This article comes fromCointelegraph & ethereum.org, original author: Felix NG

Odaily Translator |

Odaily Translator |

In fact, the full name of this new Ethereum domain name standard is "Web3 URL to EVM Call Message Translation", which was first proposed on February 14, 2022. The proposal was jointly proposed by ETHStorage founder Qi Zhou, Ethereum researchers Sam Wilson and Chao Pi. Writing, which describes a "Web3 domain name" as an "HTTP-style" URL that provides direct access to on-chain Web3 content, including decentralized application (DApps) frontends and NFTs, after more than a year of evaluation and voting , finally approved and finalized on mainnet.

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What problems can ERC-4804 solve?

“Right now, everything like Uniswap [...] you have to go through DNS, you have to go through GoDaddy[…], but all of these are centralized servers.”

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Quite frankly, the reason for this is that most users today still choose to access the Internet through the "Hypertext Transfer Protocol" better known as HTTP. When an Internet user clicks a link or types in a website address, a computer uses HTTP to ask another computer to retrieve information, such as a website or a picture. That is to say, reading data from Web3 usually relies on the conversion from Web2 agent to Web3 blockchain, but this "translation" work is basically done by agents such as dApp website/node service provider/etherscan, and users cannot control it.

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Workflow diagram of Web3 URL standard and Uniswap cooperation. Source: w 3 eth.io

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What exactly is the ERC-4804 standard?

• Next, let's take a deeper look at the specific content of this ERC-4804 standard. The format of the Web3 URL set by this standard is as follows:

• web3 Schema indicates the schema of the URL, and web3:// for short is w 3://.

• userinfo indicates which user is invoking the EVM, the "From" field in the EVM invocation message. If not specified, the protocol will use 0x 0 as the sender address.

• contractName indicates the contract to call, which is the "To" field in the EVM call message. If contractName is an address, i.e. 0x + 20 bytes data hex, then "To" will be the address. Otherwise, the name comes from the name service. In the second case, nsProviderSuffix will be the name service provider suffix, such as "eth" etc. The manner in which a name is translated from a name service to an address is discussed later in the EIP.

• chainid indicates which chain resolved the contractName and invoked the message. If not specified, the protocol will use the same chain as the name service provider, e.g. 1 for eth. The default chainid is 1 if no name service provider is available.

query is an optional component that contains a series of attribute-value pairs separated by "&".

Once the "To" address and chainid are determined, the ERC-4804 protocol will check the resolver mode of the contract by calling the "resolveMode" method. Currently, two resolution modes are supported, namely: manual mode and automatic mode:

2. Automatic mode: Automatic mode is the default resolution mode (also applicable when the "resolveMode" method in the target contract is not available). In automatic mode, if the path is empty, the protocol will call the target contract with empty data. Otherwise, the call data of the EVM message will be encoded and decoded using the standard Solidity contract ABI.

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What are the problems with the ERC-4804 standard?

In fact, as long as the content of the website is stored on the Ethereum blockchain or a compatible layer-2 protocol, it is theoretically possible to access the entire website through the Web3 domain name, but the cost of doing so is very high (at least for now).

At the ETHDenver conference last month, Qi Zhou, founder of ETHStorage, analyzed this issue:

“The key problem with ERC-4804 is that storage costs on Ethereum are very, very expensive on mainnet, e.g. 1 GB of on-chain data will cost about $10 million... for many Web2 applications and even many NFTs, this is Unacceptable, but a Layer 2 storage solution can help reduce some costs."

Considering the cost issue, ETHStorage spokesperson Anthurine Xiang suggested that the ERC-4804 URL standard can be used in some specific applications first and further explained:

"Not everything needs to be decentralized. If you have a decent Web2 business and don't have to worry too much about centralized censorship, you can choose not to use ERC-4804 for now."

Another concern is that the ERC-4804 standard could be exploited by sites at risk of censorship, such as Tornado Cash, meaning the standard could be exploited by bad actors to engage in illicit activities. Regarding this issue, Anthurine Xiang said frankly: "It's really hard to say, just like the original intention of Bitcoin was not born for evil, but in the beginning, some people did do some improper things, such as Silk Road, they have been using Bitcoin Bitcoin, but Bitcoin just gives people a decentralized option that they may not have. And the ERC-4804 Ethereum URL standard is the first of its kind on the blockchain”

In fact, the ERC-4804 standard is not the first decentralized web hosting solution. For example, the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) is also a solution for creating a network based on a decentralized approach. However, IPFS URLs can only link to static content and cannot modify or change. In contrast, ERC-4804 will allow for "data in motion", such as allowing people to leave likes and comments and interact with content on the website, and as a standard native to Ethereum, ERC-4804 is also expected to be more easily integrated with other blockchains. interact with the blockchain.