Ethereum Introduces Standard Unblockable URL

A piece of good news is here for Internet users who are into decentralized applications and NFTs. With the newly rolled Ethereum standard, users can access the internet without worrying about centralized internet censorship. This new Ethereum standard, named " Web3 URL to EVM Call Message Translation," was announced and proposed on 14 February 2022. Qi Zhou, the founder of ETHStorage, teamed up with Ethereum researchers Chap Pi and Sam Wilson in co-authoring this new Ethereum standard.?

Now Web3 URLs coupled with the new ERC-4804 will allow users to access NFTs and Ethereum-based applications without the restrictions of the centralized internet and its censorship. The proposed Ethereum standard includes the new "HTTP-style" URL to have direct access to the on-chain content, including NFTs and DApps, and after one year of research and development, the final release was published on 1 March 2023.?

Currently, most internet users use HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The process is uniform around the globe. Whenever a user clicks a link or types in a web address, the computer uses HTTP to ask a centralized server, which is also a high-performance computer, to retrieve data like website content or images. With ERC 4804, a user will have the independent choice to initiate this search with "Web3://" instead of HTTP in their browsers to visit on-chain DApps or NFTs directly.?

A spokesperson for layer-2 storage protocol ETHStorage, Anthurine Xiang, explained that the newly launched ERC4804 still needs to eliminate the requirement for centralized web servers. It is only used in selective applications, and several components of the decentralized internet and Web3 ecosystems are still dependent on centralized web servers to access on-chain data for decentralized applications built on Ethereum and other blockchains. He explained that decentralized applications like UniSwap use DNS to access the Webpage via centralized servers like GoDaddy.?

However, the founder of ETHStorgae, Qi Zhou, implies the cost of directly accessing the content stored on any compatible layer -2 protocol or Ethereum Blockchain. He said the costs are still very prohibitive and super expensive. He explained with an example that 1GB of on-chain data will cost around $10 million, which is unacceptable for most Web2 applications and NFT marketplaces. However, he also focused on layer-2 solutions and their help in mitigating costs on these data transactions.?

Furthermore, he said that the new URL standard benefits selective applications like Tornado Cash, which suffer from centralized internet server censorship that refrains users from reaching and visiting their website. Experts believe there are security concerns associated with direct access to the internet, which bypasses censorship protocols. Xiang said on these potential threats that it is up to the user to view these developments as a positive approach to solving problems of a centralized server, not to create something considered evil. He explained it using the example of Bitcoin, saying that in the initial days, BTC was used for several shady things on the darknet, like Silk Road.?

But, the initial idea while building Bitcoin was never focused on building something for evil purposes, just like the Interplanetary File System, IPFS, a classic example of a decentralized server that solves the issues and problems of a centralized cloud server but is limited to static content. ERC 4804 will eliminate these limitations and allow people to access dynamic data and interact with the website content directly.?