Author: Xiang｜W3.Hitchhiker
Revision: Evelyn｜W3.Hitchhiker
4844 and 4488 have been promoted many times in the market. Apart from the huge publicity effect, EIP-4804 is also an EIP that is worthy of attention.
Simply put, EIP-4804 provides Web2 users with a simple way to directly access Web3 content. Currently, Web3 reading data usually relies on the translation of Web2 proxy to Web3 blockchain. However, the translation is mostly completed by dApp websites/node service providers/etherscan and other proxies, which are not controlled by users.
As shown in the figure below, ERC-4804 provides the standard specification of Web3 URL.
The problems that blockchain and web3 encounter and need to solve are not just about expansion. Some time ago, when the Tornado incident occurred, we found that almost all the Web2 proxy services related to it were blocked. Tornado's official website, official documentation Gitbook, code platform Github library, RPC node service providers Infura, Alchemy and other project front-ends all restricted Tornado users from accessing.
But this does not mean that Tornado cannot be used. In a previous article, I introduced the IPFS protocol. We can still access and use it normally through the IPFS page, but there are some problems, such as: where to get the IPFS link? Every time the front-end code is updated, the IPFS link must be updated; are these IPFS links released by the project party? Therefore, if you want to really get rid of the web2 proxy, users have to use a browser that has built-in support for IPFS nodes and can parse the IPFS protocol to access it.
Is it possible to completely get rid of the web2 proxy platform under the existing model, so that the way we access the Web3 network is the same as the way we interact with the blockchain?
EIP-4804 + decentralized storage (EthStroage) makes this possible. By avoiding the centralized Web2 proxy, users can directly obtain all the information of the platform, such as the front end and documents, through the RPC service. In addition, EIP-4804 is compatible with the HTTP-URL standard to the maximum extent, and the domain name is still human-readable, and the ENS domain name can also be used.
for example:
Suppose Uniswap is blocked, from the Uniswap official website, the Gitbook of Uniswap official documents, the Github library of the Uniswap code platform, to the RPC node service provider Infra, etc., all are blocked.
With EIP-4804 + Ethstroage, the above problems can be avoided.
To this end, the Uni project only needs to do the following: First, the Uni project registers its own ENS domain name (uniswap.eth), and then the Uni project can deploy a Web Handler contract on the chain, bind the contract to its own ENS domain name, upload the corresponding front-end code to the ethstorage node, and update the contract. In this way, the Uni front-end page is deployed successfully, and the ethstorage here supports dynamic storage (like FIL, AR only supports static storage).
For Uni users, they do not have any perception and do not need to make any changes. They only need to connect to the decentralized RPC (support access to storage) through the wallet, and enter web3://uniswap.eth in the domain name. EIP-4804 will automatically translate the user request to Ethereum's RPC call, and then they can access and parse the uni front-end page. During the whole process, there is no need to worry about the front-end being blocked by an authority, nor do you need to worry about whether the front-end is released by the project party (only the address holding the ENS domain name (uniswap.eth) has the authority to update the front-end code, including documents, etc.). The whole process does not require the participation of the web2 proxy platform (front-end website service provider/centralized RPC service node), and also avoids the possibility of the proxy platform doing evil.
This is one direction for EIP-4804 to solve the web2 proxy, to realize a decentralized front-end for the Ethereum ecosystem, but its application scenarios may not be limited to front-end web pages. Dynamic NFT is also very suitable for combining with it in the future. EIP-4804 + dynamic NFT + dynamic storage may also derive some new directions of ecological applications.
