Why decentralization isn’t the ultimate goal of Web3
The transition from Web2 to Web3 is inevitable. Yet, as the demand for decentralization gains momentum, several important questions are being raised about the current state of blockchain technology and its promised “decentralization.”
Vitalik Buterin responded with a confession that “a lot of it comes down to limited technical resources and funding. It’s easier to build things the lazy centralized way, and it takes serious effort to ‘do it right.’” Or, Jack Dorsey’s recent tweet where he claimed that it’s actually the venture capitalists who own the networks that exist today.
You don’t own “web3.”The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label. Know what you’re getting into…
Their comments make it clear that with the status quo, popular blockchains appear a long way from realizing their decentralized dreams. Posing the question, who will actually own the future of the internet?
Related: Web3 developer growth hits an all-time high as ecosystem matures
Even before Moxie and Jack called out Web3 for becoming what it once sought to replace, several incidents unfolded that made many people question the decentralization of the ecosystem. Take, for instance, the case of several legacy layer-1 chains. While many advertise themselves as decentralized, recent events have clearly shown how existing layer-1 protocols aren’t truly decentralized.
Be it Ethereum’s Infura debacle of 2020, where the network suffered multiple outages, ultimately leading to an “accidental” hard fork due to mysterious behavior by the core development team, the ongoing and consistent outages on Solana, or the AWS outage that took down dYdX. If you observe closely, you’ll uncover many
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