Controversial opinion incoming: decentralization isn't going to be a silver bullet that fundamentally solves anything. These services are still going to depend

Controversial opinion incoming: decentralization isn't going to be a silver bullet that fundamentally solves anything. These services are still going to depend on large amounts of expensive hardware and infrastructure that must exist in the real world, much like cryptocurrency. That hardware is still vulnerable to control and influence from strong corporate or state actors, so the decentralized stuff running on them is always going to be under influence as well. Even with strong crypto, methods to manipulate it either directly or through side channels will be developed. It's absolutely inevitable. Somebody controls the power plants generating and pricing all that electricity, somebody owns the internet backbone hardware, somebody can afford a much higher hashrate, somebody controls tech legistlation, and somebody is on the bleeding edge of cyber-warfare with a DOD budget. Sure, some of the hardware will be in private ownership, but not the majority. If it ever becomes widespread enough to be of great significance, traditional power structures will absolutely contrive a way to seize it. What this all really does in the end is create a technical caste system and obfuscation of ownership. People fortunate enough to have access and be up to speed on the latest technology (or hire people who are) will reap the rewards of decentralized systems which still belong to authoritarian actors, yet it will be extremely difficult to prove that ownership--especially to laymen. It will always have a nice hazy deniability, and it will be almost impossible to hold anyone accountable for their actions, or prevent or even identify exploitation. This is absolutely the future of the web. Perpetual and stealthy non-neutral manipulation by the technically advanced and financially powerful is here to stay. I think that as engineers our tunnel vision and intellectual hubris have given us a false sense of security as we developed this hideous system, because we thought it was some kind of purely digital realm where we have real control and real comprehension of what we are doing. But nothing is purely digital. Everything is built on top of the real, analogue world where strong actors have already divvied up and taken ownership of everything.