> The major problem I think is NAT which is preventing direct hosting of content from home. Solve that and you most probably have solved decentralization. That

> The major problem I think is NAT which is preventing direct hosting of content from home. Solve that and you most probably have solved decentralization. That's mostly solved via dynamic DNS. But there's still a bigger issue: The ISP. It always comes down to the pipe. If the provider of the pipe doesn't want your traffic flowing over them, they can cancel your service, throttle you down, whatever. Also - at least for most people's home service ISP - the TOS usually is explicit about "no servers" - that's the rub. Some will look the other way about a server, if it isn't popular, or is only used privately - but whether they do or don't, they hold that axe right above your neck, and can bring it down any time they want. This even applies to business class pipes; ie, most home ISPs provide business service (some restrict it to non-residential addresses, but many or most understand SOHO and allow it - just pay the $$$) - but they can restrict what you do with that pipe (ie - no porn, etc). In the case of bigger pipes - like say you colo your own server at a major datacenter - even the guys providing the "big pipes" in theory could cut you (or the datacenter!) off if they wanted to, depending on the content flowing over their pipes. If we're ever going to do decentralized right - we need to fix that part. And that so far hasn't proved to be easy to do. The main problem has been that the pipes still are in a limbo of "are they a common carrier" - and how far does that extend. If they are a common carrier, then everyone should be able to flow over the pipes - but cable ISPs block that (and then you have the lovely ALEC based legislation in conservative areas that work to block public ISPs, city-owned broadband, or even other companies, like Google Fiber, from expanding against entrenched interests).