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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    1. zooko‏ @zooko Jul 19

      zooko Retweeted John Backus

      I want to retweet this every day for a week.https://twitter.com/backus/status/1020111697896341504 …

      zooko added,

      John Backus @backus
      p2p file sharing history is littered w/ predictions that a new **unstoppable and totally decentralized** protocol will takeover. It never happened. Users always flocked to the least decentralized system possible. Big lesson for today's blockchain and decentralization ecosystems pic.twitter.com/O2mE85BxF8
      Show this thread
      14 replies 34 retweets 137 likes
    2. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 19
      Replying to @zooko

      My next blog post walks through mp3 file sharing and tries to argue this at every step: • Centralized mp3 hosts • Link-only blogs + ephemeral hosts • Napster • Limewire/Kazaa • BitTorrent Each point's peak popularity reflects approximately the bare minimum decentralization

      2 replies 2 retweets 18 likes
    3. John Backus‏ @backus Jul 19
      Replying to @backus @zooko

      In fact, you can view 2005's BitTorrent as a step backwards in decentralization compared to Kazaa and eDonkey which decentralized search. BitTorrent lazily (in a good way) outsourced search liability and p2p coordination (trackers) to centralized systems. DHTs/PEX/etc came later

      5 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
    4. Zlatin Balevsky‏ @zlatinb Jul 19
      Replying to @backus @zooko

      Search as in “content discovery” is still outsourced to torrent sites, whereas FastTrack (aka Kazaa), ED2K and Gnutella provided just that functionality

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      John Backus‏ @backus Jul 19
      Replying to @zlatinb @zooko

      Yup. I think it is very interesting to reflect on why that is. Current theory: decentralization doesn’t emerge until all activists (like The Pirate Bay) are unwilling to take the centralized risk

      7:00 PM - 19 Jul 2018
      • 1 Like
      • zooko
      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        1. Zlatin Balevsky‏ @zlatinb Jul 19
          Replying to @backus @zooko

          That is true, but things are a bit more complicated. Gnutella, ED2K and FastTrack emerged because the centralized Napster got shut down. Re-centralized torrent sites emerged in part because people were unhappy to participate in a single network with un-curated content.

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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