Infura's Layout and Thinking: How to Gradually Realize Decentralization

Infura is an important interface of the Ethernet network API. Developers can realize one-click access to Ethereum through Infura. Both Infura and MetaMask were launched by Ethereum infrastructure company ConsenSys. Since its development in 2016, Infura has become the backbone of the core infrastructure of Ethereum and IPFS.

At the same time, Infura is also the first synchronous node service provider for the upgrade of the Ethereum network from PoW to PoS. After the Ethereum upgrade, Infura continues to maintain the stability and security of the Ethereum network interface. Besides the Ethereum network, Infura is also actively deploying interfaces to other networks. On September 21, Infura announced that it will support the StarkNet network API, which further enriches Infura's ecological network and lays the foundation for the realization of a decentralized Web3.

Recently, Infura announced that it will soon launch a decentralized infrastructure network (Decentralized Infrastructure Network). Based on the decentralized protocol, developers will be able to more easily link dApps and the Ethereum network. The emergence of the decentralized protocol is expected to solve the centralization problem of Infura's previous products, which is an important step for Infura to gradually realize decentralization. Therefore, the decentralized protocol has aroused great attention from developers and the community, and it has also aroused heated discussions on Infura in the industry.

For some recent adjustments and upgrades of Infura, PANews interviewed E.G. Galano, the co-founder of Infura, to give an in-depth interpretation of the layout and thinking behind Infura. E.G. Galano was a former director of KEYPR, a Los Angeles hotel software startup, and an early employee of cloud gaming company Gaikai, which was acquired by Sony in 2012. He is now a co-founder and chief infrastructure development engineer at Infura.

In this interview, E.G. Galano disclosed from the perspective of Infura products that there are currently more than 400,000 registered developers in Infura, which are in normal operation 99.99% of the time, and can handle over 8.5 billion blockchain networks every day ask. It also details why the decentralized infrastructure network was launched, and why the decentralized network is an important addition to Infura, but its centralized services will continue to be available. Talking about whether there will be a community incentive plan, E.G. Galano said that there is no airdrop plan at present, but the data growth that is beneficial to our agreement and the method of improving the usage rate of the agreement will be taken into consideration.

The following are selected contents of this interview:

PANews: Although both Infura and MetaMask are operated by ConsenSys, but unlike MetaMask, which can be oriented to C-end users, Infura is mainly oriented to developers, and is relatively unfamiliar to many Web3 users. Let's briefly introduce Infura and its main products?

E.G. Galano: Infura provides developers with instant, scalable access to Web3 tools and infrastructure. The technology of Ethereum and other blockchain protocols is different from our Web2 Internet today. Accessing the Ethereum network does not require a "www" URL, unlike logging in to Facebook requires visiting facebook.com to log in. In fact, most public chains, including the Ethereum network, have built an API application programming interface, which can help programmers query data on the chain and record data requirements on the chain. However, implementing data interaction and storage on these APIs may be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Infura solves this problem by providing a port of the Ethereum API.

The unique advantage of Infura is that it provides developers with basic infrastructure. With Infura, developers can develop any application on Ethereum without running the back-end infrastructure. In addition, in addition to providing on-chain API services, Infura can also provide developers with distributed storage through IPFS APIs to meet developers' needs for transaction management, GAS processing, and NFT APIs.

PANews: On the recent EthBerlin hackers, Infura announced that it will launch the Decentralized Infrastructure Network (Decentralized Infrastructure Network) in the first half of 2023. Can you explain in detail which products are decentralized in the upcoming decentralized infrastructure network? How will they be decentralized?

E.G. Galano: Decentralized infrastructure network will complement existing Infura products and provide users with more choices to build corresponding applications. Decentralized infrastructure networks will focus on decentralizing the lower level infrastructure layers so that there is more interoperability between operators servicing these types of network requests.

Infura's goal is to gradually decentralize, and to remove the high barriers to entry into the ecosystem, we will initially prioritize the user level. The Infura ecosystem is ready and we have more quality infrastructure providers. We believe it is time to deliver on the promise of Web3, giving users the choice of a decentralized service with 100% uptime and no single point of failure.

Infura's centralized services will never disappear, but we provide developers with more choices to help developers achieve their building goals. At the same time, Infura's entire ecosystem will be strengthened. If the decentralized infrastructure network is successful, it will mean that Infura has fulfilled its promise of decentralization, openness, standards, and improved ecosystem interoperability. Of course, we will not do this by ourselves, but will call on more infrastructure operators to join the early access program and help us build test networks and protocols.

PANews: We learned that Infura was free in the early days, but since July 2019, Infura has upgraded its free products and started charging for some services. Current service prices range from $50 to $1000. As Infura's products continue to mature, will there be any adjustments to the charge in the future? Will Infura's Token be considered for charging in the future?

E.G. Galano: We are committed to technology-centric user growth and access strategies, providing optimal support for developers at different stages. Our core layer gives developers everything they need to get started, all for free.

Our paid plans will include finer details such as allowing for increased daily usage, customized service levels, and enhanced customer support and response times. Infura was born for developers. Our goal is to make developers' work easier and increase work efficiency exponentially.

