 3 — Getting files back

Wallet signature gets checked against the contract. Right wallet gets the file decrypted in the browser. Wrong wallet gets nothing. One developer on this full time.

September 1 to September 14 2026

$1,500

Milestone 4 — Beta and launch

Testnet first. Ten real people uploading real things. Honest feedback collected. Issues fixed. Mainnet shipped. Everything documented for the next grant application.

September 15 to September 30 2026

$700

Total Budget Requested

Maintenance and Upgrade Plans

Everything gets open sourced from the first commit. Anyone can read the code, check that it does what I say it does, and build on top of it. That's the whole point of a product built on trust.

Once the beta proves the concept, the next phase covers key recovery so people who lose wallet access don't lose their files forever, video support, mobile, and eventually a community governed version where ARKIVE is one product on top of a broader permanent encrypted storage layer. Revenue from storage fees covers ongoing costs over time so this doesn't stay grant dependent forever.

Team

Team Members

Neer Vasa — Founder

Team Member LinkedIn Profiles

Available on request

Team Website

arkive.xyz — to be built as part of this grant

Relevant Experience

I'm based in Melbourne and I run an e-commerce business. I source products, handle fulfilment, manage the whole thing myself. I mention that not to pad a CV but to show that I know how to actually execute on something without a big team around me.

I'm not a developer. I want to be upfront about that. What I bring is that I understand this problem deeply, I understand the people who need this product, and I know how to reach them and earn their trust. The grant funds a specialist developer from the Filecoin and Arweave ecosystem who will do the technical build. My job is to make sure we build the right thing for the right people and that it actually gets used.

The honest reason I think I'm the right person to build this is that I care about it for real reasons. The people losing their data aren't edge cases to me. They're the whole point.

Team code repositories

https://github.com/neervasa00000000/ARKIVE

Additional Information

I found out about this programme while trying to figure out how to fund ARKIVE without going to investors before I had anything real to show. Filecoin kept coming up as the most genuinely aligned option because this isn't a project that uses Filecoin as one of several storage options. Filecoin is the reason the core promise of the product is possible.

I'm asking for $5,000 on purpose. This is a testing grant. I want to prove the thing works with real people before I ask for more. If it does I'll come back with real data and a proper case for the next stage. I think that's the honest way to approach this.

Best email: goosebumps0051@gmail.com

Project Summary
Something I kept noticing was that no matter how careful people are, their data can just disappear overnight and there's nothing they can do about it. Skiff had over a million users. Notion bought them, gave everyone a few weeks notice, and that was it. Gone. I've seen it happen with Google accounts, with iCloud, with platforms people built their lives around. And the thing that got me was that in every single case, the person who lost everything did nothing wrong. They just trusted the wrong company.
So I went looking for something that made that impossible. Where even if the company behind it disappeared tomorrow, your files would still be there. I couldn't find it. So I'm building it.
ARKIVE is a personal vault. You upload a file, it gets encrypted right there in your browser before it touches anything, then stored permanently on Filecoin and Arweave. To get it back you sign in with the same wallet. That's it. No company sitting between you and your files. No one who can lock you out. I could shut ARKIVE down tomorrow and every file would still be right there waiting for the wallet that put it there.
This application is for a testing grant. I want to prove this works with real people storing real things before I ask for anything bigger. If it works I'll come back with actual numbers and a proper case for the next phase.

Impact
The people I'm building this for aren't crypto enthusiasts. They're the person who lost five years of photos when a platform got acquired. The freelancer whose Google account got terminated with no warning and no explanation. The journalist who needs to know their source documents can't be wiped by anyone. These people exist in huge numbers and right now there is genuinely nothing built for them that works the way ARKIVE works.
What matters about getting this right is that for the first time someone can upload something they genuinely cannot afford to lose and know with certainty that no company decision, no acquisition, no server failure can ever touch it. What happens if nobody builds this is that people keep losing things that matter to them and keep being told there's nothing they can do about it.
For Filecoin specifically, ARKIVE is one of the few consumer products where permanent storage isn't a technical feature buried in a product, it's the entire reason the product exists. Every file that goes through ARKIVE is a real person choosing Filecoin to protect something irreplaceable. That's not a developer running a test. That's genuine long term adoption from people who will use it for years.

Outcomes
When this grant is done there will be a working product that does the following. You connect your wallet. You pick a file. It encrypts in your browser before it leaves your device. It uploads to Filecoin and Arweave permanently through the Irys SDK, one payment, never again. Your wallet address and the file's content hash go into a smart contract on Base as the permanent record of who owns what. No database anywhere in that flow.
When you want your file back you sign a message with your wallet. It checks against the contract. If you're the right wallet the file decrypts right there in your browser. If you're not, nothing happens. The file just stays encrypted forever.
For this testing phase I'm measuring three things. Does the upload and retrieval actually work for non-technical people without them needing to understand what's happening underneath. Does anything break during the closed beta. And do the 10 beta users feel like their files are genuinely safe in a way they haven't felt with anything else.

