People had very different assumptions about the Internet and security. What was a federated protocol back than wouldn't be considered now. If that hypothetical

People had very different assumptions about the Internet and security. What was a federated protocol back than wouldn't be considered now. If that hypothetical evolution of IRC had happened, then I'm sure a s2s IRC protocol would emerge, but that's not a protocol problem, it's more fundamental than that. It would have to influence the c2s protocol as well, e.g. the identity is tied to the service provider and it has to be communicated to other clients somehow to avoid collisions.