Decentralized networks are not decentralized

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts preach Web3 The advantages of , They said that everything we do online in the future will be powered by blockchain .Web3 The supporters said , The next iteration of the Internet will give most of the power to users , Instead of large private companies managing speech and business on the Internet .

stay Web3 In the world of , How we communicate 、 Exchange money and organize yourself , It can be dispersed in the computer network , Instead of managing... On enterprise servers . Cryptocurrency and decentralized Finance （DeFi） It will provide people with alternatives to traditional banks and financial institutions . Heterogeneous token （NFTs） Will track the ownership of virtual goods in the video game , And let digital artists sell their works online . And decentralized social media can prevent YouTube or Twitter In this way, the top-down authority decides what is acceptable .

But even if the blockchain is decentralized , Interacting with Web3 Services are also controlled by a very small number of private companies . in fact , The industries emerging to support decentralized networks are highly integrated , It could damage Web3 Commitment .

What is? Web3？

The first version of the world wide web was made up of static 、 An isolated web site . Academic circles and Internet critics will cover 1990 Most of the time in the S is called Web1. stay 21 It was called at the beginning of the century Web2 The next stage of , Image enabled Facebook、YouTube And interactive sites like Wikipedia , Users can publish 、 Edit and re share content , It is often called a platform . These sites often rely on login 、 Personal data and embedded content . It's crucial , They make user generated content pop up , And give personal content creators power and a source of income .

Web3 Imagine the hardware and software of the Internet moving from the enterprise park of a technology company to a distributed computer network that is not owned or controlled by any single entity . Gavin, the co-founder of blockchain Ethereum, was the first to promote this idea - Wood , He was in 2014 In, he put forward his vision of cryptocurrency driven Internet . Wood wrote in a blog post , The network should move towards a " Zero trust interactive system ,[ among ] All interactions will be under pseudonyms 、 In a safe way , And for many services , It's untrustworthy ." He thinks that , Blockchain , That is, a decentralized ledger that stores information in a computer network , Will almost eliminate people's trust in any entity . Final , He put the Web 3.0 Imagine " Secure social operating system ".

Centralized service

Blockchain works by decentralizing the storage of information . Blockchain does not store data on the company's server , But as a permanent ledger , Copy each new record on many different connected computers . Financial information 、 Game data and digital art works can be stored and verified in these shared databases . Blockchain is designed for security （ Because they're encrypted ）、 transparent （ Because they are public ） And stability （ Since the software does not rely on a centralized server , image Twitter Run on Amazon Web services server , So the possibility of interruption is small ）.

But according to the Cryptologist Matthew - Rosenfield （Matthew Rosenfeld） A widely circulated article , Encrypted information application Signal The creator of the , That is, the well-known morsi - Marlinspike ,Web3 There is a weak link in our vision . Many activities that make blockchain based activities on the network possible depend on a few private 、 A centralised company ." So much work 、 Energy and time have been spent on creating a distributed consensus mechanism without trust ," Marlinspike wrote ," But almost all customers who want to visit it simply trust the output of the two companies , Without any further verification ."

Marlinspike Pointed out Web3 Two weaknesses of infrastructure

Blockchain based applications rely heavily on application interfaces （API）, It allows software to communicate with other software . for example , stay Web2 In the website ,API Allow you to use your Facebook Credentials and a mobile game to create a file . stay Web3 in , Many decentralized applications （dApps） Use API Connect to blockchains such as Ethereum , Instead of connecting directly .

The market has revolved around two suppliers Alechemy and Infura Integrated , They are the majority of Ethereum dApps powered , Ethereum is the most popular blockchain among software developers . let me put it another way , Instead of trusting Ethereum , It's better to trust Infura or Alchemy.

But this is not the only way to consolidate the cryptocurrency industry . Users can buy and sell cryptocurrency exchanges in currencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum , from Binance The dominant , It handles about three times the volume of trading on the second largest exchange .Infura parent company Consensys With the MetaMask It has also become the leading cryptocurrency wallet of Ethereum -- This is where you can save what you have purchased NFT The place of . and OpenSea Basically controlled NFT market , stay 2021 year 12 Point to point of the month NFT In the transaction 27 $ 84%.

All stable currency in circulation （ A decentralized finance linked to the value of legal currency （DeFi） assets ） in , More than half of them are Tether（USDT）, One is by the exchange Bitfinex Controlled currency . And cryptocurrency companies , Many of them are funded by venture capital , Is beginning to rapidly acquire each other .

Marlinspike Think , If Web3 Use minimal decentralization , To give priority to the user experience , So centralization is even good for Web3 It's a good thing . If so ,Web3 The adoption of technology will increase in general .

" from the beginning , These technologies immediately tend to be centralized through the platform ,"Marlinspike In his blog post, he wrote ." This has a... Impact on the speed of the ecosystem [ about ] Zero negative feelings , and ...... Most participants don't even know or care about it ."

This is not the decentralization originally promised Web3. Some dominant companies are building user-friendly platforms to gain huge market share , Bring the next iteration of the Internet to the public . It sounds like Web2.

Who is afraid of centralization ？

Co founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin admit Marlinspike Many of the criticisms of . But he predicted , The future will be different . He said ：" It's easier to build things in a lazy, centralized way , It takes hard work to ' Do it right ',".Buterin say , some time , It will be easier and cheaper for companies and users to run programs directly on the Ethereum blockchain , Even if users prefer easy-to-use centralization options .