For years, blockchain developers have advocated for decentralizing the web to create more robust and shock-resistant systems. They argue that decentralized infrastructure offers superior redundancy by eliminating the internet’s reliance on a few monopolistic providers. While this argument is compelling, it often remained a niche topic as long as the web functioned correctly.

That changed on October 20, when a global Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage served as a stark reminder of the dangers of centralization. The incident impacted core services for hundreds of millions of users, from consumers to large businesses, with projected costs running into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The concept of a decentralized web is no longer just an interesting idea; it’s a critical consideration for the future of digital infrastructure.

A Single Point of Failure

Today’s web infrastructure depends heavily on a handful of giants like AWS, which controls over 30% of the global cloud market. This concentration means that when a vulnerability appears, the effects can be catastrophic. The October 20 outage, which stemmed from DNS issues in a single AWS region, had a global impact precisely because of Amazon’s market dominance.

While enterprises rely on AWS for its typical reliability and scalability, these same attributes make it a systemic liability. The issue isn’t the 99.9% of the time the service works, but the critical moments when small failures cascade into systemic shocks. In a blockchain-based infrastructure, where data is stored across numerous nodes instead of on centralized servers, such an incident would be virtually impossible. Peer-to-peer networks are designed to ensure no single party has unilateral control, creating inherent fault tolerance. If one node—or even a group of nodes—goes offline, the network continues to operate without interruption.

What a Distributed Web Looks Like

In practice, a decentralized web involves running the internet’s core resources on blockchain rails, including decentralized storage and computing. Web3 technologies can already deliver these services, from running AI workloads on decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) that supply GPU clusters to peer-to-peer protocols that provide massive data storage. These components are not only resistant to censorship but also to system shocks; if one part fails, the network remains intact and accessible.

It’s unrealistic to expect enterprises to abandon centralized providers overnight. A more likely path forward is a hybrid approach, where businesses combine traditional cloud services with blockchain-based alternatives for backend infrastructure. This strategy would give them a dependable failsafe. As Web3 proves its ability to meet global demand, adoption will likely accelerate.

Beyond Resiliency: Cost and Security

Greater resiliency is the primary selling point, as a decentralized network could have automatically rerouted traffic and avoided an outage like the one that crippled AWS. But the benefits don’t stop there. Transitioning to decentralized infrastructure can also lead to significant cost savings. By eliminating intermediary fees and expensive cloud dependencies, peer-to-peer alternatives can reduce spending by up to 90%.

Security is another major advantage. Decentralized infrastructure enhances security by splitting data into pieces and storing it across thousands of nodes. This distribution eliminates the central repositories that hackers typically target, making large-scale data breaches far more difficult to execute.

From Theory to Reality

The concept of a decentralized web is no longer just a theoretical vision. The latest generation of Web3 infrastructure is faster, cheaper, and more reliable than ever before, capable of competing with leading cloud providers. Crypto networks like Bitcoin have operated with nearly 100% uptime for over a decade, while DePIN has demonstrated that decentralized networks can meet the demanding needs of modern enterprises.

You don’t need a decentralized web until you do. The AWS outage was a crisis that exposed a deep-seated vulnerability in our digital world. The internet as we know it would grind to a halt if other major providers like Azure and Google Cloud experienced similar issues simultaneously. The world has woken up to the dangers of centralized infrastructure, and the responsibility now falls on the blockchain industry to demonstrate that there is a better, more resilient way to build the web.