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IMHO there is a simple solution that will likely lead to mass adoption of decentralized services: create a wi-fi router that lets home users install server apps
by hathawsh 9y ago
IMHO there is a simple solution that will likely lead to mass adoption of decentralized services: create a wi-fi router that lets home users install server apps on the router. Make it easy for users to install server apps and create an open marketplace for server apps.
Historically, decentralized services don't get mass adoption because computers or mobile devices are off or unavailable most of the time. They are also behind NAT.
The wireless router is in a unique position. It's always on, it's a first-class citizen on the Internet, it's not very expensive, its ownership is clear and simple, and it often has significant unused computing power. It looks like a major, unexploited opportunity to me.
I'm waiting for some company to take advantage of this opportunity. Think of what this could do for decentralized social networking, file storage, currency exchange, etc. It's quite easy to think of possible server apps; just think of any centralized service and consider how valuable it would be to decentralize it.
I would do it myself if I weren't already involved in trying to build a possibly huge business or two. :-)
- omazurov 9y agoI think IoT beats wireless routers and I think there is more than one company already trying to take advantage of that opportunity.
- hathawsh 9y agoIoT devices are typically behind NAT firewalls and thus not first-class Internet devices, making it difficult for IoT devices to connect directly to each other (rather than through a third party). I'm aware of workarounds, but I haven't yet seen evidence that the workarounds are reliable. Connectivity must be approximately as reliable as the user's Internet connection in order to gain mass adoption.
- carussell 9y agoI used to think so, too. Over the winter, though, someone here on HN pointed me towards Beaker Browser and Dat. (For a completely unrelated problem. Turns out, it works pretty well as a solution to this problem, too.) It seems likelier that a P2P web based on Dat (or something like it) will gain adoption in the large before getting embedded devices manufacturers (a) to willingly take on the role required here, and (b) to get it right, which are each big asks on their own. There's also the hidden third problem (c): getting the masses to actually go out and upgrade a piece of hardware that would actually support this kind of thing. It's a lot easier to just download a new browser (or an update for their current browser) and sign up for a service that will act as an always-on peer on your behalf—for exactly the same reason that the centralization of the Web happened in the first place.
- hathawsh 9y agoThanks for the pointer! Dat looks very powerful. I will study more.