PANews: On September 15, ETH underwent a comprehensive upgrade, realizing the transition from PoW to PoS. Infura is an important API interface of ETH, what impact does this upgrade have on Infura? What adjustments have been made accordingly?

E.G. Galano:Infura prepared detailed documents for developers before merging, held The Merge-related seminars every week before merging, synchronized the merged knowledge base for developers, etc., to ensure Be foolproof during the merge process.

From the perspective of Dapps, they should not notice that the merger happened, we mainly let stakers run their own nodes. In addition, we also provide a new API suite for the beacon chain to ensure the normal operation of the network before and after the merger.

After the Ethereum merger, Infura's Ethereum API works as smoothly as it did before the merger. We are constantly working to ensure that the Infura Ethereum API remains the best choice for developers building and scaling Dapps on the Ethereum network. In addition, Infura is also one of the first node service providers whose Synchronous Ethernet network is upgraded and ready.

PANews: Infura is the most commonly used tool for Ethereum developers, and the stability of the network is crucial. What optimization measures does Infura have for downtime? What should developers pay attention to when using Infura?

E.G. Galano: Outages are very rare and the motivation for Infura's decentralized infrastructure network is to allow all node providers to work together and strive for 100% uptime time.

Infura has been up and running 99.99% of the time since its inception. This is thanks to our robust infrastructure and policies to ensure we minimize the chance of downtime. We also distribute nodes in the Ethereum network in various regions to reduce any unforeseen risks.

At the same time, we also provide developers with a large number of documents and resources to optimize operating techniques and reduce downtime as much as possible.

PANews: Can you share with us further, how many customers and developers are currently using Infura? What representative cooperation projects can you share?

E.G. Galano:  Officially launched at DevCon2 in 2016, Infura is on a mission to make it easier for developers to build for Web3. As of now, Infura is used by more than 400,000 registered developers, and it is running normally 99.99% of the time, with more than 8.5 billion blockchain network requests sent successfully every day. In 2021, more than 26,300 ETHs have been traded through Infura APIs.

Infura's node infrastructure provides support for some leading projects, and our partners include Coinbase, Compound Protocol, MakerDAO, etc. You can read about how well-known projects including Aragon DAO, Uniswap, and PoolTogether used Infura to optimize their blockchain infrastructure by reading our collaboration stories.

PANews Note: Taking Uniswap as an example, Uniswap's team created two different linking methods for their application: one is to use Infura's wallet, and the other is to link any wallet of the user. Uniswap can use Infura to query relevant information when the user is not yet connected to the wallet, or not yet connected to the client, which is mainly achieved by creating another provider root for the web3-react library. First pair Infura with web3-react, and then the web3-react framework can directly connect to Infura and extract useful information for Uniswap, and then obtain the Token exchange rate, Token Relevant data such as balances and other information.

PANews: There are currently many infrastructure service providers in the Web3 field. In your opinion, what is the key to Infura's success?

E.G. Galano: The biggest highlight of Infura is that it can provide optimal performance and network reliability. Infura is firmly committed to network reliability, scalability, multi-chain and security sex.

Developers building Dapps on Infura depend on the reliability of the network, our architecture is proven to provide excellent uptime, we can achieve response times 10 times faster than other nodes. Our suite of Web3 APIs enables developers to connect to more than nine blockchains, and we're constantly adding support for new chains.

In addition to the blockchain API, Infura provides developers with decentralized storage through a variety of features and products. Building Dapps on Infura means you gain access to ConsenSys' product suite, which includes several industry-leading tools such as Truffle and MetaMask.

As a crypto-native company, Infura has rich experience in successfully helping developers build, launch and manage Web3 applications, and we will continue to work around this core.

PANews: Can you tell us about the roadmap for the Decentralized Infrastructure Network? What can we look forward to?

E.G. Galano: The vision of the decentralized infrastructure ecosystem is a decentralized and robust network of infrastructure providers capable of delivering high throughput and performance to the blockchain  ; The API provides the service and there is no single point of failure. This ensures that global users can seamlessly access the information and services they need without interruption and downtime as there is no single point of failure.

We are currently in the research and design phase, and actively recruiting protocol engineers and network participants to join the early access program. The expected release time of the decentralized infrastructure ecological network is in 2023, but the specific time is to be determined.

PANews: Regarding the launch of the Decentralized Infrastructure Network, what are the opportunities for ordinary users to participate? Will there be an airdrop plan?

E.G. Galano: There is a certain threshold for the use of blockchain, with or without Infura, browsing the blockchain network requires expertise in the field of Web3 infrastructure providers.

We think anyone with passion and patience for blockchain can learn how to use it. At Infura, we have a full suite of resources to get you started. However, at this stage most decentralized infrastructure networks are currently only open to existing Web3 infrastructure providers, but we want to facilitate the next evolution of blockchain infrastructure, which is community-owned and run zones. block network.

We are currently in the research and design stage, and there is no airdrop plan at this stage, but any method that is beneficial to our users, data growth that is beneficial to our protocol, and protocol usage will be taken into consideration.

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