Contribute

There are two ways to take part in the network: run a node as an operator, or buy credits as a user.

1. As an operator — run a storage node

Running a storage node contributes its disk to the network. It registers with the index, stores encrypted shards for others, and a background GC loop frees shards that are no longer referenced.

arkel storage \
  --addr 0.0.0.0:9001 \
  --index-addrs http://index.example:8001 \
  --data-dir /var/lib/arkel/storage

• --addr — the QUIC endpoint to bind (default 127.0.0.1:9001)
• --index-addrs — index node URLs to register against
• Identity is auto-generated on first boot into --data-dir/identity.key.

Erasure coding means the network survives node failures — your node just stores encrypted shards, and no single node holds your data in the clear.

Planned: get credited for contributing storage to the network.

2. As a user — buy credits

Planned: buy credits for increasing usage limits.