January 17, 2022. I woke up to the usual stream of news alerts, but this time something caught my eye: “My First Impressions of Web3” was blowing up on Hacker News with over 3,000 points and almost a thousand comments. Web3? Isn’t that the next big thing in decentralized networks? I couldn’t resist clicking.

As an engineer who has spent the better part of two decades building services, infrastructure, and tools for “Web2,” I was genuinely curious about this new frontier. The more I read, the more it seemed like a mix of promising technologies—blockchain, smart contracts, NFTs—and some… well, let’s call them untested concepts.

I decided to dive in. Over the next few weeks, I built my first Web3 application—a simple decentralized task management system with blockchain-based storage. The tech stack included Ethereum for the blockchain layer and a custom web frontend using JavaScript and React.

The Setup

I started by setting up an Ethereum node locally, which was a bit of a headache. Node.js isn’t exactly known for its simplicity in setup, especially when you’re dealing with a network protocol that requires a significant amount of configuration to get right. I spent hours tweaking the geth config until it finally sync’d with the Ethereum mainnet. At one point, I had to debug why my transactions weren’t being processed—turns out, I had a minor typo in my smart contract’s function call.

Smart Contracts and Gas Fees

Next came the smart contracts. Writing Solidity felt like learning an entirely new language. The syntax was a mix of C++ and JavaScript with some very specific quirks. After hours spent debugging, I finally got a basic contract working that could store and retrieve tasks from the blockchain. However, running these contracts on the mainnet came at a cost—gas fees.

The gas prices for Ethereum were skyrocketing due to network congestion. My simple application, which was supposed to be free, quickly became unaffordable. Every transaction, no matter how small, cost several dollars in fees. This was a real problem because I wanted users to be able to add tasks and manage their lists without worrying about paying.

Decentralized Identity

One of the features I implemented required user authentication using Ethereum wallets. The idea was that users could sign up with their wallet addresses and then access their task list securely. However, managing private keys and ensuring secure interactions between frontend and backend presented a significant challenge. Users had to manage their own keys, which meant there were no fallbacks or recovery options if they lost access.

Debugging the Real-World Issues

Debugging this application wasn’t just about fixing code; it was navigating through the complexities of deploying decentralized services in 2022. I spent countless hours figuring out why transactions weren’t being mined, how to handle gas pricing fluctuations, and even why some users couldn’t connect their wallets properly.

One particularly frustrating moment came when a user reported that they were unable to sign up with their wallet. After digging through logs and console errors, I realized it was due to a race condition in my React application where the wallet provider wasn’t initialized in time. The fix was simple: adding a small timeout before making API calls. But it took me hours of tracing and debugging to find that root cause.

Lessons Learned

Building this Web3 app taught me a lot about the current state of decentralized technologies. While the concept is exciting, there are significant hurdles to overcome—especially when it comes to usability, cost, and security. The tech stack I used was still in its infancy, with many rough edges that needed polishing.

In retrospect, my initial enthusiasm was tempered by the practical challenges I faced. But those struggles have given me a deeper appreciation for how far we’ve come as engineers and what lies ahead in this evolving landscape. Web3 might not be ready for prime time yet, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on as the ecosystem matures.

For now, I’m going to take a step back from my Web3 project and reassess whether it makes sense to revisit once some of these foundational issues are resolved. In the meantime, there’s always more code to debug in the traditional world…