Crypto’s Decentralized Dream Crashes… Again 🚨

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What to know:

  • AWS had a “little hiccup” on Oct 20, 2025… a “little hiccup” that brought the internet to its knees 🤭
  • Crypto exchanges: “Sure, we’ll build our entire business on a single cloud provider! What’s the worst that could happen?” 💸
  • Coinbase, Infura, Robinhood: All down like it’s 2008. Base layer-2? More like Base layer-FAIL 🤡

On the morning of Oct. 20, 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a major outage that cascaded into widespread service disruptions across thousands of websites and applications. Because nothing says “innovation” like building a $3 trillion industry on a house of Jenga 🧩

Several large exchanges and crypto-service providers rely heavily on cloud infrastructure like AWS to power their trading platforms, wallets, analytics tools and matching engines. Classic. It’s like using a Tesla to tow a donkey cart 🐴

The crypto world felt the love… not. Coinbase, Infura, Robinhood-all took a nosedive 📉

Twitter/X became the new town crier. Ben Schiller (Miden comms guru) quipped: “If your blockchain is down because of AWS, you’re not decentralized-you’re just bad at buzzwords.” Burn 🔥

Maggie Love from SheFi added: “If we can’t connect to Ethereum when AWS implodes, we’re not decentralized. We’re just… expensive.” Ouch. But accurate 💅

This wasn’t even AWS’s first rodeo! April 2025 saw crypto’s entire backend throw a tantrum over another outage. Groundhog Day, much? 🐾

Infura-crypto’s favorite API middleman-cheerfully announced: “Our Ethereum, Polygon, and friends are down due to… AWS issues!” The circle of life, really 🔄

Front-end apps? Dead. Back-end nodes? Alive. The blockchain version of “The Wizard of Oz”-nothing behind the curtain but a guy yelling into a megaphone 🎬

Layer-2 networks: “We’re decentralized!” …except when they’re not. Polygon, Arbitrum, et al. exposed as just fancy websites with delusions of grandeur 🕳️

Chris Jenkins (Pocket Network) deadpanned: “The internet’s only as decentralized as its infrastructure.” Thanks, Captain Obvious. But he’s right. 😬

Sei Labs’ Jay Jog: “Base going down proves L2s are paper. Real decentralization is EVM L1s like Sei.” Translation: “Your crypto wallet’s basically a Venmo account with a tattoo.” 💳

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana kept chugging like they’re powered by hamsters on Red Bull. Meanwhile, L2s? More fragile than a gluten-free cookie 🍪

Industry takeaway: “Let’s decentralize backend infrastructure!” …again. April’s “crisis” prompted the same rallying cry. Six months later? Same bat time, same bat channel 🔄

Jenkins summed it up: “We built the internet to be run by millions, but now we’re all just renting AWS closet space.” The digital equivalent of living in your ex’s basement. 😬

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2025-10-22 01:01