When I first heard about Web3, I was excited about the promise of a decentralized ecosystem. Eliminating financial intermediaries will cut fees, while decentralizing virtual platforms will give users a say. However, as I write this article, more than half Some of the nodes of the Ethereum network are hosted on Amazon servers, Richest 1% of Bitcoin holders own more tokens than all other wallets combined. Facts like this make me wonder how decentralized Web3 is.
In this article, we’ll zoom out and look at the different ways Web3 can be made more decentralized.
metaverse
according to the sandbox white paper“Sandbox decentralized platform allows players and creators to own part of the game metaverse (LAND) and participate in the governance and economy (SAND) while creating and enjoying an easy way to profit from their time playing.” SAND holders can join the project’s DAO and vote on key decisions about how the game operates. Section 4 of the whitepaper suggests that the game was released in a semi-decentralized manner, with some elements controlled by his The Sandbox and others controlled by players.
However, it is worth noting that minted SAND token It has been or will be distributed to reservists, advisors and teams within the company. Nearly 20% of his tokens have been distributed to teams, and in theory these team his members could buy more tokens on the open market. Similarly, the Decentraland team and early supporters received a total of 20% of his MANA tokens available. Of course, I’m not saying teams use these tokens to sway votes.but i’m saying they could And the system is not as “unreliable” as we might expect.
dApps
A dApp needs to connect to a blockchain network using an API. On the Ethereum network, many dApps use the Infura and Alechemy APIs. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find the exact market share for these two companies. Yet, according to one article, bloomberg“At times, more than 50% of transactions on the Ethereum network were performed through Infura.”
Infura has launched an early access program for a decentralized version of its API in hopes of helping solve the centralization problem of dApps. Until release, most of the Ethereum dApp ecosystem will be partially centralized.
wallet
In 2022, Matthew Rosenfeld, creator of encrypted messaging app Signal, wrote a thought-provoking essay titled,First impressions of Web3“When you connect a wallet like MetaMask to a dApp, and the dApp interacts with the blockchain through the wallet, MetaMask is just calling Infura,” he says in this essay.
Metamask has about 80% market share of all Ethereum wallet users and interestingly both Metamask and Infura are owned by Consensys.
final thoughts
I would like to point out that this article is not intended to be a scathing review of the Web3 ecosystem. Like most of you, I love his Web3 and its many benefits. I simply wanted to observe the inherent centralization that occurs when large companies engage in decentralized ecosystems. For many, centralization may be the first step to true decentralization.
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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT PLAZA are based on the site moderator’s personal research and experience and are for educational material only. Individuals should thoroughly research any product before making any type of investment.
NFT artist. musician. Founder of Crescendo.
