Why Would I Choose To Run My Application On Ethereum / Classic Instead Of The World Wide Web?

Benefits Over The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is one of the most successful software systems in history. It is a mature and widely supported platform for nearly all applications. Therefore, it might not seem like Ethereum Classic could offer a compelling alternative. Actually, it offers many benefits not provided by the World Wide Web:

• Security - The World Wide Web does not have strong security by default. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are optional. There are also no builtin safeguards to prevent tampering with server data. Iran has successfully carried out man in the middle attacks against Google. China has successfully carried out man in the middle attacks against Github. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic provides much security by default. There are no insecure communications with remote computers. Also, it is virtually impossible to modify programs and data on the blockchain. (It is still possible to create insecure Ethereum Classic applications.)

• Censorship Resistance - The World Wide Web does not have strong censorship resistance by default. Megaupload was a file storage website that was successfully taken down by the United States government. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic applications are copied to several computers. Censoring these applications would require attacking every computer on the network!

• Reliability - The World Wide Web does not have strong reliability guarantees by default. Web servers are vulnerable to hardware failures. Many web services have suffered downtime due to Amazon Web Services outages. On the other hand, because Ethereum Classic applications are copied to several computers, downtime can only happen when every computer on the network fails!

• Public - Although web pages are public, web server operations are not by default. Wells Fargo intentionally opened over one million improper accounts for customers. Many were charged fees for these accounts. If their actions were public, this could have been discovered sooner or even prevented. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic is always auditable by anyone anytime!

• Trustless - The World Wide Web requires trust in the administrators of websites to not do anything malicious. On the other hand, Ethereum Classic does not require trust in anyone!

Conclusion

Ethereum Classic provides many advantages not possible, or not provided by default, with the World Wide Web. You may want to take it for a test drive to see for yourself.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong) for funding this effort.

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International License.