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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. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Interested in decentralization today? Learn what worked in the 2000s for p2p file sharing: ⚖️ Decentralization is a legal tactic used alongside activism ⌛ Decentralizing the wrong things is a waste of time ☠️ Decentralizing everything is suicide by bad UX Thread! 👇

      7 replies 130 retweets 393 likes
      Show this thread
    2. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Decentralization should shadow the law it is trying to avoid. Chronology of popular p2p file sharing apps: 1999: Napster 2002: Kazaa 2005: BitTorrent Each app degraded its UX and altered its protocol for better legal protection.pic.twitter.com/3sQzTmEhtQ

      1 reply 4 retweets 23 likes
      Show this thread
    3. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Decentralization for legal protection at the expense of UX: • Napster used p2p to avoid central hosting • Kazaa decentralized file search, hurting results and quality control • BitTorrent left search to others (The Pirate Bay). Terrible onboarding but better legal positioning

      1 reply 2 retweets 30 likes
      Show this thread
    4. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Decentralize your tech until activists can takeover: • The Pirate Bay founders have gone to the ends of the earth to keep it online • Tor depends on activist exit node operators Activists *will* come! Coppersurfer runs a Tor relay, Bitcoin node, and a BitTorrent tracker!pic.twitter.com/FsfLQsHCMQ

      1 reply 5 retweets 33 likes
      Show this thread
    5. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      What should we decentralize? Look for hacks you can formalize: • Link-only mp3 sites → Napster skirting hosting • User hosted Napster servers → eDonkey architecture • Coin tumblers → privacy coins • "No logs" VPNs → Tor • Anonymous domain purchasing → hidden servicespic.twitter.com/iDvz6eTreL

      2 replies 5 retweets 31 likes
      Show this thread
    6. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Tech vs. law starts w/ decentralized protocols, but is continued by activists, businesses, and OSS • Pirate Bay was stronger w/ Sweden's copyright law • Their servers are "raid-proof" • Pirate Bay proxy sites help w/ ISP bans • Protocols evolve via OSS communitiespic.twitter.com/ikgiPCZ03U

      1 reply 2 retweets 14 likes
      Show this thread
    7. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      Recipe for a successful decentralized protocol: • Enable a valuable, legally suppressed use case • Company's products avoid sensitive use case. Let 3rd parties do that • Tech should be useful outside sensitive use case BitTorrent checked these boxes. @AugurProject might too!pic.twitter.com/P9oPe9djOF

      1 reply 4 retweets 37 likes
      Show this thread
    8. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      John Backus Retweeted John Backus

      Decentralize to stay alive, users don't want more.https://twitter.com/backus/status/1020111697896341504 …

      John Backus 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
      1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
      Show this thread
    9. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      John Backus Retweeted John Backus

      Open sourcing your decentralized protocol can provide legal insulation. There were dozens of OSS BitTorrent clients, what good does killing the company do?https://twitter.com/backus/status/1019655188485791744 …

      John Backus added,

      John Backus @backus
      Decentralization made p2p file sharing tech hard to prosecute, but open source is why BitTorrent won the war. pic.twitter.com/ivxDLUSjZ1
      Show this thread
      1 reply 1 retweet 20 likes
      Show this thread
      John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

      John Backus Retweeted John Backus

      Decentralization is part of a larger legal playbook. More doesn't always help: BitTorrent was less decentralized than Kazaa but more legally resilient. Their use of OSS, marketing, PR, and implicit reliance on 3rd parties (The Pirate Bay) mattered morehttps://twitter.com/backus/status/1016428419674882048 …

      John Backus added,

      John Backus @backus
      Decentralization is one strategy in a bigger picture, including: • OSS (eMule harder to kill than eDonkey) • Nonprofits (pure torrent trackers argue this) • Diff in intl law (Sweden > US for anti-copyright) • Reducing impact of takedowns (Pirate Bay hosts own DB archive)
      Show this thread
      8:41 PM - 11 Sep 2018
      • 16 Likes
      • Thomas Bertani 🌓 Nikhil Srinivasan Ash ElliotDeWyzeWolfe Vote November 6th rektide de la fey Justin A. Ortega Jonathan Hales 🕊 Sar Haribhakti
      1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          BitTorrent won the legal war by being thorough: • Website talked about hosting not downloading • @bramcohen only talked about legal uses. Claimed no profit motive • Prominent free speech defense on website • Redundancy via OSS clients • Outsourced liability to Pirate Baypic.twitter.com/iHEznYJ4Ba

          1 reply 4 retweets 24 likes
          Show this thread
        3. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          Decentralized protocols don't absolve the company of responsibility, it just shifts to the client: • Limewire had a copyright filter, disabled by default. Court reaction: "What? Make it mandatory!" • Kazaa had a NSFW filter. Court reaction: "So you could filter copyright too!"

