Web3 and distributed storage are decentralized, so why did Cloudflare crash, causing the entire network (including Web3) to go down as well?
To understand this phenomenon, we must analyze it from three levels: front end, back end, and smart contracts.
Distributed storage can indeed solve the problem of "content storage," but it cannot replace all aspects of network infrastructure.
Level One: Why is the web front end still affected by Cloudflare?
Most users access distributed storage through Web2's "gateway."
Cloudflare is down ⇒ Gateway is inaccessible ⇒ Webpage cannot be opened.
Even if the webpage is truly on IPFS, users cannot access it.
The encrypted front end is also not 100% decentralized.
For example:
API requests in the MetaMask extension
Wallet SDK, RPC node information
ENS resolution service
Front-end resources (JS, CSS)
Many of these rely on Cloudflare CDN/DNS.
So Cloudflare is down ⇒ Wallet interface cannot load ⇒ Web3 pages are paralyzed.
Level Two: The back end (Backend / API) is most heavily impacted by Cloudflare.
Web3 projects still typically rely on Web2 back ends:
API services
RPC services (Infura, Alchemy, Ankr…)
Node gateways
Price oracle interfaces
User authentication services
Server databases
These back ends often use Cloudflare's:
Firewalls
Reverse proxies
Caching
DNS
So when the back end goes down, it is actually the most critical issue.
Level Three: The smart contract layer (on-chain) is actually fine, but the access points are blocked.
Smart contracts themselves are not affected by Cloudflare:
There is no central server
Does not rely on DNS
Does not rely on HTTP
Does not rely on CDN
Does not rely on any Web2 services
The chain itself is operating normally.
The problem is:
Users cannot send transactions
Because most transactions need to be sent via RPC, which relies on Cloudflare's network infrastructure; the chain is not down, but users cannot access the chain's infrastructure.
Level Four: Why can't distributed storage solve Cloudflare-level problems?
Because distributed storage addresses:
Content persistence, tamper resistance, anti-takedown
While the Cloudflare incident involves:
Network transmission layer, DNS, CDN, routing, API gateways (which belong to Web2 infrastructure)
They are not the same level, and therefore cannot replace each other.
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