Blockchain Technology & Decentralization

11/6/2025

This post announces the open-sourcing of 'tokio-quiche,' a battle-tested asynchronous QUIC library that combines the 'quiche' QUIC implementation with the Rust Tokio async runtime. It powers critical services like Apple iCloud Private Relay and Cloudflare Warp, handling millions of HTTP/3 requests per second. The library aims to lower the barrier to entry for integrating QUIC and HTTP/3, promoting industry adoption of these new standards and privacy-preserving technologies. It utilizes an actor model for efficient asynchronous operations and provides abstractions for application protocols over QUIC, such as HTTP/3.

9/23/2025

This post introduces the x402 protocol, a new open standard for machine-to-machine payments on the web, developed in partnership with Coinbase. It details the protocol's flow, enabling programmatic access to resources without traditional accounts. Cloudflare is integrating x402 into its Agents SDK and MCP servers, and proposing a deferred payment scheme for agentic payments, exemplified by a 'pay per crawl' use case. A live demo, the x402 playground, showcases these capabilities.

5/14/2024

Cloudflare is transitioning its public IPFS gateway traffic to the Interplanetary Shipyard (Shipyard) team, the new independent entity formed by former IPFS core developers. This move aims to foster ecosystem collaboration, increase protocol resiliency, and ensure healthy stewardship and governance of IPFS. Cloudflare's public gateway hostnames (cloudflare-ipfs.com, cf-ipfs.com) will continue to work until August 14th, 2024, redirecting to ipfs.io or dweb.link, after which users must switch to the new hostnames. Cloudflare will continue to sponsor Shipyard's work as gateway stewards.

9/13/2022

This post announces the Cloudflare Ethereum Gateway's support for the Ethereum Merge and the Görli and Sepolia testnets. It details the gateway's architecture, which uses Cloudflare Workers and Load Balancers to interact with Ethereum nodes. The post also explains the differences between Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, and Proof of Authority consensus mechanisms, highlighting the environmental benefits of Proof of Stake and Cloudflare's role in supporting the Ethereum Merge by running an authority node for the Görli testnet. It provides instructions on how to use the testnet gateways and announces the deprecation of Rinkeby testnet support.

5/16/2022

This post announces Cloudflare's next series of experiments in web3, focusing on solving the scale and environmental challenges of blockchain technologies. It details the shift from energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) to more sustainable Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms. Cloudflare will launch and stake Ethereum validator nodes on its global network to research energy efficiency, consistency management, and network speed, contributing to the decentralization and security of the Ethereum network as it transitions to PoS with 'The Merge'.

5/16/2022

Introduced public Ethereum and IPFS gateways for all Cloudflare customers. Developed a new API for end-to-end managed hostname deployment and a new UI for zone-level dashboard integration. Announced upcoming testnet support. Highlighted the use of existing Cloudflare products (SSL for SaaS, Workers) for enhanced control over web3 gateway traffic, including rate limits, WAF rules, and custom logic. Provided examples of use cases for DeFi DAOs, NFT designers, and Dapp developers.

5/16/2022

This post introduces the integration of Cloudflare Pages with the IPFS network, enabling developers to serve their Pages sites on IPFS. It details the architecture involving an IPFS Index Proxy (using Workers and KV) and a Cloudflare-hosted IPFS node. The process of computing CIDs recursively for MerkleDAGs and using DNSLink for domain association is explained. The post also provides a step-by-step guide for users to deploy a Hugo site on Pages and serve it via IPFS.

5/16/2022

This post introduces the IPFS Gateway monitor, an observability tool developed to measure the performance and reliability of IPFS gateways. It details the tool's architecture, including its three main components: `ipfs-gw-measure`, `ipfs-gw-monitor`, and a Prometheus Exporter. The post presents measurement results for various scenarios, including immutable IPFS content retrieval (cached, uncached, unavailable), mutable IPNS name resolution (newly created, existing, republished, cached, unavailable), and DNSLink website access (as hostname and path, for both IPFS and IPNS). Key findings highlight the significant performance benefits of caching IPFS content and the relative speed advantage of DNSLink over IPNS for naming resources. The tool and its findings are intended to inform future improvements to Cloudflare's IPFS gateway service and the broader IPFS ecosystem.

10/13/2021

This post announces a major update to Cloudflare's open-source CIRCL cryptographic library, introducing enhanced support for pairing-based cryptography, elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), and quantum-resistant algorithms. It explains the mathematical underpinnings of pairings and their applications in cryptography, such as enabling efficient three-party Diffie-Hellman key exchange, identity-based encryption (IBE), zk-SNARKs, and verifiable randomness. The post highlights how these advancements build upon previous work in post-quantum experiments and key management, providing a foundational library for future innovations in decentralized systems and secure communication.

10/1/2021

This post announces the private beta of Cloudflare's Ethereum and IPFS gateways. It highlights the challenges of current Web3 infrastructure, such as the complexity of running nodes and the lack of reliability in existing gateways. Cloudflare aims to address these issues by leveraging its global network to provide performant and resilient access to Web3 services, including caching IPFS content at the edge to reduce latency. The post also frames these gateways as foundational tools for building the metaverse and decentralized finance applications.

10/1/2021

This post introduces Cloudflare's direct engagement with the Web3 ecosystem by announcing the Ethereum gateway and releasing an open-source example for building and deploying NFTs using Cloudflare Workers and Pages. It explains the core concepts of Web3, contrasting it with Web 2.0's walled gardens, and highlights how NFTs represent a shift towards data ownership and community incentives. The post details a practical implementation of an NFT project, showcasing the integration of smart contracts, metadata hosting with Workers, and IPFS for image storage, positioning Cloudflare as a foundational platform for the decentralized internet.

10/1/2021

This post introduces the concept of Web3 as the next paradigm for the internet, building upon the evolution from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. It explains the technical underpinnings of decentralized systems, using Bitcoin and blockchain as examples, and highlights how these technologies enable decentralized applications (Dapps). The post discusses the implications of decentralization for end-users, particularly in the context of hosting content and identity management. It also outlines how Cloudflare's existing and future services can support the development and adoption of Web3, focusing on areas like content hosting, privacy-preserving technologies, and the potential for decentralized identity and NFTs.

9/30/2021

This post introduces IPFS Safemode, an open-source filtering capability for IPFS nodes. It details how IPFS content retrieval works, the challenges of filtering in a P2P network due to content addressing (CIDs) and MerkleDAGs, and provides instructions on how to build and use the go-ipfs client with the safemode feature. The goal is to protect users from threats like phishing and ransomware within the IPFS ecosystem.

6/19/2019

This post introduces Cloudflare's Ethereum Gateway, a new capability that allows users to interact with the Ethereum network without installing additional software. It leverages Cloudflare's Distributed Web Gateway toolset, similar to the IPFS gateway, enabling custom hostnames for accessing the Ethereum network. The post details the functionality of Ethereum smart contracts, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and contrasts smart contracts with traditional contracts. It also discusses the development of smart contracts, the deterministic and distributed nature of the EVM, and the challenges of immutability and bug fixing, including the DAO incident and the use of kill switches. Standardized patterns like ERC-20 and ERC-721 are highlighted, with an example of CryptoKitties' smart contract structure. The Ethereum Gateway enables developers to integrate interactive elements into websites powered by Ethereum smart contracts and host decentralized websites with enhanced speed, security, and reliability.

6/19/2019

This post details improvements to Cloudflare's IPFS gateway, focusing on enhancing performance, usability, and security for decentralized web content. Key contributions include: implementing an automatic cache purge mechanism using Workers and DNS-over-HTTPS to address long cache TTL complaints; introducing beta testing for Orange-to-Orange (O2O) to allow layered Cloudflare settings for custom domains; establishing a subdomain-based gateway at cf-ipfs.com for enhanced security and immutability by interpreting subdomains as content hashes; enabling session affinity with a custom load balancer to direct requests from the same user to the same IPFS node, minimizing redundant connections; and configuring IPFS nodes for persistent connections with Pinata to improve request performance and reliability.

9/17/2018

This post details the implementation of end-to-end integrity for websites served via Cloudflare's IPFS gateway. It introduces the use of 'ipfs-sec' subdomains, requiring DNSSEC setup, and describes a modified go-ipfs gateway capable of providing cryptographic proofs of content honesty. The post explains how these proofs are generated for single files, directories (using Hash Array Mapped Tries - HAMT), and domain names via DNSSEC validation. A browser extension is also introduced to request and verify these proofs, providing a graceful upgrade path for users.

9/17/2018

Introduced Cloudflare's IPFS Gateway, hosted at cloudflare-ipfs.com, as the first product in the Distributed Web Gateway project. This gateway allows easy access to IPFS content without requiring local software installation. It also enables users to build websites hosted entirely on IPFS and access them via custom domain names with free SSL certificates. The post provides a primer on IPFS, explaining its peer-to-peer nature, content-addressing model, and security benefits over traditional web hosting.

9/17/2018

This post, 'Welcome to Crypto Week,' significantly expands the 'Blockchain Technology & Decentralization' thread by introducing a broader theme of using cryptography to build a more trustworthy internet. It announces support for several new technologies that leverage cryptography, including the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) gateway, DNSSEC, RPKI for BGP routing security, Onion Services, and Roughtime for secure time synchronization. While not directly about blockchain applications, these announcements are framed as foundational steps towards decentralization and trust, directly aligning with the thread's core themes of enabling new internet architectures and reducing reliance on centralized trust mechanisms.

9/15/2017

This post discusses the fundamental concepts of blockchain technology, including its role in solving the double-spend problem and enabling decentralized applications. It highlights the work of Protocol Labs on IPFS (a decentralized hypermedia protocol) and Tezos Foundation's approach to blockchain protocol upgrades and formal verification. The speakers discuss the potential of blockchain to reshape market structures, redefine digital ownership, and enable decentralized computing platforms. They also touch upon the challenges of user experience and the ongoing efforts to prevent recentralization, emphasizing the need for specific protocols to address different trust problems.