CDN vs. dCDN: how does a decentralized Cloudflare alternative work

4 min readSep 19, 2022

Content delivery networks (CDNs) first appeared in the late 1990s. Since then, they have become an essential part of the web stack. Before CDNs existed, browsing the web was a painful experience. Subscribers and visitors skyrocketed once CDNs became available and widely integrated as the experience improved.

Over the years, these companies have added new features and expanded their network capacity, improving the overall experience for end-users. They grew in size and positioned the industry as one of the most valuable in the stack.

Cloudflare and Akamai, two of the most prominent players in the CDN industry, are worth 16.85 billion (NYSE: NET) and 15.08 billion (NASDAQ: AKAM). Fastly (NASDAQ: FSLY) is worth 1.39 billion and made its first debut on Nasdaq in 2019.

Edgio Inc (NASDAQ: EGIO) has reached a 323 million market cap, placing itself as a popular CDN in the quadrant. In Q1 2022, Google Cloud (Cloud CDN) generated 5.8 billion in revenue, and Amazon (CloudFront), grew 36% and reached 18.44 billion during the same period.

Thanks to the arrival of blockchain technology, a new type of CDN has also emerged: Media Network, the world’s first decentralized CDN (dCDN), powered and governed by the community.

Media Network not only delivers exceptional digital experiences for every user, regardless of location or device, but also accelerates websites, APIs, video, software, and apps. The Legacy dCDN works as a traditional CDN having all the benefits of decentralization, anonymity, and blockchain technology.

Nowadays, Media Network does not limit itself to the traditional dCDN model in which there is only a single provider, which is the Media Foundation. Rather, it is expanding into a more complex model: we are accelerating the development of a decentralized marketplace where web services of all types can be freely and peer-to-peer traded. The initial launch will be, as expected, in the CDN domain, given our expertise in this area.

DeFi protocols and DAOs are a perfect fit for Media Network. They can serve their websites and applications, avoiding Web2 centralized providers’ payment hassles and possible engineering attacks against administrators’ accounts.

What role will these corporations play in the future?

As the interest in decentralized protocols grows, we’re confident Media Network will continue to gain adoption and market share. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean centralized CDN providers are going out of business: companies and corporations can offer their CDN services through Media Network infrastructure, which is open, censorship-resistant, and permissionless.

CDN vs. dCDN: the three main technological differences

Single Point of Failure

Accounts from centralized providers can be easily compromised in multiple ways, such as bad OpSec or social engineering attacks — usually through customer support agents.

Bad things can happen if admin accounts are compromised, as we’ve seen in BadgerDAO and GoDaddy. Read more about this in our blog post “Web2 Problems for Web3 projects”.

With Media Network’s dCDN, developers’ can avoid all this by implementing a multi-signature (multi-sig) approach protecting CDN resources such as websites and APIs against bad actors or even internal attacks from team members.

Thanks to the arrival of blockchain technology, a new type of CDN has also emerged: Media Network, the world’s first decentralized CDN (dCDN), powered and governed by the community.

Personal / Corporate Data Leaks

Compromised accounts also include revealing personal and payment information (KYC). If these companies (or sometimes 3rd party KYC vendors) get hacked, all this data can easily be leaked and sold. This is especially dangerous for crypto-related people holding their private keys.

*Source: Nasdaq.* *https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/probably-the-largest-kyc-data-leak-in-history-demonstrates-the-importance-of-bitcoin*

This would never happen on Media Network as it’s a blockchain-based dCDN. The only requirement to access the service is a wallet with tokens. No “know your client” (KYC) or centralized services are needed.

Media Network Legacy dCDN works as a traditional CDN having all the benefits of decentralization, anonymity, and blockchain technology.

Centralized Control

Today, most projects and protocols trust centralized providers for their infrastructure. But coming to such a decision can be dangerous in the long term: governments and centralized providers can flag DeFi or DAO web applications as a “threat” to the traditional system and shut them down without prior notice.

Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xk78x/switter-down-cloudflare-banned-sex-workers-sesta-fosta

There is always a risk of potential de-platforming as the board of directors, the company, or court orders can take down any resource from these centralized networks.

About Media Network

Media Network is a blockchain agnostic, censorship-resistant, and community-powered dCDN enforced by smart contracts. We’ve created a decentralized bandwidth market that enables anyone to hire or provide resources from the network as the demand for last-mile content delivery shifts.

Try Media Network ✔️

Join our Discord 💬

Join our Telegram 📨

Check out our Docs 📖

Vote and Discuss Media DAO 🗳️

We are hiring — Send your resume: careers@media.foundation 💻