To publish on the Ocean Marketplace, publishers must first host their assets! It is up to the asset publisher to decide where to host the asset. For example, a publisher can store the content on decentralized storage like Arweave or choose a centralized solution like their AWS server, private cloud server, or other third-party hosting services. Through publishing, the information required to access the asset is encrypted and stored as a part of DDO on the blockchain. Buyers don't have access directly to this information, but they interact with the [Provider](https://github.com/oceanprotocol/provider#provider), which decrypts it and acts as a proxy to serve the asset. The DDO only stores the location of the file, which is accessed on-demand by the Provider. Implementing a security policy that allows only the Provider to access the file and blocks requests from other unauthorized actors is recommended. One of the possible ways to achieve this is to allow only the Provider's IP address to access the data. But, not all hosting services provide this feature. So, the publishers must consider the security features while choosing a hosting service.
On Ocean Marketplace, a publisher must provide the asset information during the publish step in the field shown in the below image. The information is a `link` for a classic URL, a `transaction ID` for a file stored on Arweave or a `CID` for an IPFS file.
Publishers can choose any hosting service of their choice. The below section explains how to use commonly used hosting services with Ocean Marketplace.
⚠️ Note **Please use a proper hosting solution to keep your files.** Systems like `Google Drive` are not specifically designed for this use case. They include various virus checks and rate limiters that prevent the `Provider` to download the asset once it was purchased.
[Arweave](https://www.arweave.org/) is a global, permanent, and decentralized data storage layer that allows you to store documents and applications forever. Arweave is different from other decentralized storage solutions in that there is only one up-front cost to upload each file.
**Step 1 - Get a new wallet and AR tokens**
Download & save a new wallet (JSON key file) and receive a small amount of AR tokens for free using the [Arweave faucet](https://faucet.arweave.net/). If you already have an Arweave browser wallet, you can skip to Step 3.
If at any point you need more AR tokens, you can fund your wallet from one of Arweave's [supported exchanges](https://arwiki.wiki/#/en/Exchanges).
**Step 2 - Load the key file into the arweave.app web wallet**
Open [arweave.app](https://arweave.app/) in a browser. Select the '+' icon in the bottom left corner of the screen. Import the JSON key file from step 1.
Select the newly imported wallet by clicking the "blockies" style icon in the top left corner of the screen. Select **Send.** Click the **Data** field and select the file you wish to upload.
The fee in AR tokens will be calculated based on the size of the file and displayed near the bottom middle part of the screen. Select **Submit** to submit the transaction.
After submitting the transaction, select **Transactions** and wait until the transaction appears and eventually finalizes. This can take over 5 minutes so please be patient.
AWS provides various options to host data and multiple configuration possibilities. Publishers are required to do their research and decide what would be the right choice. The below steps provide one of the possible ways to host data using an AWS S3 bucket and publish it on Ocean Marketplace.
Create an account on [AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/). Users might also be asked to provide payment details and billing addresses that are out of this tutorial's scope.
**Step 1 - Create a storage account**
**Go to AWS portal**
Go to the AWS portal for S3: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/ and select from the upper right corner `Create an AWS account` as shown below.
The file is an example used in multiple Ocean repositories, and it can be found [here](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oceanprotocol/c2d-examples/main/branin\_and\_gpr/branin.arff).
By default, the permissions of accessing the file from the S3 bucket are set to private. To publish an asset on the market, the S3 URL needs to be public. This step shows how to set up access control policies to grant permissions to others.
Go to the `Permissions` tab and select `Edit` and then uncheck `Block all public access` boxes to give everyone read access to the object and click `Save`.
Copy the `Object URL` that can be found at `Object Overview` from the AWS S3 bucket and paste it into the `File` field from the form found at [step 2](https://market.oceanprotocol.com/publish/2) as it is illustrated below.
Azure provides various options to host data and multiple configuration possibilities. Publishers are required to do their research and decide what would be the right choice. The below steps provide one of the possible ways to host data using Azure storage and publish it on Ocean Marketplace.
**Prerequisite**
Create an account on [Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/). Users might also be asked to provide payment details and billing addresses that are out of this tutorial's scope.
**Step 1 - Create a storage account**
**Go to Azure portal**
Go to the Azure portal: https://portal.azure.com/#home and select `Storage accounts` as shown below.
