On Friday, parts of the world woke up to a rather messy morning. Trains, Airlines, 911 emergency services came to a partial halt, banks and stock exchanges were hit and IT services were suspended across domains.
The reason? a global outage caused by CrowdStrike’s software malfunction affecting Microsoft and disrupting a wide range of services in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Europe and India. The issue was first reported by Microsoft users who claimed that the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is affecting Windows computers. Within an hour, the outage spread like wildfire, disrupting a wide range of services on global scale
While the world is still reeling from the outage and trying to calculate the estimated losses, the crypto world remained largely unaffected. This was primarily due to its decentralized nature- a revolutionary concept that is built fail-proof against such domino effects from outages.
In this article, we will discuss how switching over to decentralization could hold the key to avoid such scenarios in future. The future is digital and decentralization is our biggest shield.
Why Crypto Space Remained Unaffected by Global Outage?
Unlike traditional systems – such as that of Crowdstrike – that may depend on centralized softwares, the infrastructure of blockchain networks is designed to be resilient and self contained. It ensures that even if there are disruptions in other parts of the tech ecosystem, the core functionality of crypto networks can continue operating smoothly.
Let’s find out how this decentralized infrastructures and decentralization of web services could mitigate risk like this and save millions of dollars by providing an ideal alternative;
Decentralized Servers
Decentralized servers distribute data storing and processing across multiple nodes which act as servers. These nodes are interconnected and send or receive data back and forth continuously. If any of the multiple nodes goes down, the process of transferring data remains unaffected and that node could easily sync data once it comes online again.
Transparency
As the Crowdstrike’s technical fault was unidentified at first, the victims of this outage were confused to find out the exact problem. Decentralized infrastructures are more transparent on the other hand which helps to find out problems instantaneously.
Resilience
The functionality of decentralized networks enhances resilience, ensuring that security measures remain operational even if some nodes are compromised. By reducing reliance on centralized control points, decentralized systems can offer a more robust infrastructure that mitigates the risk of large-scale failures.
Security & Integrity
Decentralized systems also offer superior security and integrity compared to traditional web servers. All the data within these systems is often cryptographically secured and verified which makes it difficult for attackers to attempt security breaches. This inherent security could have protected critical systems from the cascading effects of the CrowdStrike malfunction.
Decentralized Apps as Alternative
Below are some of the popular decentralized applications and networks that could be used as alternatives to traditional web services or applications;
- Arweave
A decentralized storage network offering permanent data storage. It uses a blockchain-like structure called the “blockweave,” which ensures that data is stored permanently and can be retrieved reliably.
- IPFS
A peer-to-peer file storage and sharing network that decentralizes data storage across a global network. It uses content-addressed data to uniquely identify and locate files regardless of where they are stored.
- Ethereum
A decentralized platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) to run without downtime, fraud, or interference from a third party. It uses blockchain technology to ensure trust and security.
- Filecoin
Built on top of IPFS, Filecoin is a decentralized storage network that turns cloud storage into an algorithmic market. Users pay to store their files, and storage providers earn Filecoin by offering storage space.
- Holochain
A framework for building decentralized applications that do not require blockchain technology. It enables scalable, distributed apps with user autonomy built directly into their architecture.
- BitTorrent
Peer-to-peer file sharing protocol that distributes files across a network of computers. It breaks files into smaller pieces and shares them across many nodes, allowing for efficient data transfer.
Conclusion
The technology behind cryptocurrency and blockchain is fundamentally distributed across different servers, meaning that it does not rely on a single point of failure. This recent incident of Crowdstrike malfunction has caused massive blockage of services and the alternate use of decentralized applications – built on blockchain – could potentially prevent such happenings in the future.
