Security issues lead to the suspension of operations of the Ethereum Mist browser
Author | Qin Xiaofeng
Editor | Lu Xiaoming
Author | Qin XiaofengAlexandre Van de SandeEditor | Lu Xiaoming
On March 23, the founder and UI designer of the Ethereum Mist project
The article stated that the Mist project has now ceased development and operation, but the Mist team will continue to use the accumulated experience to help other DApp teams funded by the Ethereum Foundation to design products.
Alexandre says:
We faced some extreme security challenges that forced us to reevaluate our entire roadmap, and we also wondered if keeping the project alive would be a good use of the Ethereum Foundation's resources. To address these security challenges, the Mist team decided to stop developing the browser and pool its valuable components into other Ethereum projects.
Brilliant Mist
Mist is a team sponsored by the Ethereum Foundation, which was once the main project of the Ethereum Foundation. The wallet it developed was once the most famous wallet product on Ethereum, and the team developed browser products at the same time.
According to Mist's previous plan, its positioning is not just a wallet, but the future DAPP (application APP of smart contracts) market, similar to the Apple market, where you can have your account, browse, publish and trade Ethereum DAPP applications .
Alexandre also cited Mist's brilliant achievements:
Launched the token standard, the author of the ERC20 draft Fabian Vogelsteller is also the lead developer of Mist;
Released the first GUI wallet, enabling early users to interact with Ethereum and import pre-sale keys - interacting with the Ethereum blockchain was still done via the command line at the time;
Mist is the first wallet that allows easy deployment of smart contracts and creates a visual interface for interacting with smart contracts;
The first browser to support Swarm Hosted sites;
Created the Web3.js library, which is used by many applications to interact with ethereum via javascript;
In early prototypes, we designed dashboards, app stores, integrated code audit checks, personal tokens, DAOs, prediction markets, and many other things that are only now starting to emerge.
Why do you leave the stage lonely?
As a veteran Ethereum project, why did Mist come to where it is today?
The first problem with Mist is resource constraints caused by synchronizing nodes. Syncing a full node worked in the early days, but quickly became a chore that took hours. However Mist has been syncing full nodes, this problem not only caused Mist's resources to be consumed in this "pointless" process, but also cost them many early users, as users voted for applications using hosted remote nodes (INFURA) program. The so-called remote nodes are nodes that can seamlessly switch between different nodes.
Secondly, the growth of other excellent teams focusing on web3 makes Mist see no hope for the future. Alexandre believes that other browsers have more resources and are closer to providing web3 features:
Big players like Samsung, Opera, and Brave are now focusing on integrating web3 capabilities into their roadmaps. Other browser developers have more resources and are closer to native web3 features than we are.
The so-called "Web 3" is an all-encompassing term that describes a new generation of better Internet, an Internet where payments and money are digitally native, an Internet where "decentralized" applications compete with centralized applications, An Internet where users have more control over their identities and data. The three Web 3 trends are:
First, money will become a native feature of the internet.
Second, "decentralized" applications will provide users with new functionality.ElectronThird, users will have more control over their digital identities and data information.
However, according to Alexandre, the most important reason is security. Mist relies too much on open source software frameworks
, which means that usually the latest version of Mist runs an engine that is several months out of date, and the vulnerabilities in this version are also easy to be exploited and attacked by hackers.
