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Update src/_blog/2023-ipfs-companion-MV3-update.md

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Co-authored-by: Marcin Rataj <lidel@lidel.org>
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Nishant Arora
2023-11-29 01:02:08 -07:00
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@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ While we are making sure that the extension continues to work on Firefox without
## What's the fuss around `declarativeNetRequest` API?
When MV3 changes got announced, there was [uproar in the community](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/chromes-new-ad-blocker-limiting-extension-platform-will-launch-in-2023/) that the `webRequest` API was going to be deprecated and replaced by `declarativeNetRequest`. The main reason for this was that the `declarativeNetRequest` API is not as powerful as the `webRequest` API, and it doesn't allow extensions to block requests. Instead, it allows the extension to add and update a limited number of rules per-extension. This was promoted as a way to improve performance and privacy, as the browser would be able to block requests without having to load the extension's code. However, this also meant that the extension would not be able to intercept the requests, and would have to rely on the browser to do so that too for a very limited number of domains.
When MV3 changes got announced, there was [uproar in the community](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/09/chromes-new-ad-blocker-limiting-extension-platform-will-launch-in-2023/) that the blocking `webRequest` API used by Adblocking extensions was going to be deprecated and replaced by `declarativeNetRequest`. The main reason for this was that the `declarativeNetRequest` API is not as powerful as the `webRequest` API, and it doesn't allow extensions to block requests. Instead, it allows the extension to add and update a limited number of rules per-extension. This was promoted as a way to improve performance and privacy, as the browser would be able to block requests without having to load the extension's code. However, this also meant that the extension would not be able to intercept the requests, and would have to rely on the browser to do so that too for a very limited number of rules per website.
In practice, there are no privacy or security benefits of `declarativeNetRequest`, and the old behaviour (required by IPFS Companion) can be reimplemented with extra steps. Even though the MV3 extension cannot intercept and block a request in-flight, it can still observe all HTTP requests without blocking them, and work-around rule count limit by adding or updating dynamic rules on the fly. When a matching request is found by read-only observer, extension can programmatically reload document to force fresh page load against updated dynamic rules. In other words, the MV3 version of Companion extension can emulate the behaviour from MV2: