Database flaw in bot detection tool crashes major websites, reigniting debate on centralized internet infrastructure
A widespread internet outage on Tuesday was traced back to a malfunction inside Cloudflare’s bot detection system, temporarily knocking out around 20% of global webpages — including several major crypto platforms. The company said a routine feature file used by its Bot Management System expanded beyond its intended limits, triggering a software failure that cascaded across its network.
Cloudflare clarified that early fears of a large-scale cyberattack proved unfounded. “There was no malicious activity — this was an internal error,” the company noted, adding that any disruption of this scale is “unacceptable” given its role in supporting a substantial part of the web’s infrastructure.
Cloudflare currently processes an estimated 20% of all internet traffic and supports roughly one-third of the world’s most visited sites. The outage briefly shut down access to Coinbase, Blockchain.com, Ledger, BitMEX, Toncoin, Arbiscan, DefiLlama, X, and even ChatGPT — underlining how much of the modern web depends on a handful of centralized providers.
Reliance on centralized infrastructure raises alarm
The incident sparked renewed concerns within the crypto community about the vulnerabilities created by centralized internet architecture. A spokesperson for EthStorage said the outage highlights “how centralized infrastructure will always create single points of failure.” The firm added that “a complete decentralized web stack is needed more than ever,” pointing to the repeated interruptions caused by both Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services in recent months.
Industry analysts echoed the sentiment, underscoring that the push for Web3 cannot rely on Web2 foundations that can collapse from a single technical fault.
Decentralization back in focus
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently warned that subtle compromises in infrastructure can erode trustlessness over time. In his “Trustless Manifesto,” Buterin argued that platforms give up decentralization the moment they integrate hosted nodes or centralized relayers. Each convenience adds a new chokepoint, he said, urging developers to prioritize resilience over rapid adoption.
The Cloudflare failure serves as another reminder that even the internet’s most stable pillars are not immune to internal fragility — and decentralization remains an unresolved challenge for the broader digital ecosystem.
Disclaimer
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