Web3 URLs, enabled with the release of ERC-4804, came to Ethereum, allowing internet users to access Ethereum and NFT applications without worrying about centralized censorship.
The new Ethereum standard, noble “Web3 URL to EVM Call Message Translation” was first proposed on February 14, 2022 and was co-authored by ETHStorage founder Qi Zhou, Ethereum researcher Sam Wilson, and Chao Pi.
He described the proposal as an “HTTP-style” URL for direct access to on-chain Web3 content, such as front-end decentralized applications (DApps) and NFTs. Over a year later, ERC-4804 was approved and finalized on the mainnet on March 1.
1/n, I am pleased to announce that the first web access protocol for ETH ERC4804: Web3 URL is approved by EIP publishers and finalized.
web3:// (https://t.co/uXpTGdXirF) is decentralized http://. It allows users to directly browse the rich web content in EVM, pages/images/songs!
— Qi Zhou (@qc_qizhou) March 1, 2023
Anthurine Xiang, a spokesperson for the Layer 2 storage protocol ETHStorage, explained that in many cases, the ecosystem still relies on centralized web servers to provide access to “decentralized” applications.
“Right now, all DApps like Uniswap (…) claim to be decentralized applications,” Xiang explained, adding: “But how do we get to the web page? You have to go through DNS. You have to go through GoDaddy. (…) All those are centralized servers”.
Today, most users access the Internet through the “Hypertext Transfer Protocol”, widely known as HTTP.
When an Internet user clicks on a link or types a website address, the computer uses HTTP to ask another computer to retrieve the information, such as a website or images.
According to ERC-4804, Internet users have the option of typing web3:// (as opposed to http://) in their browsers to directly open DApps like Uniswap or NFT on-chain. This is because the standard allows users to directly execute a query to an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
In theory, entire websites can also be accessed by these means, as long as their content is stored on the Ethereum blockchain or a compatible Layer 2 protocol. However, the costs of doing this are still very prohibitive, according to ETHStorage founder Qi Zhou.
“The critical issue here is that the cost of storage on Ethereum is very, very expensive on the mainnet,” Zhou said in a recent presentation at ETH Denver.
“For example, 1 Gigabyte of on-chain data will cost approximately $10 million. (…) That is unacceptable for many Web2 applications and even for many NFTs,” Zhou added, noting that Layer 2 storage solutions could help mitigate some of the costs.
(insert)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h31q2ZMwHkQ(/insert)
Xiang suggested that given the costs, the new URL standard only makes sense for specific applications.
“Not everything has to be decentralized. If you have a pretty good Web2 business and don’t have to worry too much about centralized censorship. (…) You can go for that”.
On the other hand, the new standard would be useful for DApps or websites that are at risk of censorship, with Tornado Cash as an example.
“For example, for Tornado Cash, a lot of people can’t access them through their website because there’s censorship,” Xiang explained.
“If you’re a DApp and you’ve already been decentralized, why are you still using a centralized website to give people access to you?”
When asked if bad actors could take advantage of the new standard to engage in illicit activities, Xiang said:
“This is really hard to say, just like how Bitcoin was founded. I think Bitcoin was not born for evil, but still, in the beginning, people (were) doing shady things like the Silk Road, they had been using Bitcoin.”
Instead, Xiang believes that, like Bitcoin, they are just giving people a decentralized option that they might not otherwise have.
The new Ethereum standard is the first of its kind for blockchain, Xiang noted, though it is not the first solution for decentralized web hosting.
Related: How to host a decentralized website
IPFS, or InterPlanetary File System, is an example of a network that was built to do what centralized cloud servers currently provide, only through decentralized means. However, Xiang pointed out that an IPFS URL can only link to static content, which cannot be modified or changed.
I *use* IPFS to host my blog. It has serious UX issues (my last update took ~1 hour to propagate). Pasting the blog in the chain would have been much easier.
For blogs it is unfortunately too expensive, but for short text logs the logic applies.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 27, 2022
However, ERC-4804 will allow “dynamic data,” such as allowing people to leave likes and comments and interact with content on a website, Xiang explained. Being native to Ethereum, the standard is also expected to be able to interface with other blockchains much more easily, Xiang added.
