Microsoft and Tencent Join Forces with Infura for Blockchain Infrastructure

cryptonews.com:

Crypto infrastructure giant Infura is taking its first step toward decentralizing core components of its service following years of criticism that the company is a ‘single point of failure’ for Ethereum.

Over a dozen Web2 giants including Microsoft and Tencent have partnered with Infura’s parent company, Consensys, to help decentralize the network, which will help prevent outages for the firms leveraging its technology stack.

That includes the Consensys-owned Metamask wallet – the most popular Ethereum / Web3 wallet boasting over 30 million users.

“The cost and complexity involved with running a service like Infura was kind of limiting in terms of who we could partner with to serve this traffic,” said Andrew Breslin, senior product manager at Consensys, to CoinTelegraph. “Now there’s this huge flourishing ecosystem of Web3 infrastructure providers that can provide a service that’s complimentary to Infura.”

Infura first announced plans to decentralize its service over a year ago. In August 2023, it published a blog post explaining how its Decentralized Infura Network (DIN) would begin by federating its RPC layer by routing requests “based on a federated system of providers with distinct offerings.”

According to Breslin, DIN will offer “failover support” for Ethereum and its layer 2 Polygon network, meaning Infura can reroute traffic to its partners in the event of an outage.