<story><title>“In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”</title><url>https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/1079759096272818178</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>boramalper</author><text>His points about blockchain are compelling but I disagree with “blockchain&amp;#x2F;decentralisation” part. Blockchain is &lt;i&gt;a&lt;/i&gt; decentralised ideal, but so is BitTorrent, so is Tor, and so on, to some significant extent. To say that decentralisation failed because blockchain failed ignores all the other technologies which are serving people well.&lt;p&gt;I think the distinction between “decentralised” (&lt;i&gt;i.e.&lt;/i&gt; federated) and “distributed” is important (as decentralised is often used as an umbrella term to cover both).[0] There are tons of federated projects out there from Matrix to Mastodon, and there are initiatives to make federated networks more decentralised (such as the integration of Kademlia DHT in BitTorrent).&lt;p&gt;No need for pessimism I think. :)&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.researchgate.net&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;Jason_Hoelscher&amp;#x2F;publication&amp;#x2F;260480880&amp;#x2F;figure&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;fig1&amp;#x2F;AS:297257619476480@1447883147178&amp;#x2F;Centralized-decentralized-and-distributed-network-models-by-Paul-Baran-1964-part-of-a.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.researchgate.net&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;Jason_Hoelscher&amp;#x2F;publica...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>arkh</author><text>&amp;gt; Blockchain is a decentralised ideal, but so is BitTorrent, so is Tor, and so on, to some significant extent.&lt;p&gt;So is internet. Most people use centralized services but no one prevents you from setting up your DNS servers, with your own domains, servers, website etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>“In 2018 the blockchain/decentralization story fell apart”</title><url>https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/1079759096272818178</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>boramalper</author><text>His points about blockchain are compelling but I disagree with “blockchain&amp;#x2F;decentralisation” part. Blockchain is &lt;i&gt;a&lt;/i&gt; decentralised ideal, but so is BitTorrent, so is Tor, and so on, to some significant extent. To say that decentralisation failed because blockchain failed ignores all the other technologies which are serving people well.&lt;p&gt;I think the distinction between “decentralised” (&lt;i&gt;i.e.&lt;/i&gt; federated) and “distributed” is important (as decentralised is often used as an umbrella term to cover both).[0] There are tons of federated projects out there from Matrix to Mastodon, and there are initiatives to make federated networks more decentralised (such as the integration of Kademlia DHT in BitTorrent).&lt;p&gt;No need for pessimism I think. :)&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.researchgate.net&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;Jason_Hoelscher&amp;#x2F;publication&amp;#x2F;260480880&amp;#x2F;figure&amp;#x2F;download&amp;#x2F;fig1&amp;#x2F;AS:297257619476480@1447883147178&amp;#x2F;Centralized-decentralized-and-distributed-network-models-by-Paul-Baran-1964-part-of-a.png&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.researchgate.net&amp;#x2F;profile&amp;#x2F;Jason_Hoelscher&amp;#x2F;publica...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>reificator</author><text>On a semi-related note, I don&amp;#x27;t know if torrents are successful outside of piracy.&lt;p&gt;In the last week or two I went back and downloaded all of my years worth of Humble Bundle ebooks&amp;#x2F;videos.  I downloaded the torrent versions as they were easier to track failures with and the HB store does limit simultaneous downloads.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m still wondering if I&amp;#x27;m going to get an automated scaremail letter about using torrents from my ISP.  I already received one for downloading Ubuntu years back, though IIRC that was a different provider.</text></comment>