As a vocal critic of "web3" and in particular NFTs and other crypto grifting, I will speak up in defense of its point of origin (as next-generation P2P), the c

As a vocal critic of "web3" and in particular NFTs and other crypto grifting, I will speak up in defense of its point of origin (as next-generation P2P), the concept of the "decentralized internet," which prior to and if stripped of its monetization schemes back to its original precepts, is as current and urgent as it ever was; even more so in light of its potential complex interactions with the concepts of free speech and the like, much in the news. An interesting critique offered ITT his that P2P "externalizes" the cost of e.g. storage to the user... ...my counter-critique to this is that TANSTAAFL, we are all already paying for storage (most of it for surveillance analytics and its products), c.f. industry chatter about revenue per user e.g. at Twitter. One of the interesting precepts of building a decentralized web is how it changes the premises of "teh algorithm" and the avenues for weaponized (amplified, precisely-targeted, bad faith) speech. Those with the money to game the system to pervert it to their ends (selling you things being the most benevolent end of a spectrum that goes very far into worse uses) will of course always have the most elaborate and pervasive tooling; but its efficacy and that of defenses against it in a decentralized concept are much more murky. Which is what we want; indeed it's kind of the point. Many things benefit from the efficiencies of centralization. Democracy and its constituent discourse do not seem to be among them.