> The decentralised web does still work, but I feel it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t how most people use the web. This is what many people, author

> The decentralised web does still work, but I feel it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t how most people use the web. This is what many people, author included, get wrong. 'Success' needs another defenition with decentralization, (and OpenSource, but that's not what this article is about) than with proprietary apps. The absolute amount of users of Bitcoin, matrix, email, IPFS, mastodon and so on, is growing. In a staggering rate. The relative amounts are poor, but that really does not make it a failure. But even if numbers dwindle, they hardly matter for making it a success. IRC is a massive success, because it allowed thousands of people to communicate for decades. And it paved the way for how we all work today. It's not an accident that Slack i see often called 'IRC done right', or so. Decentralized apps are free by their nature, hard to monetize, the author made this central to her piece. But that means you need another defenition of success! Bitcoin is a success the moment one single unbanked person can use it to store wealth or pay a friend. XMPP is a success the moment just two people can use it to communicate. Email is a success as long as one person runs it's own server that can deliver mail. Matrix is a success the moment one surpressed idea can be spread to one other person. And so on.