"We're at a critical point right now where distributed systems research has turned up some decent consensus algorithms," Not by a long shot. We have proof of

"We're at a critical point right now where distributed systems research has turned up some decent consensus algorithms," Not by a long shot. We have proof of work and systems that rely on all parties being known and identifiable, and not much else. Proof of work does not scale and the need to identify all parties requires at least some centralization. Beyond that, we also live in an age where the bulk of Internet traffic is video, and thanks to the decades-long effort of the RIAA and MPAA, most video distribution is centralized, so people demand high throughput; and the widespread use of TCP also requires low latency. Mesh networks are still not up to the task despite all the progress. You want to support mesh networks? Great! I'm with you, but let's not oversell the state of the art. Mesh networks are still experimental and without some centralized coordination (which is a de facto ISP) the performance and reliability really start to become questionable.