Cloudflare outage exposed crypto projects’ reliance on centralized infrastructure.
The recent issues with Cloudflare have underscored the reliance of crypto projects on centralized internet infrastructure, according to a representative from EthStorage in a comment to Cointelegraph.
The incident, he noted, demonstrated the need for widespread decentralization — from blockchain to user interfaces and data storage systems. Many projects depend on centralized DNS, API, and cloud storage, rendering the infrastructure vulnerable.
“Decentralization of blockchains through consensus, a reliable set of validators, and smart contracts is necessary, but it represents only one side of the equation. True resilience requires rethinking the entire stack, not just the distributed ledger layer,” the expert noted.
This approach ensures that protocols cannot be disabled due to the failure of a single centralized component.
The Cloudflare outage on November 18 affected a range of crypto projects, including Blockchain.com, Coinbase, Ledger, BitMEX, Toncoin, Arbiscan, and DefiLlama. At least 20% of all internet traffic was impacted.
A comparable number of protocols experienced disruptions during the October incident with Amazon Web Services.
The team behind the blockchain platform Filecoin stated that the Cloudflare outage “demonstrated how much traffic flows through a handful of centralized networks.”
“Just one issue in one region disrupted applications worldwide,” the developers commented.
They emphasized that reliance on a single cloud provider poses risks for any society built on principles of stable data access.
“Watching my favorite decentralized, censorship-resistant, unstoppable crypto Web3 app get eviscerated because ‘Cloudflare went down’,” joked one user.
EthStorage noted that many crypto protocols rely on Web2 infrastructure for frontend and auxiliary layers “out of convenience and habit.” Many believe that decentralized alternatives are more expensive, harder to maintain, and less user-friendly. However, these assumptions are now “outdated.”
Projects often push the task of decentralization to the back burner, focusing primarily on a successful launch and user acquisition.
“Since infrastructure remains ‘behind the scenes’ for the end user, teams have no incentive to immediately address decentralization issues. As a result, it becomes a ‘future task’ rather than a fundamental architectural requirement,” the EthStorage expert pointed out.
As a solution, he proposed a gradual transition: full decentralization is possible only through phased steps, not through abrupt transformation.
“There is no need to decentralize all levels of the stack simultaneously. The key is to embed this development direction into the roadmap and gradually reduce dependence on centralized solutions in code execution, data storage, and access management as the project evolves,” the specialist concluded.
Back in late August, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed new ways to protect the decentralization of the ecosystem of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
