Akave Protocol & O3 Update: Object Retention, ACL Enforcement, and Performance Gains

May marked a major step forward in making decentralized storage usable at enterprise scale.

The Akave engineering team has been hard at work across both protocol and application layers. From robust object retention mechanisms and ACL security upgrades in Akave O3, to new Merkle proof verifiability and block repair tools in the protocol layer—our infrastructure just got significantly more enterprise-ready.

Below, we break down everything that’s new, enhanced, and future-proofed across recent versions.

About Akave O3

Akave O3 is the object storage API built on top of our decentralized infrastructure. It offers seamless S3 compatibility while delivering on three key pillars: security, performance, and extensibility.

Security You Can Trust

We’ve continued to double down on compliance and protection:

• ACL and Bucket Policy Enforcement (v0.3.0): Public access is no longer a risk vector. If block settings are active, public ACLs or policies are denied with precision.
• Object Retention Support (v0.4.0): Files are now governed by retention policies that enforce immutability until a specified expiry.
• Presigned URL Verification and V4 Signature Hardening make authentication resilient across all SDKs.
  
  

Performance & Stability

We’re not just secure; we’re fast.

• Enhanced multipart uploads, optimized range streaming, and better chunk granularity.
• Refactored internals for garbage collection, memory handling, and buffer streaming.

Enterprise-Ready Features

• CLI Enhancements: Backup/restore commands, repair tooling, and modular command structure.
• Canned ACLs: Easily apply private, public-read, or FULL_CONTROL permissions.
  New Indexes and Metadata Fields: Support retention, streaming telemetry, and object insights.
  
  

Protocol Layer Upgrades

Akave’s underlying protocol stack continues to evolve with increased verifiability and node-level resilience.

Verified Data Proofs

We've introduced Merkle Proof Verification using known root CIDs. This allows for explicit validation of data integrity; an important step for auditable storage and compliance.

// Verify the proof with known root CID
proof.Root = [32]byte(rawCommP)
require.True(t, merkletree.VerifyMerkleProof(proof, 3))

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Node Block Repair

The AkaveNode CLI now includes a repair command for fixing block data inconsistencies when using erasure coding. If a file is missing or corrupted, the node will auto-detect and repair affected blocks when executed.

akavenode repair <bucket-name> <file-name> <root-cid>

Smarter Metadata backwards Compatibility

• We’ve improved compatibility with legacy data by restoring support for older chunk metadata fields such as EncodedSize and Size across various services.
• Internal refactors now decouple logic into smaller, more testable packages, such as the separation of erasurecode logic into its own package.
  
  

Release Recap on o3 during May: v0.2.69 → v0.4.0

v0.2.69

• Dynamic rate limiting with Fibonacci backoff
• MPU lifecycle improvements & chunk optimization
• CORS fixes, cleaner ACL handling, and logging

v0.2.87

• Unit tests for signature verification
• Refined domain virtualization logic
• Modular object metadata and versioning

v0.3.0

• Full public access block enforcement
• Uniform ACL/policy application paths

v0.4.0

• Object retention support (Put/GetObjectRetention)
• New metadata schema and indexing
• Internal sync service and performance streamlining
  
  

Coming Soon

• Hosted version of o3 to self host your S3 compatible API as a client to connect to our network!
  
  

We invite our partners, customers, and developers to begin integrating the latest release today; and to explore how Akave can help secure and modernize their data stack.

Stay connected and join the Akave community:

Telegram: t.me/Akavebuilders
Twitter/X: @AkaveNetwork
Docs: docs.akave.xyz