          1 reply 1 retweet 20 likes
          Show this thread
        4. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          Passing the buck to activists buys room to decentralize. While Hollywood fought Pirate Bay, the BitTorrent community added • Multitracker support (takedown resilience) • DHTs (decentralized torrent metadata storage) • PEX (peer discovery w/o trackers) Helping The Pirate Bay!pic.twitter.com/zB98rEZTzv

          1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
          Show this thread
        5. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          Some look at the file sharing movement and say "BitTorrent didn't win, Netflix+Spotify did!" Decentralization exploits legal boundaries, exposing rent seeking in anti-competitive industries. BitTorrent created the conditions that allowed Netflix and Spotify to exist We all won!

          2 replies 12 retweets 60 likes
          Show this thread
        6. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          The political framing for decentralization is "censorship resistance." The market framing is "anti-competitive market resistance." P2P file sharing corrected anti-consumer markets for music and movies. Imagine what we can unlock with Bitcoin and Ethereum!

          1 reply 5 retweets 31 likes
          Show this thread
        7. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          The chronology of the "most popular file sharing app" is roughly: Napster Limewire Kazaa eDonkey BitTorrent Reflecting "minimum viable decentralization" over time. Limewire was early, Kazaa more usable. BitTorrent's UX was bad, but won legal long gamehttps://medium.com/@jbackus/minimum-viable-decentralization-d813dcf653fc …

          1 reply 3 retweets 19 likes
          Show this thread
        8. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          When decentralizing, half measures bite you in the ass: 🙈 Aimster obscured searches and user IPs from its protocol 💪 BitTorrent disowned search and left IPs in the clear Courts argued Aimster's conduct was "willful blindness." BitTorrent's choices made its position strongerpic.twitter.com/wAsLArkhWT

          Bram Cohen
          1 reply 1 retweet 16 likes
          Show this thread
        9. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 11

          Boiling down decentralization movements, we build technology to resist governments installing filters: 💿 Copyright (BitTorrent) 💰 Anti-money laundering (Bitcoin) 💌 Content/communication (Tor) Legal battles and tech evolution continues until its too hard to install a filter

          5 replies 12 retweets 45 likes
          Show this thread
        10. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          Once legal pushback enters a decentralized product space, evolutionary pressures start filtering: • Weaker willed torrent search engines closed • BitTorrent's protocol evolved • The Pirate Bay doubles down Expect same when the US government takes on real crypto companies!

          1 reply 2 retweets 16 likes
          Show this thread
        11. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          Decentralized technologies mixes legal and objectionable streams together: • Can't separate darknet market traffic from anti-censorship on Tor • BitTorrent protocol is unaware of content You can't throw out the bath water without throwing out the baby, by design.

          1 reply 1 retweet 14 likes
          Show this thread
        12. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          In a decentralized product market, recklessness buys early growth. Many companies grew by marketing to pirates. I call BitTorrent an "ugly duckling." It didn't seem like a winner until late in the game. Here's how to spot ugly duck investments:https://medium.com/@jbackus/invest-in-the-ugly-duckling-decentralization-product-market-fit-and-the-law-bea856a6bbad …

          1 reply 1 retweet 16 likes
          Show this thread
        13. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          What parts of our tech should we decentralize? How do we know when we're done? I think a lot of people in crypto are struggling with these questions. I think history provides an answer. Find your "minimum viable decentralization"https://medium.com/@jbackus/minimum-viable-decentralization-d813dcf653fc …

          1 reply 1 retweet 15 likes
          Show this thread
        14. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          John Backus Retweeted John Backus

          This thread focused on decentralization as a legal tactic to be used sparingly, pulling from the history of p2p file sharing. This isn't my only deep dive into p2p history and crypto! Check out my thread on market dynamics, governance, and monetization:https://twitter.com/backus/status/1004471335488122880 …

          John Backus added,

          John Backus @backus
          Blockchain world can learn a lot from p2p file sharing era 😡 Incentive issues (most shared NOTHING, tons of fake files + viruses) 🤝 Lots of attempted market mechanisms (from game theory to tokens) to fix incentives 💰 Monetization lessons 🍴 Forking vs governance Thread 👇
          Show this thread
          2 replies 2 retweets 19 likes
          Show this thread
        15. John Backus‏ @backus Sep 12

          ☝ If you enjoyed this thread, my blog post "Resistant protocols: How decentralization evolves" goes into more depth: https://medium.com/@jbackus/resistant-protocols-how-decentralization-evolves-2f9538832ada … If you don't follow me yet, I tweet regularly about crypto, decentralization, and p2p. Plenty more to come, stay tuned!

          1 reply 23 retweets 112 likes
          Show this thread
        16. End of conversation

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