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Things used to be decentralized well when I think back to the early days of the internet. When I think about why, its because links were expensive or unreliable
by j4yav 3y ago
Things used to be decentralized well when I think back to the early days of the internet. When I think about why, its because links were expensive or unreliable - what centralization brought was a kind of predictability and ease of use. The challenge for new decentralized systems to address I think is to offer a similar level of convenience as the centralized systems. Just being decentralized doesn't seem enough.
- dijit 3y agoGranted I've not lived long enough to have witnessed the birth of the internet with adult eyes; what I have personally observed is a constant battle of centralisation and standards forming. For a common example that many people may remember, AOL was at one point pushing towards a centralised model and was succeeding- until they completely collapsed and the open web resumed being a thing. Similar for the times where there were no standards on video playback on the web, a bunch of companies competed with completely incompatible systems that had various pains associated until eventually standards emerged that sunk the majority of it. (ironically one of them with a healthy helping from Apple). The web was never really decentralised - it's a fond memory and a legend we tell ourselves, this battle seems to been waged from almost immediately after it was conceived. I found a much more articulate article on the matter while I was writing: https://archive.is/UUgl7 https://archive.is/UUgl7
- j4yav 3y agoI was there, AOL was certainly not the internet. It's an interesting article but it seems to cherry pick a bit. AOL was like a huge BBS that gave its users a limited portal into the internet, and only on a very limited basis starting in 1993. They never really had proper access as far as I know, and for those of us not accessing through AOL things worked perfectly fine and I never accessed anything through or hosted by AOL. I'm not really sure how to convince you in the end, but it's funny now hearing my own experience was only a legend. I feel like I've achieved something and need a plaque indicating I've successfully moved into some new life phase.