Tim Kravchunovsky, founder and CEO of the decentralized telecommunications network Chirp, says both tech giants and blockchain projects have lessons to learn from last major Microsoft outage
He calls for traditional technology companies and Web3 projects to work together to create a world where the risk of such failure is brought to a minimum. Tim Kravchunovsky, founder and CEO of decentralized telecommunications network Chirp, says: “The Microsoft outage that left 8.5 million computers with the dreaded “blue screen of death” is a stark reality check for us all. With thousands of flights canceled, and hospitals and banks across the globe brought to a standstill, this shows just how reliant on technology our world really is. As such, the impact when something goes wrong – even a single bug in an update – is catastrophic.
Blockchain is no stranger to bugs affecting the functionality of a network. A few years ago, Ethereum suffered a bug that took out 8% of its validator clients, while Solana went through a period of constant outages. However, the Web3 community has already put a lot of time and effort into finding solutions, and perhaps Microsoft and CrowdStrike could learn a lesson here.
For one thing, blockchain updates are always rigorously tested on a testnet before deploying, while reports suggest the CrowdStrike update didn’t undergo the necessary quality checks before being pushed live. Ethereum has also focused on increasing validator client diversity and decentralization to reduce its heavy reliance on a single entity, and therefore the risk of a major outage in the future. A more decentralized approach to development, akin to blockchain, could help major corporations like Microsoft minimize the impact of such incidents.
What’s clear is that the tech giants that are running our entire globe must step up their efforts and improve their infrastructure. The level of carelessness that this outage demonstrates is entirely unacceptable in a world that is ruled by technology. What if, next time, a single bug brings down our entire financial system? It’s time for traditional companies and decentralized projects to band together to create more reliable networks fit for a digital future. We have lessons to learn from each other, but we must do this quickly.”
Above, Tim Kravchunovsky, founder and CEO, Chirp
