What is Decentralized Infura? It will be made up of Infura and a decentralized market of other third-party data suppliers.
By the end of this year, a decentralized version of Infura will be launched. An important representative of ConsenSys stated “We’re looking to launch something later this year, but then there’s going to be what they call a federated phase that they’re expecting to like to last of the order of six months,”
Pros and Cons of Infura
Let us view some of the pros and cons of Infura. First it all, it is the access point for furthermost DApps to access real-time on-chain data from the Ethereum blockchain. On the other hand, Infura delivers a single point of failure due to it is controlled only by ConsenSys. In the same vein, Infura came under fire from some users for complying with U.S. sanctions against Tornado Cash. Also, when Infura went down, centralized exchanges and DeFi projects were affected and the MetaMask wallet ceased operating. All these events took place in November 2020.
On the one hand, the preparations for having a decentralized marketplace for the five different data providers which can conduct a job alike to that of Infura are quite developed. On the other hand, these providers are scattered all around the world. Infura itself will turn into another brick on the wall of the network.
Because DApps will not require depending on a specific data service provider located in one jurisdiction, Ethereum access will become more reliable and censorship-resistant. Let us see what Morris says;
“If you have different people setting up their infrastructure in different ways on different cloud providers using different node software, then you can start to build antifragility into [the system].”
According to Morris, the ultimate purpose is to build a TCP/IP-like building that cannot be regulated:
“You can’t regulate TCP/IP, but you can certainly regulate the providers. So we’re trying to create a new architecture of Web3 with how it can grow […] then our role within it […] is to drive that paradigm shift.”
“There’s interest from both of them [Web2 and Web3 providers]. I mean, they kind of see this as a novel, kind of potential source of a huge amount of business in the future.”
Experts are expecting a transition into a permissionless marketplace of data providers sometime during 2024. Whether by Consensys or any other one yet to be determined, the federated stage was necessary to iron out the bugs. It is also necessary to have the system working suitably whilst still under centralized control.
Because monopolies could be shut down by just one court order, decentralizing Infura blockchain’s data providers is pretty likely to be crucial. For a Web3 wallet like MetaMask that relies on Infura for data, this could have severe consequences.
Finally, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or a foundation could govern the decentralized version of Infura.
By Leonardo Pérez