Data Onboarding
Month 1: Around 1GB from developer testing and building
Month 3: Around 10GB from 10 closed beta users putting in real documents
Month 6: Around 100GB from the first 50 free tier users after public launch
Month 12: Around 1TB as the user base grows to around 500 active people each storing a couple of gigabytes of personal files

Adoption, Reach, and Growth Strategies
The first people I'm going after have already felt this pain personally. They're in r/privacy and r/selfhosted on Reddit right now talking about exactly this problem. Some of them lost data in the Skiff shutdown. Some of them have been looking for a real alternative to centralised storage for years. I'm not going to advertise to them. I'm going to tell them honestly what I'm building and why, and invite the ones who've been burned before to try it first.
Getting to 100 is about being genuinely present in the communities that care about this. Building in public on Twitter so people can watch the thing get built. Posting in Filecoin and Arweave Discords not to pitch but to be part of the conversation. A simple waitlist collecting emails from people who want to know when it launches.
After that the product does the work. If you trust ARKIVE with something you genuinely can't replace you're going to tell the people you care about. That's the growth engine. A referral mechanic helps too — first 500MB free, refer someone and you both get an extra 500MB. Simple.

Development Roadmap
Milestone 1 — Wallet connection and sign in

Get the wallet connect working with RainbowKit and Sign In With Ethereum so people can log in without ever creating a username or password. One developer on this full time.

August 1 to August 14 2026

$1,000
Milestone 2 — Encryption and permanent upload

File encrypts in the browser before it goes anywhere. Irys SDK handles the upload to Filecoin and Arweave. Content hash and wallet address written to the Base smart contract. One developer on this full time.

August 15 to August 31 2026

$1,500
Milestone 3 — Getting files back

Wallet signature gets checked against the contract. Right wallet gets the file decrypted in the browser. Wrong wallet gets nothing. One developer on this full time.

September 1 to September 14 2026

$1,500
Milestone 4 — Beta and launch

Testnet first. Ten real people uploading real things. Honest feedback collected. Issues fixed. Mainnet shipped. Everything documented for the next grant application.

September 15 to September 30 2026

$700

Total Budget Requested
MilestoneDescriptionDeliverablesCompletion DateFunding1Wallet connectionWorking wallet connect with SIWEAugust 14 2026$1,0002Encryption and uploadEncrypted Filecoin and Arweave upload, Base smart contractAugust 31 2026$1,5003File retrievalWorking retrieval and decryptionSeptember 14 2026$1,5004Beta and mainnet10 beta users, mainnet deploymentSeptember 30 2026$700OperatingStorage and legalFilecoin storage costs, legal consultationOngoing$300Total$5,000

Maintenance and Upgrade Plans
Everything gets open sourced from the first commit. Anyone can read the code, check that it does what I say it does, and build on top of it. That's the whole point of a product built on trust.
Once the beta proves the concept, the next phase covers key recovery so people who lose wallet access don't lose their files forever, video support, mobile, and eventually a community governed version where ARKIVE is one product on top of a broader permanent encrypted storage layer. Revenue from storage fees covers ongoing costs over time so this doesn't stay grant dependent forever.

Team
Team Members
Neer Vasa — Founder
Team Member LinkedIn Profiles
Available on request
Team Website
arkive.xyz — to be built as part of this grant
Relevant Experience
I'm based in Melbourne and I run an e-commerce business. I source products, handle fulfilment, manage the whole thing myself. I mention that not to pad a CV but to show that I know how to actually execute on something without a big team around me.
I'm not a developer. I want to be upfront about that. What I bring is that I understand this problem deeply, I understand the people who need this product, and I know how to reach them and earn their trust. The grant funds a specialist developer from the Filecoin and Arweave ecosystem who will do the technical build. My job is to make sure we build the right thing for the right people and that it actually gets used.
The honest reason I think I'm the right person to build this is that I care about it for real reasons. The people losing their data aren't edge cases to me. They're the whole point.
Team code repositories
https://github.com/neervasa00000000/ARKIVE

Additional Information
I found out about this programme while trying to figure out how to fund ARKIVE without going to investors before I had anything real to show. Filecoin kept coming up as the most genuinely aligned option because this isn't a project that uses Filecoin as one of several storage options. Filecoin is the reason the core promise of the product is possible.
I'm asking for $5,000 on purpose. This is a testing grant. I want to prove the thing works with real people before I ask for more. If it does I'll come back with real data and a proper case for the next stage. I think that's the honest way to approach this.
Best email: [goosebumps0051@gmail.com](mailto:goosebumps0051@gmail.com)

Start by reviewing the linked ARKIVE repository and the proposal's four milestones. The issue names no files, tests, or entry points and describes a full product rather than a bounded contribution; a suitable task would need an agreed scope, code location, and acceptance criteria before work can begin.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.