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I was thinking of this just the other day. Just the past few weeks, Apple with CSAM, OnlyFans getting between people and their fans/clients. All of these big co

I was thinking of this just the other day. Just the past few weeks, Apple with CSAM, OnlyFans getting between people and their fans/clients. All of these big corporate moves are making me think more and more of decentralization of platforms. Is that coming?

chii 5y ago
> Is that coming? the fact that it's decentralized means you will not be told - and it's on yourself to buy in and be part of.
- HKH2 5y ago
  The revolution will not be televised?
- version_five 5y ago
  This is an important observation. People (myself included) are tired of the power exerted by large corporations with centralized platforms, while at the same time, we're just waiting around for another large centralized platform to come and save us. I have no idea how to get started, but I agree with you, the onus is on people to do something different, not just to complain about it.
foxfluff 5y ago
> All of these big corporate moves are making me think more and more of decentralization of platforms. Is that coming? Absolutely not. Decentralized and self-hosted alternatives to doing anything on the internet have been available since the beginning, but 1) people choose convenience, every single time 2) popular things get popular 3) corpos have what it takes to make a thing popular 4) popular things get popular among the audience because all the content is there 5) popular things get popular among the "content creators" because all the audience is there 6) it's hard to make an artificially popular decentralized service without centralized investment into it; platforms that rely on individual users meshing their internet connections and $5 VPSes start small and stay niche 7) central investing into a platform without moderation and censorship is very risky, so it's unlikely to happen and if it does happen, it's likely to draw the same fire from banks, hosting providers, regulators, etc. 8) any platform that offers moderation and censorship and gets big enough will eventually get between what people want and those who provide that 9) lots of people actually want moderation and censorship, not freedom 10) the "scene" behind decentralized stuff is also divided on the issue of moderation 11) if a decentralized platform with no moderation were indeed to get big, it would again draw fire from various parties (see how various file sharing protocols and sites died) There's more to it but point is, a "big" decentralized platform cannot happen (or at least cannot last) unless it also has a central entity that wields the power to do the same things that happen on centralized platforms. And people really just want to use one big platform. And it's not a technical issue, it's a social & political issue. To make a system that won't bend under the powers that be, people would also have to accept that they're hosting child porn, terrorist materials, drug trafficking, and other fun stuff. That's never going to happen. The alternative is decentralized platforms that are and stay niche. They exist already, they've existed since the beginning. Are you using them, or are you just using the big few popular centralized platforms? I'm guessing you're not using them because "Is that coming?" kind of implies you think it's something that doesn't exist yet.
- ryeguy_24 5y ago
  Brilliantly put.
rnd0 5y ago
>Is that coming? I doubt it very much. To me it feels like the screws are being tightened and the oppression more blatant because they realize that for a variety of reasons (technical and legal) we're past the point where decentralization is a viable strategy. Meaning they know we have no choice so they're dispensing with the velvet glove.
TimJRobinson 5y ago
Decentralized Finance has exploded in growth over the last 6 months (see https://defillama.com/ https://defillama.com/ for stats). Metamask is quite easy to use and I can see it becoming a payment option on many sites soon. Decentralized Social Media is less promising unfortunately, it's a harder problem to scale because nobody wants to pay for it and without payment its hard to ensure it's not overrun with trolls / spam. Twitter's Bluesky project is probably the best effort to fix this atm.

chii 5y ago

> Is that coming? the fact that it's decentralized means you will not be told - and it's on yourself to buy in and be part of.

HKH2 5y ago
The revolution will not be televised?
version_five 5y ago
This is an important observation. People (myself included) are tired of the power exerted by large corporations with centralized platforms, while at the same time, we're just waiting around for another large centralized platform to come and save us. I have no idea how to get started, but I agree with you, the onus is on people to do something different, not just to complain about it.

foxfluff 5y ago

> All of these big corporate moves are making me think more and more of decentralization of platforms. Is that coming? Absolutely not. Decentralized and self-hosted alternatives to doing anything on the internet have been available since the beginning, but 1) people choose convenience, every single time 2) popular things get popular 3) corpos have what it takes to make a thing popular 4) popular things get popular among the audience because all the content is there 5) popular things get popular among the "content creators" because all the audience is there 6) it's hard to make an artificially popular decentralized service without centralized investment into it; platforms that rely on individual users meshing their internet connections and $5 VPSes start small and stay niche 7) central investing into a platform without moderation and censorship is very risky, so it's unlikely to happen and if it does happen, it's likely to draw the same fire from banks, hosting providers, regulators, etc. 8) any platform that offers moderation and censorship and gets big enough will eventually get between what people want and those who provide that 9) lots of people actually want moderation and censorship, not freedom 10) the "scene" behind decentralized stuff is also divided on the issue of moderation 11) if a decentralized platform with no moderation were indeed to get big, it would again draw fire from various parties (see how various file sharing protocols and sites died) There's more to it but point is, a "big" decentralized platform cannot happen (or at least cannot last) unless it also has a central entity that wields the power to do the same things that happen on centralized platforms. And people really just want to use one big platform. And it's not a technical issue, it's a social & political issue. To make a system that won't bend under the powers that be, people would also have to accept that they're hosting child porn, terrorist materials, drug trafficking, and other fun stuff. That's never going to happen. The alternative is decentralized platforms that are and stay niche. They exist already, they've existed since the beginning. Are you using them, or are you just using the big few popular centralized platforms? I'm guessing you're not using them because "Is that coming?" kind of implies you think it's something that doesn't exist yet.

ryeguy_24 5y ago
Brilliantly put.

rnd0 5y ago

>Is that coming? I doubt it very much. To me it feels like the screws are being tightened and the oppression more blatant because they realize that for a variety of reasons (technical and legal) we're past the point where decentralization is a viable strategy. Meaning they know we have no choice so they're dispensing with the velvet glove.

TimJRobinson 5y ago

Decentralized Finance has exploded in growth over the last 6 months (see https://defillama.com/ https://defillama.com/ for stats). Metamask is quite easy to use and I can see it becoming a payment option on many sites soon. Decentralized Social Media is less promising unfortunately, it's a harder problem to scale because nobody wants to pay for it and without payment its hard to ensure it's not overrun with trolls / spam. Twitter's Bluesky project is probably the best effort to fix this atm.