EIP

Forget HTTP: Ethereum has a new URL standard that can’t be blocked

Under a newly rolled out Ethereum standard, DApps and NFTs can be accessed by internet users without the worry of centralized censorship.

Web3 URLs — enabled with the launch of ERC-4804 — have made it onto Ethereum, allowing internet users to access Ethereum applications and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) without worrying about centralized censorship.

The new Ethereum standard, titled “Web3 URL to EVM Call Message Translation,” was first proposed on Feb. 14, 2022, and was co-authored by ETHStorage founder Qi Zhou, Ethereum researcher Sam Wilson, and Chao Pi.

It described the proposal as an “HTTP-style” URL to directly access on-chain Web3 content, such as decentralized applications (DApps) front-ends and NFTs. More than a year later, ERC-4804 was approved and finalized on the mainnet on March 1.

Anthurine Xiang, a spokesperson for layer-2 storage protocol ETHStorage, explained that in many cases, the ecosystem still relies on centralized web servers to access “decentralized” apps. 

“Right now, all the DApps like Uniswap […] claim to be decentralized apps,” Xiang explained, adding: “But how [do] we get on the webpage? You have to go through the DNS. You have to go through GoDaddy. […] All those are centralized servers.”

Graphic explaining how the new model compares to Web2. Source: w3eth.io

Today, most users access the internet via “Hypertext Transfer Protocol,” widely known as HTTP. 

When an internet user clicks a link or types in a website address, the computer uses HTTP to ask another computer to retrieve the information, such as a website or pictures.

Under ERC-4804, internet users have the option to type in “web3://” (as opposed to “http://”) in their browsers to bring up DApps such as Uniswap or on-chain NFTs directly. This is because the standard allows users to directly run a query to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

Flow chart explaining how Web3 URL standard works with Uniswap. Source: w3eth.io

Entire websites can theoretically 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 storage cost on Ethereum is super, super expensive on mainnet,” Zhou said in a recent presentation at ETHDenver.

“For example, 1 Gigabyte of on-chain data will cost roughly $10 million. […] That is unacceptable for a lot of Web2 applications and even a lot of NFTs,” Zhou added, noting that layer-2 storage solutions could help mitigate some of the costs.

Xiang suggested that, given the costs, the new URL standard makes sense only for specific applications. 

“Not everything needs to go decentralized. If you are running a pretty good Web2 business and you don’t have to worry too much about centralized censorship. […] You can just go for that.”

On the other hand, the new standard would be useful for DApps or websites at risk of censorship, with Tornado Cash as an example.

“For example, for Tornado Cash, a lot of people can’t get to 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 for people to get access to you?”

Example of websites that are able to be accessed via web3:// URL. Source: w3eth.io

Asked whether the new standard could be leveraged by bad actors to partake in illicit activity, 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, like Bitcoin, they’re just giving people a decentralized option they may not have otherwise. 

The new Ethereum standard is the first of its kind for the blockchain, noted Xiang, though it’s not the first solution to decentralized web hosting. 

Related: How to host a decentralized website

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is an example of a network created to do through decentralized means, what centralized cloud servers currently provide. However, Xiang noted that an IPFS URL can only link to static content, which can’t be amended or changed.

ERC-4804 will allow for “dynamic data,” such as allowing people to leave likes and comments and interact with content on a website, explained Xiang. Being Ethereum native, the standard is also expected to be able to interact with other blockchains much easier, Xiang added.

Breaking: Shanghai upgrade executed on testnet but not without issues

Ethereum validators are now one step away from being able to unstake their Ether from the Beacon Chain.

The Shapella hard fork has been executed on the Goerli testnet — the last test run before Ethereum validators will be able to withdraw their Ether (ETH) from the Beacon Chain.

There were, however, issues with the hard fork. Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko noted that while deposits were being processed, the process didn’t run as smoothly as it could have because several testnet validators didn’t upgrade their client software before the Goerli fork.

He blamed it on testnet validators having “less incentive” to make the upgrade given that the Goerli ETH “is worthless” but expects validators to make proper adjustments ahead of the fork on the Ethereum mainnet.

Ethereum researcher “terence.eth” explained that it took 15 epochs for Shapella to be forked onto the Goerli testnet because network participation was below the two-thirds threshold:

Through Ethereum Investment Proposal EIP-4895 staked ETH from the Beacon Chain will be “pushed” to the execution layer.

While the Shapella upgrade comprises five different EIPs, EIP-4895 has been by far the most anticipated as it moves Ethereum one step closer to a fully functional proof-of-stake system.

Shapella is expected to take effect on the Ethereum mainnet in early April following a few delays in preparing the Sepolia and Goerli testnets for the fork.

The hard fork will allow for partial and full withdrawals, and will theoretically unlock 17.6 million ETH when Shapella is forked, which equates to over $30 billion at current prices.

However several mechanisms are in place to prevent a flood of the ETH supply from hitting the market, according to the Ethereum Foundation.

The number of withdrawals allowed within a 24-hour period will only represent about 0.40% of the total staked ETH because only an approximate 2,200 withdrawals can be processed per day.

Related: Ethereum Shanghai upgrade could benefit liquid staking providers and cement ETH’s layer 1 dominance.

This is because, in most cases, a maximum of 10 validators can be assigned to an epoch and it takes approximately five or six minutes for an epoch to be processed.

If each of the 2,200 validators withdraws the full 32 ETH staked per day it would only account for about 70,000 ETH — a fraction of the 17.6 million staked.

The execution on Goerli was shared in a March 15 live stream by EthStaker on YouTube.


Vitalik Buterin highlights what he’s bullish about for 2023

The Ethereum co-founder expects to reach a new milestone for rollups this year.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared some bullishness for the year ahead, including reaching a new milestone for rollup scaling as per the Ethereum roadmap.

The Ethereum developer also confirmed the rollout of the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 4884 sometime in 2023, which had been removed as part of the upcoming Shanghai upgrade package set for March.

Responding to a Dec. 31 post from former chief technology officer of Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan, asking users what they were bullish for in 2023, Buterin said he was looking forward to reaching the “basic rollup scaling” milestone as outlined in the Ethereum roadmap.

He explained that this meant the rollout of The Surge-related Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-4884.

EIP-4884 was initially expected to be packaged in with Shanghai, introducing “proto-danksharding” to significantly enhance layer-2 rollup scalability, the Surge, ahead of the full implementation of the major Sharding upgrade late next year.

He also said that this would mean that rollups would be “partially taking off training wheels, at least to stage 1,” referring to a Nov. 22 post on the “Ethereum Magicians forum,” which describes three stages of the “trust model” based on how mature a project’s tech was.

Stage 0, which Buterin likens to having “full training wheels,” has the requirements for all transactions to be on-chain and provide users the ability to withdraw their assets without the operator.

Stage 1, or “limited training wheels,” must have a transaction verification method such as a fraud proof or validity proof scheme to accept or reject which transactions are allowed by the smart contract, along with an overriding security council to oversee the process. 

While stage 2 has “no training wheels” and must have two distinct fraud provers, two distinct validity provers, or one of each. Upgrades are allowed at this stage but must have a delay of more than 30 days.

Related: Vitalik reveals a new section in the Ethereum roadmap: The Scourge

In a separate Twitter post one day earlier on Dec. 30, Buterin also made some comments on what he believes a “Good Crypto Future” might look like.

Buterin outlined several areas of crypto that would need to be fixed, including scaling, privacy, user experience and making user accounts more secure for average users than centralized services.

He also sees payments and decentralized finance (DeFi) being part of this future, and new organizational paradigms powered by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).