The merge of both companies reopens the debate on decentralization in this network. There are about 2,600 DApps that record more than 68 thousand daily transactions in Ethereum.

ConsenSys, the company of Ethereum’s co-founder Joseph Lubin, acquired the entire startup Infura, which manages much of the traffic of the DApps that record its transactions on this blockchain. Infura reported that it will continue operating as a commercial unit within ConsenSys and that the new merger offers them an opportunity for deeper collaboration.

ConsenSys’s decision can be regarded as a formality as the company already operated, in part, with the firm dedicated to designing solutions and projects for Ethereum. None of the companies disclosed the amount agreed to close the deal.

Infura stated that it has negotiated a lot with ConsenSys and some potential external investors so that the culture and vision of the Infura product can remain protected and supported. They consider that ConsenSys is the right place to realize their vision and continue expanding their offer.

Among the main contributions of Infura as a platform to the Ethereum ecosystem, the most prominent are CryptoKitties cryptocollectibles and Metamask plug-in, among other services.

Decentralization Debate

The move of ConsenSys with Infura again stirred the waters over the centralization in Ethereum. The main reason is that Infura might be managing a good part of the nodes of this network, which would compromise decentralization on this platform. In fact, a group of developers warned about this trend in December 2018.

The data offered by explorers in this regard indicate that the number of full nodes decreased within a year. Currently, 7,636 full nodes are registered on ethernodes.org and 6,637 nodes on etherscan.io, with a 10% decrease in their numbers in recent days. In October 2018, that figure exceeded 11,800 nodes, according to search engines. At that time, Michael Wuehler commented that between 5% and 10% of that amount might be nodes operated by Infura.

However, the estimate should consider code requests, a method for creating applications in Ethereum and interacting with the blockchain without running a full node. In this sense, Infura acknowledged last year that 13 billion code requests per day were made through its platform. This information has allowed speculating on the centralization of the network since then.

These figures are particularly important considering that there are about 2,619 DApps in the ecosystem recording its transactions in Ethereum, which handle a daily volume of 68,000 transactions and more than USD 3 million per week, according to data from State of the DApps.

On Twitter and Reddit, comments were divided between questioning and defending the total merge of both companies. The twitter user @yojoots published that ConsenSys has an indisputable power in the Ethereum ecosystem. With this acquisition, its position as a de facto central authority is considerably strengthened.

Contrarily, the Reddit user liberated_u defended the acquisition as a step for the cryptocurrency ecosystem to achieve greater progress in the future. This acquisition will further consolidate the growing presence of ConsenSys in the Ethereum/crypto development space.

Another Reddit user, identified as slightlymedicated, noted that the Infura team wanted to grow with key hiring, offer more products and drive initiatives in line with the spirit of Ethereum. They feel that staying within ConsenSys allowed them to continue what they are doing happily.

ConsenSys is expected to consolidate its projects to improve the Ethereum network, as well as to design and develop new tools that allow for sustained growth for the future.

By Willmen Blanco

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