But it gives up decentralization (and privacy) and still requires that you have a server to connect to anyways (read: server to set up and manage). And on top

But it gives up decentralization (and privacy) and still requires that you have a server to connect to anyways (read: server to set up and manage). And on top of that, the behavior of irccloud from the standpoint of everyone else is identical to that of a bouncer like ZNC. It's yet another hack around the fact that clients don't exist in IRC unless they're online.