The Single Point of Failure That Could Crush Web3’s Decentralized Internet Dream

Web3’s grand vision of an open, decentralized internet faces a critical threat—one weak link that could bring the whole system crashing down.

Centralization creeping in? Despite the hype around blockchain’s promise to democratize the web, a single point of failure lurks in the shadows. Whether it’s a dominant node, a vulnerable protocol, or an over-reliance on a handful of validators, the Achilles’ heel of decentralization is real.

Finance folks won’t be surprised—after all, they’ve seen this movie before. Remember when ‘too big to fail’ banks nearly torched the global economy? History loves a repeat.

If Web3 can’t solve this, its dream of a user-owned internet might just end up another line on a VC’s spreadsheet—right next to the ‘losses’ column.

DApps Suffer from Concentrated Vulnerabilities

Most developers build the front end of DApps on a decentralized interface, but depend on centralized data infrastructure for backend support.

DApps largely run on centralized data hosting platforms and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Although easily accessible, these platforms are susceptible to single-point failures and censorship, leading to global outages and downtime.

History is a witness to these failures. There are multiple examples where Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms have faced disruptions, interrupting seamless DApp usage.

For instance, although MetaMask functions as a decentralized wallet, its endpoints run on centralized tech like Infura to access Ethereum. In 2022, when Infura blocked access after U.S. sanctions, MetaMask users temporarily couldn’t access their wallets from specific regions.

This is not an isolated incident. Infura clients have also faced interruptions in the past. Similarly, Solana and Polygon users faced outages due to the overloading of centralized RPCs during high network traffic.

DApps using centralized infrastructure to supply data are thus susceptible to downtime, information inaccuracies, usage gaps, and disconnected data flows. These incidents demonstrate the need to shift to decentralized infrastructure for data transferability and smooth accessibility without facing outages.

The Need for a Decentralized DApp Ecosystem

DApps without a decentralized stack are an oxymoron.

Instead of AWS, Google, or Azure, DApps must use open-source solutions like InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), Filecoin, or Arweave. These protocols provide a tamper-proof, distributed storage facility with high uptime and protection against random outages.

DApps running on decentralized infrastructure work with independent node operators. This helps distribute data queries across the network, eliminating single points of failure for unstoppable data availability.

Since individual nodes cannot block information flows, DApps run smoothly even when several nodes are offline. So the network always remains accessible without any downtime.

Decentralized infrastructure further removes the dependency on intermediaries who arbitrarily control data flows. Instead, DApps can connect with data, service providers, and users within an integrated, enmeshed open-source system.

Pocket Network unlocks open data accessibility so that any DApp can get the information it needs, without relying on centralized or singular entities. Pocket’s Shannon upgrade created the first truly permissionless Open API Network.

Decentralized social networks like BlueSky and the AT Protocol don’t depend on centralized RPCs. Rather, they work with decentralized RPCs to access open data. Similarly, DeFi protocols using chainlink don’t need to depend on centralized APIs to source real-time on-chain price data.

A robust, genuinely decentralized tech stack is critical for DApps to build a digital ecosystem without single points of failure, paving the way to return to Berners-Lee’s vision of a globally accessible network.

Towards Berners-Lee’s Vision of an Open Internet

Tim didn’t envision a society where a few megacorporations build walled gardens with asymmetrical relationships between users and companies. He wanted open communication in the digital world without any powerful intermediaries controlling information exchange.

This vision is aligned with Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea of a decentralized, peer-to-peer exchange system. And although crypto now leans toward a casino-style gambling circus, that was not how Nakamoto and the cypherpunk community imagined it to be.

That said, Web3 innovators are actively building the infrastructure necessary to bring Tim and Satoshi’s vision to fruition. Because an open digital world with equitable accessibility is a must-have, not a nice-to-have.

Decentralized infrastructure protocols for open-source data are rapidly emerging as the new frontier for seamless data accessibility to train AI models and support cross-chain DApp usage. With a $350 billion open data market, it’s critical to wrest control away from centralized providers and distribute it among decentralized operators.

To thrive, crypto, AI, and other emerging tech must reject Web2’s business model and embrace the internet’s OG vision, now enshrined in the Web3 paradigm. Moving toward a decentralized infrastructure that doesn’t suffer from single points of failure is crucial to building a resilient and reliable internet.