According to Parsa Ghadimi, the lead researcher at the Web3 infrastructure platform Fleek Network, many developers of decentralized apps (dapps) continue to shun Web3 infrastructure because it has low latency. Ghadimi asserts that developers and users are more concerned with performance than the novelty of Web3 applications.
Web3 Regulation a ‘Certainty’
While this may explain developers’ use of or preference for Web2 infrastructure, according to Ghadimi, participants in the Web3 ecosystem can reverse this trend by “matching the performance and latency of Web2.”
Meanwhile, when asked about reports of the United States’ attempt to regulate the decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem, Ghadimi told Bitcoin.com News that he remains optimistic regulators will not go after projects which adhere to rules. Although the eventual regulation of Web3 is now widely seen as a “certainty,” the researcher nevertheless said he is “increasingly optimistic” that this will be done in a “sensible” way.
In his written answers sent to Bitcoin.com News via Telegram, Ghadimi also shared his thoughts on why the web infrastructure needs Web3. He also offered his thoughts about the future of centralized entities in Web3.
Below are all of Ghadimi’s responses to the questions sent.
Bitcoin.com News (BCN): What does the decentralization of the Web3 infrastructure mean and what’s the need for moving infrastructure to a decentralized layer?
Parsa Ghadimi (PG): Decentralizing web infrastructure is the shift from using corporate-controlled web infrastructure and cloud platforms to permissionless, uncensorable, decentralized platforms. You are only as strong as your weakest link, and so if even one part of your stack is centralized, you are vulnerable to censorship, de-platforming, hacks, service failures, etc. That’s the main reason for needing to move internet infrastructure and software off corporate-controlled cloud platforms and onto decentralized networks. Web3 only becomes a reality if the entire stack is decentralized.
BCN: Many developers building decentralized applications are aware of the critical principles of Web3 yet they still go on to build dapps on Web2 infrastructure. Why do you think they still do this and what needs to happen to encourage them to switch to a decentralized base layer?
PG: Performance/low latency is king. No one will care if your product is decentralized if it loads slowly. And so most developers are currently forced to use Web2 infra to get Web3 performance to meet developer/user demands. What needs to happen to encourage them to switch to decentralized infra is that there needs to be decentralized infra that can match the performance and latency of Web2. And that’s exactly what we are aiming to do with Fleek Network and building a decentralized edge network.
BCN: Can you tell us about your platform — Fleek Network — and its approach to bringing developers a decentralized edge layer?
PG: Fleek Network is a decentralized edge network. It’s optimized to facilitate the deployment and running of performant web and edge services (CDN, serverless functions, etc.). It brings centralized web-like performance to Web3 without sacrificing Web3 values. It will lower the barrier of entry and speed up time to market for developers building Web3 infra/middleware by allowing them to offload a portion of their stack to a decentralized edge, similar to how the modern web works today. And it can replace a lot of the current parts of their stack that they still need Web2 infra for (ex. Cloudflare).
BCN: Over the past few months, we have seen regulators (particularly in the U.S.) become increasingly aggressive in their actions against crypto giants like Coinbase, Binance, and the crypto ecosystem in general. Do you foresee this happening to decentralized entities and do you believe that regulators have a role in an ecosystem that’s designed to be self-regulated?
PG: It seems like the U.S. is attempting to establish a framework for what ‘sufficient decentralization’ means. So I hope they won’t go after the projects that adhere to that criteria. Regulation seems like a certainty at this point whether we like it or not, I just hope it’s sensible. But I’m becoming increasingly optimistic that it will be.
BCN: Do you foresee more centralized entities in the Web3 space in the coming years?
PG: In absolute terms yes, just given the growth of Web3 that we will experience this decade. But I would expect to see the growth of decentralized entities match or exceed that over the same time period.
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