
Decentralization Roundup for 2017 - hotzeplotz
http://clutchofthedeadhand.com/roundup-2017/
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dbmikus
None of these technologies will disrupt big tech. They're niche things that,
while awesome, appeal to techies and people being censored. To stop
conglomeration of big tech, you need big tech businesses that refuse to or are
not allowed to merge with Google, Facebook, etc. Legislation around this is
interesting because these are not technically anti competitive monopolies, and
you don't want to overly restrict the market by accident.

This is a neat summary of decentralized tech, but the opening paragraph is a
red herring.

~~~
zeroxfe
> None of these technologies will disrupt big tech.

Famous last words.

Seriously though, this is the kind of thing people said about PCs, Microsoft,
Linux, the iPhone, etc. (And today, about machine learning, blockchains, and
VR.)

It's nearly impossible to tell what will disrupt the world, but typically it's
the kinds of things that bring back the balance of power. All of these things
are enablers, and allow your 3-person startup to innovate in spaces with huge
powerful competitors.

~~~
edraferi
True, but also a safe statement. Most high-risk revolutions / startups /
ventures fail. It is vanishingly unlikely that any of these projects will see
widespread adoption and success. So you can just say “that will never work” to
everything and be right most of the time.

Of course, VCs make their money by occasionally finding the one that breaks
the mold. Picking winners is hard.

~~~
Nuzzerino
Correction: Most VC-backed startups fail.

But that's beside the point. You can't make the argument that "most will fail"
and conclude that "this category of tech will never bring success to any
company". Fallacious nonsense if I ever heard it.

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yeukhon
Brave is truly an underdog to me. When it was first launched, I thought it
would not last long - another competing browser? Why would a VC invest in it?
Because of Brendan Eich (he is extremely bright but I did not see how one
could market yet another browser focus on privacy)? I am surprised with the
direction the project has taken since though.

~~~
alwillis
It’s also a browser that allows its users, if they opt-in, to get a cut of the
advertising revenue to view high quality, relevant ads that respect privacy.

~~~
yeukhon
Yeah this is actually quite an unique business direction. There is also a
possibility to do computation (like mapreduce) via ads - something I have been
thinking for a long time. I heard about mining bitcoin that well too as an
attack...

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buovjaga
It is worth noting Framasoft's efforts in this area. Plans for 2018-2020:
[https://contributopia.org/](https://contributopia.org/)

~~~
natural219
I have them on a list to follow up on! Would love to read more from them.

This was my pinned Tweet for a long time:
[https://imgur.com/a/0hneI](https://imgur.com/a/0hneI)

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tannhaeuser
What has happened to ZeroNet? I always thought it was closest to a p2p upgrade
to the Web without reinventing the wheel and with an end-user focus.

~~~
sktrdie
Seriously. Not even a mention of ZeroNet means the author didn't obviously do
a through research on the subject.

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pmlnr
Why does everyone leave indieweb out from all of these lists?

[https://indieweb.org](https://indieweb.org)

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Tharkun
I had a brief look at the websites this page links to, and some of them fail
to mention what they're about.

Blockstack tells me their token sale has ended. But what the hell is
blockstack and why should I care about its token sale? Matrix is an open
network for secure communication? What does that even mean to regular joe?

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milansuk
I really like the positive vibe of this article.

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nyolfen
i'm tentatively excited about what the internet might look like in 5-10 years.
there's plenty to worry about -- surveillance, balkanization, censorship --
but also genuine cause for hope for something (or many things) new and better
for the internet.

also, urbit is some truly mind-bending stuff. i've spent a couple of hours
reading docs and watching scattered videos and think i only sort-of get it. it
got me to finally read mcluhan, though!

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coding123
I'm truly truly hoping that Secure Scuttlebutt or Patchwork or some
incantation of SSB becomes our new browser for shopping, tweeting, search,
news... I know it has a long way to go, but give it 5 years...

We must break up with the browser.

~~~
dang
Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. This is in the site guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

~~~
coding123
sorry about that dang - fixed.

~~~
dang
Thanks!

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seltzered_
1) Ask yourself if these technologies are decentralized but also distributed

2) I've tried to have an open mind on urbit enough to watch some of Yarvin's
talks, but I'm not convinced after reading pushcx's comments on it being a
form of underhanded digital feudalism :
[https://lobste.rs/s/z5j1hq/urbit_2017#c_hcnnbm](https://lobste.rs/s/z5j1hq/urbit_2017#c_hcnnbm)

3) This 'roundup' is written by an anonymous person - it's worth reading
his/her about page to understand their biases:
[http://clutchofthedeadhand.com/about/](http://clutchofthedeadhand.com/about/)

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tfha
Filecoin raised $205m, not $257m. And at $205m it's not record breaking
either, as the standard record was $230m when the Filecoin sale started.

~~~
alwillis
_Today, the ICO ended with approximately $205.8 million raised, a figure that
adds to the $52 million collected in a presale that included Sequoia Capital,
Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, among others._

“$257 Million: Filecoin Breaks All-Time Record for ICO Funding”:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=filecoin%20ico&ie=utf-8&oe=u...](https://www.google.com/search?q=filecoin%20ico&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

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SamPatt
OpenBazaar should be mentioned as well. Decentralized marketplace.

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marknadal
We're also working on decentralized/P2P tech as well, currently
storage+computation+ledgers+DAGs are covered pretty well in the article, but
CRDTs are also a must for most projects:
[https://github.com/amark/gun](https://github.com/amark/gun) . The article
seemed to mix in some blockchain/cryptocurrency projects as well, but seemed
out of place (for instance, if they were mentioning those projects, why not
also Ethereum?).

