4 ms·

You are right that UX was a problem for P2P systems, but there is no technical reason that the UX problems could not have been solved had serious effort been de

You are right that UX was a problem for P2P systems, but there is no technical reason that the UX problems could not have been solved had serious effort been devoted to it. The problem is that the technology had become de-legitimized and it was too risky to work on. Imagine if iTunes had natively supported P2P downloads with all of Apple's UX expertise going into it -- do you doubt that Apple could have designed a good P2P UI? Blockchain is indeed another P2P application, but as you say, it is questionable as far as mainstream adoption goes (though it is likely to see use in non-consumer, business-to-business applications where the hard technical problem of identity is easier to manage). The thing about P2P filesharing is that it was very popular and was starting to enter the mainstream, and we are sitting here arguing about whether or not the UX problems were a cause or effort. Blockchain also came after years of stagnation and missed opportunities in P2P because the first killer app was snuffed out.

Apocryphon 8y ago
iTunes is not a particularly great example of Apple providing excellent UX- but that aside, I doubt that they deigned to pursue P2P because of “delegitimization” or fear of having to deal with regulation. Did these P2P services even offer any major consumer benefits aside from convenient ways to pirate media? Because that’s a value proposition that could return as the proliferation of streaming subscriptions (having to juggle multiple accounts at once to gain access to desired content) may cause some to simply kiss goodbye to streaming and return to the Pirate Bay. But even with legal challenges taking out the Groksters and the like, I fail to see how P2P for other purposes were damaged. They could’ve simply lost out because of lack of interest from both consumers (poor UX, no value add) and tech companies (saw no interest in pursuing such tech).

Apocryphon 8y ago

iTunes is not a particularly great example of Apple providing excellent UX- but that aside, I doubt that they deigned to pursue P2P because of “delegitimization” or fear of having to deal with regulation. Did these P2P services even offer any major consumer benefits aside from convenient ways to pirate media? Because that’s a value proposition that could return as the proliferation of streaming subscriptions (having to juggle multiple accounts at once to gain access to desired content) may cause some to simply kiss goodbye to streaming and return to the Pirate Bay. But even with legal challenges taking out the Groksters and the like, I fail to see how P2P for other purposes were damaged. They could’ve simply lost out because of lack of interest from both consumers (poor UX, no value add) and tech companies (saw no interest in pursuing such tech).