Can Web 3 Solve the Critical Internet Problem?

Buterin could not solve the problem of centralizing the decentralization of the blockchain.

In early 2022, the cryptocurrency market collapsed due to unsatisfactory price increases from the Fed, and Bitcoin plunged to the $ 40,000 level. Although the exchange rate has fallen, the NFT market, which has been operating for a year, is still hot, and Joo Jae-beom has also been robbed by the NFT announcement.

If Square Dance Aunty asks what NFTs and DAOs are, it proves what the blockchain industry is. However, when physicians push for dissemination under the Web 3 banner, some people find that some things are wrong.

Global internet user Moxie conducted a small experiment with OpenSea, the world's most popular NFT trading platform, and found that some of the most popular 3 web applications were able to use little or no technology on their own. encryption. More importantly, these applications rely on a wide range of blockchain infrastructure. Business-Web 3 propagates decentralization, the shadow of a central crisis is slowly emerging.

application Web3,too "agree"

What is NFT? Crypto industry enthusiasts often joke that they "buy a bunch of JPGs", but in reality the image / video content is not stored in strings in code. It's expensive. Almost all NFTs include a URL link that identifies the result.

Moxie discovered that NFT artwork sold for millions or tens of millions of dollars on well-known NFT platforms had a connection to the content behind them, but instead of using the encryption technology they had. introduced into the special virtual machine. This means that anyone who purchases or steals a virtual machine in the future can edit the images, titles, descriptions, and other information provided by that NFT. This is because the NFT inconsistency doesn't tell you what the image is or what the image "is."

Since virtual machines can display different images on different IP addresses and names, Moxie performed the following experiments with NFTs. When you submit beautiful images to the well-known NFT trading platforms OpenSea and Rarible, and when a user makes a purchase, your cryptocurrency wallet is the image of a "shit" emoji.

(Left to right) NFT image of Moxie in OpenSea, Rarible and cryptocurrency wallets

Interestingly, Moxie's work was taken off the shelves shortly after being declared "illegal." While researching all of the rights to this site, NFT trading doesn't tell you that you can't force NFT tokens for. cash. Depending on your IP ...

If you accuse OpenSea of ​​"harassing users", Moxie's article may be of little value. After all, across the crypto circle, OpenSea criticizes people for saying that it "dons a web 3 layer because it embraces traditional institutional investing." We do not send "Web 2" drops.

What's really interesting is that when OpenSea took down Moxie's job, they found that their NFT functionality was missing from the MetaMask crypto wallet. However, this is because Moxie's NFT operations have been 'made' (i.e. registered with the Ethereum network) on the Ethereum network, and the latter cannot be deleted.

Compared to the OpenSea error, the disappearance of MetaMask's NFTs could present a major problem for the current Web 3 industry, which is the inability of decentralized dApps (blockchain applications) to communicate directly with the available blockchain. Instead, it uses APIs from several large blockchain "infrastructure" companies.

Take the example of the MetaMask crypto wallet, you can view the balance, trade cryptocurrencies, refund, view NFT activities provided by users, etc., but in fact these tasks were accomplished through APIs of major companies. of blockchain. The Ethereum address bar finds the EtherScan website called Infura's API, and the NFT screen uses the OpenSea API.

The reason is that the super dApps with over 80 million users worldwide like MetaMask are mainly used in mobile phones and web browsers. But don't. So when OpenSea removes the NFT feature, the wallet is encrypted without NFT by default, because the response to the API request is "No".

This is the paradoxical scene of the article, you can be sure the asset is on the chain, but most cryptocurrency users cannot prove its existence. I know there are emails but the gmail user can't see them.So, is this email still available?

The eternal paradox of platforms and protocols

Moxie's article does not stop at the "sarcastic" dApp level, but believes that the problems it presents with MetaMask or Web 3 are inconsistencies that run through the history of Internet development. It should be used by humans as much as possible. , the latter will inevitably lead to the emergence of centralized platforms, as only the latter are accessible to many people making the product simple and easy to use through continuous iteration.

The iteration rate of platform technologies and products is always way ahead of the rules. Email is a prime example. When the email protocol first appeared, only a few geeks created their own servers and email addresses, and many more used later Yahoo and Gmail mailboxes. It's very easy, but because people aren't yet and don't want to create their own servers. Using the portal's mailbox is simple and free, so why not? The end result is the rise of the portal.

The MetaMask crypto wallet already has 80 million users and is an unacceptable 3 web portal.

The same goes for the idea of ​​Web3 representing the blockchain, of course it could become an Ethereum node using a PC (not easy for current users), but it is a Ethereum wallet, but in addition to die-hard blockchain enthusiasts. , ordinary users are familiar with Coinbase, OpenSea, and products from large companies such as MetaMask. The rise of these businesses is in fact the creation of new facilities.

Moxie's article spread to Twitter and caused a sensation in the blockchain space. Ethereum founder Vitalik (Vitalik) also announced answers to Moxie's "questions". Vitalik was the first to recognize that the popular "centralized" blockchain app Moxie calls it doesn't even use encryption on its own, and that basic blockchain is way beyond the average person.

Buterin believes this is mainly because people in the industry want to make apps for more people. In this process, centralization is the fastest way.

Vitalik believes that Web 3 is still in its infancy and that the future specter of Web 3 will fill the void, from centralized (platform) to decentralized (private servers).

However, Vitalik's comments did not answer all of Moxie's questions. Because it's been more than 10 years since Bitcoin was born and more than 6 years since Ethereum appeared. More soon,Is this an appropriate way to promote decentralization in the form of centralization?Whether this is whether the user receives "Centerized" for "CIG", most people can use the skills in the middle and ideas.

In an age when NFTs and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are all the rage, Moxie's little "tries" and disbelief can be little ups and downs in the crypto industry. However, when people hold the top of Web 3 to support the tech industry, they still have to wonder if the idea came first, but there is no growth. Well this platform is ahead of the curve so the real decision is final. The goal cannot be achieved. This is still a difficult problem to solve, especially for the blockchain industry at a time of rapid growth.