Web 3 infrastructure requires decentralization if it wants to succeed. Users need freedom from the restrictions of web 2. The change from the current web ecosystem to Web 3 is inevitable. As more people demand decentralization, analysts are raising many important questions about the present blockchain ecosystem and its decentralization promise.
Vitalik Buterin confessed that many of these problems are caused by limited funding allocated to decentralization projects. It is easy to build current centralized systems.
Jack Dorsey had recently commented in a tweet that current networks are owned by venture capitalists. According to him, web 3 is currently owned by VCs and LPs. It remains mainly a centralized entity, according to him.
These comments make it obvious that the status quo does not meet the goals of blockchain and decentralization. The question remains who will own the Internet in the future?
Even before they had pointed out how web 3 has become centralized, many people have questioned if the blockchain ecosystem is really decentralized as it claims. For example, many layer-1 legacy chains claim to be decentralized but many recent events have shown they are not really decentralized.
Everyone remembers Infura problem of ethereum in 2020 when the networks suffered several outages. Those problems led to a hard fork caused by unknown behavior of its core developer team.
Solana has seen consistent and ongoing outages. AWS outage recently brought down dYdX. There are many such incidents that raise the uncomfortable question: Are current blockchain projects really decentralized, or they remain under the control of a few people?
Only a truly decentralized network can meet the goals of blockchain.
Responded!
I think the status quo comes from a present-day "missing middle" where we have centralized-but-easy things and decentralized-but-hard things, but new tech (w lots of cryptography!) actually is on the cusp of giving us the best of both worlds.https://t.co/XIx8f2oiVi pic.twitter.com/phTSrGW0OR
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 8, 2022
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…
— jack (@jack) December 21, 2021
