Beyond Blockchain: Decentralizing Crypto Infrastructure for True Resilience

Towards End-to-End Decentralization in Crypto

The crypto ecosystem has made strides in decentralizing blockchains. However, the recent Cloudflare incident underscored that true resilience requires decentralizing the frontend and storage layers as well. This is the argument put forth by blockchain infrastructure platforms.

An EthStorage spokesperson explained, "Decentralizing blockchains through consensus, a robust set of validators, and smart contracts is essential, but it represents only one side of the equation. True resilience requires rethinking the whole stack—not just the blockchain layer." They emphasized that Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Domain Name System (DNS), API, indexing, and storage should also be decentralized.

This kind of "end-to-end decentralization" ensures that protocols cannot be taken down by a single point of failure, EthStorage stated.

Impact of Network Outages on Crypto Protocols

Several crypto protocols, including Blockchain.com, Coinbase, Ledger, BitMEX, Toncoin, Arbiscan, and DefiLlama, were impacted by the Cloudflare network outage on Tuesday, which affected around 20% of internet traffic. A similar number of crypto protocols were also affected by the Amazon Web Services outage one month prior.

Platforms such as EthStorage, Protocol Labs via IPFS and Filecoin, and Arweave are building decentralized HTTP and storage solutions for crypto protocols to respond more resiliently to internet failures.

Filecoin also commented on the Cloudflare incident, stating, "Outages like yesterday show how much traffic flows through a handful of centralized networks," adding that "Relying on a single cloud provider creates limits for any society that depends on stable access to data."

Challenges and Misconceptions

EthStorage noted that many crypto protocols rely on Web2 infrastructure for frontend and supporting layers out of convenience and familiarity. Many teams assume that decentralized alternatives are slower, more expensive, harder to maintain, and less user-friendly. However, EthStorage argues that these assumptions are outdated.

They also deprioritize decentralization because they’re more focused on a smooth launch and building a user base. "Since users don’t usually see the infrastructure underneath, there’s little immediate pressure to decentralize. As a result, decentralization becomes an 'optional later step' instead of a core architectural requirement," EthStorage explained.

Decentralization Doesn’t Have to Happen Overnight

For crypto protocols that still rely on centralized components, EthStorage offers some encouraging news: full decentralization can be achieved gradually.

"Achieving full decentralization across every layer of the stack doesn’t have to happen overnight. What matters is that projects intentionally align their roadmap with this direction—gradually removing centralized dependencies across execution, storage, and access as the project matures."

They added, "Incorporating this direction into their roadmap ensures that, over time, they move toward a resilient and fully decentralized architecture that cannot be taken down by any single vendor outage."

Never Sacrifice Decentralization: Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in a "Trustless Manifesto" that builders should never sacrifice decentralization in pursuit of adoption. Buterin and Ethereum Foundation researchers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner explained that protocols sacrifice trustlessness from the first moment they integrate a hosted node or centralized relayer. While it may seem harmless, each new checkpoint becomes a potential chokepoint.