(Note that I have used the word Protocol loosely. But hopefully, the distinction between a platform built by a single company and rules created by a individual/community are clear)

I always use to wonder about this – Internet, the massive connection of computers all over the world is decentralized in nature. World Wide Web, a service on the internet, which helps us exchange documents is also decentralized. Then why are successful applications on the web Google, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit are centralized? Is it something because at the highest level centralization works well?

The key difference one must realize is that Internet, World Wide Web are fundamentally Protocols. While, Google, YouTube, Reddit are platforms. Internet can be fundamentally boiled down to TCP/IP(Transmission Control Protcol, Internet Protocol). Web can be boiled to the Documents that are written in HTML standard and those are transfered via HTTP(Hypertext Transfer Protocol). The right Protocols have the power to scale in a decentralized way.

Why is decentralization important? Because, by its fundamental nature there is no one with a central power who can abuse it. We have seen enough problems, when single corporations have too much power. And the best part about decentralization is since they are just open standards, anyone can be part of it. There is no single point of failure. Then immediately one may ask, aren’t there any Protocols for social communication on the internet?

Well there is one, which has survived the test of time - the email. Fundamentally, it can be boiled down to Protocols like SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), POP3, IMAP. We just use clients run by companies like Google(gmail), Yahoo(yahoomail), Microsoft(outlook). Because not everybody can run their own server to implement the protocol. Not just for one to one communication, there was also “Usenet” in the early days for multiple users to come together and discuss on topics of similar interest. Think of it as Reddit, except that volunteers used to run their own servers. Later, Usenet died! Have you seen anyone using it in the recent years?

The protocols are free, but where do the servers that run the protocol come from. The volunteers who ran their own Usenet servers had to shut down because they had no incentive to run. Also, it takes a lot of time and effort for individuals to maintain the servers. Large companies have both resources and incentive to do the same(they run ads). Apart from that, to make changes or improvements, it would be faster for a single company to decide and implement them. Hence the centralized platforms were becoming better with nice UX and more features at a faster rate. On the other hand, if its a protocol, there is a need for wide range volunteers come to an agreement. Hence ever smaller changes would take long time. In short, Centralized platforms grew better quickly than decentralized Protocols like Usenet.

Ideas, information and Knowledge can be replicated infinitely without any cost. But physical resources like a CPU are limited. There is an economic barrier!

Well, the hopes are not yet thrashed. We now see that it is possible to have a currency with a completely decentralized protocol. I am talking about Bitcoin(and other cryptocurrencies). Bitcoin can also be regarded as a protocol, where each individual is a server. Such systems are called peer-to-peer systems. In near future, one can expect new decentralized protocols in similar fashion to become popular.

Works that are going on currently in the direction

  • Aether is a peer to peer network, which is completely serverless
  • Bluesky, twitter’s decentralized social network

If these ideas interest you, I recommend you read the essay - Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech. This article inspired Jack to start the Bluesky project.(Jack Dorsey’s tweet regarding the same)