So Web3.js got the axe on March 5th, 2025. ChainSafe published their sunset announcement in January, gave everyone two months to migrate, and then archived the entire repository. If you're reading this with Web3.js still running in production, you missed the deadline. Welcome to legacy hell.
The final release was v4.16.0 back in December 2024. No more security patches, no Node.js compatibility updates, no bug fixes. Your dependencies are frozen in time while the rest of the JavaScript ecosystem moves forward.
How Fucked Are You Actually?
Let's be honest about your situation. Check your package.json right now:
grep -r \"web3\" package*.json node_modules/*/package.json | grep -v \"web3-\"
If that command shows Web3.js anywhere, you're running dead code. The npm package still exists because ChainSafe transferred ownership to the Ethereum Foundation before sunsetting, but it's essentially a museum piece. No updates, ever.
Immediate risks you're facing:
Node.js compatibility bombs: Web3.js v4.16.0 works with Node 14-20. Node 21+ will start breaking things in weird ways. OpenSSL changes, crypto API updates, Buffer polyfill conflicts - all the fun stuff that kills apps at 3am.
Security vulnerability accumulation: No patches means vulnerabilities pile up. Any CVE found in Web3.js dependencies after March 2025 just sits there, unpatched, in your production app. Supply chain attacks targeting Web3 libraries are increasing - remember the Solana Web3.js backdoor in December 2024?
Dependency conflicts from hell: Every other package in your stack keeps updating. Web3.js stays frozen. Eventually, some transitive dependency will conflict and your build will break. Could be tomorrow, could be next month, but it will happen.
Team knowledge decay: New developers joining your team will look at Web3.js code like it's written in Latin. No Stack Overflow answers for new problems, no active community, just you and some archived documentation.
The npm Package Situation
The Web3.js npm package shows 2.5 million weekly downloads as of August 2025. That's 2.5 million weekly installations of dead software. Most are probably CI/CD systems and existing projects, but some poor bastards are still adding it to new projects.
ChainSafe kept the packages published to avoid breaking existing installs, but marked them as deprecated. You'll see warnings during npm install if you're paying attention:
npm WARN deprecated web3@4.16.0: Web3.js has been sunset. Please migrate to Ethers.js or Viem.
Ignore that warning at your own peril.
What \"Support on Best Effort Basis\" Actually Means
ChainSafe promised migration support through their Discord and GitHub issues until the sunset date. That's March 2025. It's now August 2025. You missed the window.
The Web3.js Discord channel still exists but expect responses like "Web3.js is deprecated, please migrate to alternatives." The GitHub issues are read-only now that the repo is archived. You're on your own.
Security Reality Check
Web3.js dependencies include old versions of everything - cryptographic libraries, HTTP clients, utility packages. The Solana Web3.js supply chain attack in December 2024 showed exactly how these attacks work. Compromised packages, malicious updates, private key theft.
Your Web3.js app won't get those malicious updates, which sounds good until you realize it also won't get legitimate security fixes. You're frozen in a specific moment in time with all the vulnerabilities that existed in December 2024.
Run a security audit on your dependencies:
npm audit
## Or if you're using yarn
yarn audit
Every "high" or "critical" vulnerability related to Web3.js will stay there forever. No fixes coming. Ever.
Bundle Size and Performance Hell
Web3.js v4 was better than the v1 disaster, but still weighs in around 240KB gzipped. That's massive for a utility library. Compare to Viem at 65KB or Ethers.js v6 at 88KB.
Your users are loading 180KB of extra JavaScript for no reason. On mobile connections, that's 2-3 seconds of loading time. Your bounce rate is suffering because you're too stubborn to migrate.
The Production App Triage
Time for brutal honesty. How critical is your Web3.js usage?
Level 1: Barely using it - You read some contract balances, maybe send basic transactions. Migration to Ethers.js should take 2-4 hours of actual work. Stop making excuses and just do it this weekend.
Level 2: Heavy integration - Contract interactions, event listening, custom providers, ABI handling. You're looking at 2-4 weeks of migration work, plus testing, plus dealing with the inevitable edge cases that break.
Level 3: Deep coupling - You extended Web3.js classes, wrote custom plugins, or built core business logic around Web3.js internals. You're properly fucked. Plan for 2-3 months of refactoring.
