Неполадки Cloudflare поднимают вопросы о необходимости полной децентрализации в Web3 Translation: Cloudflare Outages Raise Questions About the Need for Full Decentralization in Web3

Issues with the Cloudflare provider highlighted the reliance of cryptocurrency projects on centralized internet infrastructure. This was stated by a representative of the EthStorage platform in a comment to Cointelegraph.

According to him, the incident underscored the urgent need for comprehensive decentralization—from the blockchain to the user interface and data storage systems. Many projects depend on centralized DNS, APIs, and cloud storage, rendering the infrastructure vulnerable.

“Decentralizing blockchains through consensus, a reliable set of validators, and smart contracts is essential, but it represents only one side of the equation. True resilience requires a rethinking of the entire stack, not just the distributed ledger layer,” the expert noted.

Such an approach ensures that protocols cannot be disrupted by the failure of a single centralized component.

The Cloudflare outage on November 18 affected numerous cryptocurrency projects, including Blockchain.com, Coinbase, Ledger, BitMEX, Toncoin, Arbiscan, and DefiLlama. At least 20% of all internet traffic was impacted.

A comparable quantity of protocols experienced disruptions during the October incident involving Amazon Web Services.

The team behind the Filecoin blockchain platform stated that the Cloudflare failure “demonstrated how much traffic passes through a handful of centralized networks.”

“One error in a single region disrupted applications worldwide,” the developers commented.

They emphasized that dependence on a single cloud provider poses risks for any community based on principles of stable data access.

“I’m witnessing my favorite decentralized, censorship-resistant, and resilient Web3 application getting wiped out just because ‘Cloudflare went down,’” quipped one user.

The EthStorage team noted that many crypto protocols rely on Web2 infrastructure for frontend and auxiliary layers “out of convenience and habit.” Many believe that decentralized alternatives are costlier and harder to maintain, as well as less user-friendly. However, these assumptions are already “outdated.”

Projects prioritize successful launches and user acquisition over the challenge of decentralization.

“Since the infrastructure remains ‘behind the scenes’ for the end user, teams lack the incentive to address decentralization issues immediately. As a result, it turns into a ‘future task’ rather than a fundamental architectural requirement,” pointed out the EthStorage expert.

As a solution, he proposed a gradual transition: full decentralization is only achievable through iterative steps rather than abrupt transformations.

“There’s no need to aim to decentralize all layers of the stack simultaneously. The key is to embed this development vector in the roadmap and systematically reduce reliance on centralized solutions in areas such as code execution, data storage, and access management as the project evolves,” the specialist concluded.

Recall that in late August, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed new ways to safeguard the decentralization of the second-largest cryptocurrency ecosystem.