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Analysis of the reasons behind Facebook's major crash, sparking heated discussions among Web3.0 advocates and various sarcastic comments on Twitter.

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Analysis of the reasons behind Facebook

At around 11:30 PM yesterday evening, Facebook experienced an unexpected outage, causing users to be unable to access its services. This also affected other Facebook-owned apps such as Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, all of which were down until gradually coming back online around 5 AM this morning. What exactly caused this catastrophic event? Many blockchain enthusiasts have also expressed their opinions and criticisms on the matter.

Reasons for Facebook Outage

According to a report by global CDN service provider Cloudflare, following the outage of Facebook, Cloudflare discovered that its 1.1.1.1 public DNS domain name system server was unable to resolve facebook.com and various related domain names of other app services.

The function of a DNS server is to translate a web address into a physical IP location, allowing users to connect to the correct website to access services. Domain resolution failure can be attributed to two main reasons: either Cloudflare's DNS server has issues, or Facebook's connection to the network is disrupted for some reason, preventing users from accessing the website. After an in-depth investigation by Cloudflare, it was found that the latter was the cause.

BGP Border Gateway Protocol and AS Autonomous System

To understand why Facebook users were unable to access the platform, it is necessary to understand BGP and AS. BGP is the mechanism by which AS on the internet exchange routes. Routes refer to the behavior of transmitting information from a source address to a destination address through interconnected networks. AS can be thought of as "large entities on the internet," and BGP is the "protocol they collectively adhere to." Through the routes established by BGP, large AS can determine the shortest path, quickly sending packets to another AS, thereby improving information transmission efficiency.

In this incident, Cloudflare found that Facebook's AS withdrew routing information from BGP thousands of times in a short period, ultimately leading to a situation where no one could find Facebook's physical IP, causing the major outage.

The reason for Facebook's error, resulting in all its services disappearing from the internet, remains unclear. However, interesting data shows a significant increase in queries for other social media platforms when Facebook went down.

Opinions and Criticisms Online

When faced with the outage issue, Facebook had to rely on its competitor, Twitter, to make announcements, which appeared ironic.

Additionally, digital rights advocacy group Access Now stated on Twitter:

While this may seem DNS-related, it reminds us why we need a more open, decentralized, and inclusive internet. Many have experienced the catastrophic impact of the internet's failure.

According to Decrypt's report, Matthew Gould, founder of Unstoppable Domains, also mentioned:

Today's widespread collapse of apps like Facebook and Instagram highlights the problem with centralization. On decentralized networks or Web 3.0, users can more easily port their data and contacts to other services. They no longer need to rely on Facebook to connect with friends and family or use their favorite apps.

These statements reflect many people seizing the opportunity to advocate for the advantages of decentralized networks and Web 3.0, believing that Facebook's centralized (or Web 2.0) system is no longer sustainable and will eventually be phased out by the times.

Twitter as the Savior

As evident from the data, many users who typically use Facebook flocked to Twitter due to the outage. A series of memes surfaced online, mocking the outage event and highlighting the reliability of Twitter.

However, recent policies by Twitter, such as enabling tipping with Bitcoin and allowing users to use NFTs from Ethereum as their profile pictures, indicate Twitter's adaptation to current trends and its broad involvement in the blockchain industry.

This incident also led to a sharp decline in Facebook's stock price. According to AssetDash data, Bitcoin's market value has surpassed that of Facebook, placing it in sixth position.