Level 4: Financial protocols - If your app handles real money and you're still on Web3.js, what the hell are you doing? Drop everything and migrate immediately. The security risk alone should have triggered an emergency migration months ago.
Node.js Version Hell
Web3.js v4.16.0 officially supports Node.js 14-20. Here's what breaks with newer versions:
Node 21+: Buffer polyfills start failing in weird ways. Your browser builds might work, but server-side code will throw random ReferenceError: Buffer is not defined errors. Buffer polyfill issues were never fully resolved.
Node 22+: OpenSSL changes break some cryptographic operations. Gas estimation might randomly fail with crypto: unsupported algorithm errors.
Node 24+ (coming late 2025): Expect major breaking changes in crypto and networking APIs. Web3.js will not be updated to handle these changes.
The Migration Path You Should Have Taken Six Months Ago
If you're just realizing you need to migrate, here's the brutal timeline:
Week 1: Audit your Web3.js usage. Count contract interactions, event listeners, utility function calls. Create a spreadsheet because you'll forget half of them.
Week 2: Choose your replacement. Ethers.js v6 for boring stability, Viem if you want to suffer now to avoid suffering later. Don't overthink it.
Weeks 3-6: Migration hell. Everything that could break will break. Error handling changes, provider initialization is different, event filtering works differently. Budget extra time because the migration guides lie about complexity.
Weeks 7-8: Testing and fixing the shit that breaks in production but not in development. Because of course it does.
Emergency Mitigation Strategies
If you can't migrate immediately (maybe you're in a feature freeze or your team is swamped), here's how to reduce the immediate risks:
Pin your exact dependency versions:
{
\"dependencies\": {
\"web3\": \"4.16.0\",
\"web3-utils\": \"4.3.1\"
},
\"resolutions\": {
\"web3/**/node-fetch\": \"2.6.7\"
}
}
Add automated dependency monitoring:
npm install --save-dev @snyk/cli
## Check for vulnerabilities weekly
npx snyk test
Implement fallback providers:
const providers = [
process.env.PRIMARY_RPC,
process.env.BACKUP_RPC,
'https://ethereum.publicnode.com' // Free backup
]
// Rotate providers if one fails
let currentProvider = 0
const getProvider = () => {
// Initialize Web3 with fallback logic
}
Monitor for obvious failures:
// Add health checks for critical functions
const healthCheck = async () => {
try {
await web3.eth.getBlockNumber()
return { status: 'ok', timestamp: Date.now() }
} catch (error) {
// Alert your team when Web3.js starts failing
console.error('Web3.js health check failed:', error)
return { status: 'error', error: error.message }
}
}
The Nuclear Option: Gradual Migration
Can't afford a complete rewrite? Migrate piece by piece. Install Ethers.js alongside Web3.js and gradually replace functionality:
// Keep using Web3.js for existing features
const web3 = new Web3(provider)
// Use Ethers for new features
const ethersProvider = new ethers.JsonRpcProvider(rpcUrl)
// Gradually replace Web3.js calls with Ethers equivalents
This approach doubles your bundle size temporarily and creates two different coding patterns in your app, but it's better than staying on Web3.js forever.
What Happens If You Do Nothing?
Let's fast-forward 12 months. It's August 2026, and you're still running Web3.js v4.16.0 in production:
- Your build randomly breaks when Node.js 24 LTS releases with breaking crypto API changes
- Security scanners flag your app for running deprecated packages with known vulnerabilities
- New team members refuse to work on "that legacy dApp with the ancient Web3 library"
- Users complain about slow loading times because your bundle is 200KB bigger than competitors
- You spend more time fighting your library than building features
Don't be that team. The migration pain is real, but it's better to suffer for a month now than to suffer forever.
The Bottom Line
Web3.js served the ecosystem well for seven years, but it's over. ChainSafe made the right call - the library had accumulated too much technical debt and the modern alternatives are genuinely better.
If your app handles user funds or has strict security requirements, treat this as a P0 issue. If you're building internal tools or prototypes, you can probably limp along for a few more months. But eventually, everybody migrates.
The question isn't whether you'll migrate from Web3.js. The question is whether you'll do it on your terms or when something breaks at 3am on a Friday.
