Take a look at the decentralization back in the time when the internet speed was measured in kbps and see why crypto-enthusiasts dream about complete decentralization would never come.

I never planned to write this article, but the decentralization maximalists' hypocrisy on Twitter, boosted by a good volume of nostalgia from the times of 00x internet, brought me to the level of boiling rage I never thought was possible. I’m so mad I see the world in fast-forward, as molecules of my body filled with negative energy so much I ascended to a new form of existence. 

Only after layers of negative emotions ceased to matter I understand that most Twitter users have never seen different internet. They never used LAN, never downloaded a new music album from their bro in RetroShare, and their strive for anonymity ends when they turn off their VPN to order food. 

You see, the most furious adepts of decentralization have never lived in a decentralized world. Web1.0 was decentralized, but it was unusable for the masses. At the time, protocols were all we had. Want to share a file? Use FTP to upload it to your server, and your friend will get it in his browser through HTTP.

Nowadays, Google, Amazon, and other tech whales take care of these servers, which made things much easier for a regular user. Web2.0 was centralized, but it lowered the entrance threshold to a minimum. And Web3 - a disciple of both: decentralized where needed, but not completely. Some parts of the system will have to remain centralized for the sake of UX, or we are going to end up in Web1 again.

For most people, the entire internet will forever be summarized into 2-3 social platforms, and that’s perfectly alright. But if you are reading this article it means you want more. And boy, do I have some amazing concepts of the unkillable web for you today! The modern web gets more politicized, and the prospect of being disconnected from millions of internet users is becoming more real. In case some government or company gets too carried away by politics you, your channel, or the entire region you live in may be disconnected from the world. What are you gonna do?

Those of you who disagree and think the internet is the most “united” and “free” it has ever been might find it interesting that the internet you use today is already separated into 4 somewhat isolated networks, with the Russian one soon to become the fifth.

Federative networks

But before we begin, let’s get on the same page with decentralization terms. I’m not a maximalist who sees decentralization as a panacea for every problem, nor a centralization fan who thinks corporations can be friends with their users. I’m a centrist, and I hate questionable maximalist approaches. 

I’ll call a network decentralized If users of this network play the role of both server and client. Federations, which some people call Fake Decentralization, will not be labeled decentralized because in federations everyone connects to local centers with their own sets of rules - instances. 

Now, imagine any e-mail service. When you want to send a letter to a friend who’s registered on @gmail.com, you simply go to any other mailing platform, e.g. Yahoo.com, write a message, specify your friend's address on the web, and mailing servers do the rest. No matter the differences, these providers use the same protocol to exchange data, and that makes two different providers compliable. 

In a nutshell - that’s how Fediverse works. Thanks to Activity Protocol, you can register on any instance and still access the contents of the other instances. Imagine scrolling Facebook posts and YouTube videos in the same feed on Twitter. 

That might sound like a content-creator dream: it’s on every platform the second you post, and there is no cross-posting involved. But there is always another side to the coin. It’s called Fake Decentralization for a reason.

You see, every instance has its own set of rules. On some instances with brutal moderation, you will be banned for using non-inclusive LGBTQ++ pronouns, on the other ones for not using them. Everyone comes up with the rules for their instance themselves, and to be honest, some moderation ideas are better revamped and reintegrated back into the soil. 

Some never make any rules and get flooded by bots, scammers, and anti-vaxxers. Instances with no moderation are often banned by other instances, and that’s a problem. If you initially registered on an instance that later got banned - say goodbye to your account. You won’t even be able to log in, not to mention chat with your friends from the other instances or access the other content. GG, you got excluded from the internet because some instance owner thought his definition of good was better than others.

During the 00x-10x, federative networks were an alternative evolution branch for the internet. They were, and still are a more ideologically correct continuation of Web1, but carry the same governance problems as Web2. It’s probably the last place on Earth where you can still get the authentic 00x internet community experience. But apart from that, there isn’t much to do. The entrance threshold just above the neuron activation level of an average internet user sent most of the Fediverse instances to push daisies. 

Take a tour

All this is just a horror story, but extremes make a good example. I only brought this up to show there are always multiple flip sides to the same thing, no matter good or bad. And if you min/max wrong, you might end up right by the Fediverse side 6 feet below the ground. 

If you just want to catch a glimpse of how federative services work, I welcome you to join me on the lowest difficulty setting possible. Once again, welcome to Fediverse!

They have their own Twitter/Facebook called Mastodon, Pixelfed in place of Instagram, PeerTube for the videos, Reddit-like Lemmy, and even Soundcloud analog Funkwhale. Looking for a federative messenger? Go ahead and try Jabber (XMPP) or Matrix. Both are pretty much stripped of users: Jabber starved because the protocol it’s working on turned 22 this year, and Matrix is the favorite of the German Bundeswehr, which says a lot about its convoluted mess of a UI. But apart from these two, we don’t have much. 

If any of these federative projects caught your attention, feel free to explore more on fediverse.party. The food is plenty, but don’t expect a feast.

A deep dive

Federations allow us to take a step away from governments and corporations, but the control over every instance is still centralized. it didn’t really solve the problem, only switched one for another. You and your instance can still be easily blocked if your thoughts don’t fit into the ideals of the biggest federative communities. 

So we needed something better. Back in 2015, we had ZeroNet - a separate network where sites are distributed via WebTorrent, and you access them through ".bit" domains, which are registered by an internal Namecoin. And don’t get me wrong, it was amazing while it lasted. If somebody were, for example, to block or exclude you, you would always have a peer to set up a mirror. If not - there are still magnet hashes that pretty much can’t be blocked. All you have to do is download the app. But in 2022 ZeroNet looks more dead than alive due to its high entry threshold. 

There was also Retroshare, and it’s still popular in countries where downloading certain things from the general internet is illegal. And let me tell you, Retroshare changed everything - from file sharing and RSS to chats and email. Instead of using P2P, they went for F2F (Friend-to-Friend). The main difference is that P2P works like a blacklist. You have to ban everyone you don’t trust, which requires you to check and ban every new peer. 

F2F made things easier by introducing a whitelist. If you, for example, want to have a decentralized news platform, you simply whitelist media you trust instead of banning every single one you don’t.

Abandon hope, ye who enter here

Have you rationed your water before? Do you have a closet full of canned food? Have you always dreamt about living in the post-apocalyptic world? Then I have something exactly for you! Welcome to one of the weirdest social media - Scuttlebutt. It’ll still be there even when the internet won’t. In theory, of course. 

Posts in Scuttlebutt are only stored on your computer, just like files in folders. Everyone keeps their own offline diary, and synchronization of new posts with friends occurs either via internet hubs which Scuttlebutt users call pubs, or via Bluetooth. They have a decent introductory video that explains everything. Make sure to check it out!

Summary

Due to regulation issues and market immaturity, many members of the crypto community think that complete decentralization would solve all existing problems in the industry, but it’s only partially right. Complete decentralization is nothing but a utopia. Great UX/UI, low entry threshold, and simplicity of the system will always win a fight against novelty and anonymity. Those, who think that having the word “decentralized” in the project's title is more important than having real utility will soon be off the market. It seems to me that after the hype is gone, they’ll become niche products and share the fate of the projects I mentioned today. But anyone could be wrong. What do you think will happen? 

Remember, the extremes rarely become mainstream. 
Peace out!