Decentralize to stay alive, users don't want more.https://twitter.com/backus/status/1020111697896341504 …
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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!
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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!
I'm confused. Why would one want to resist anti-money laundering filters? What rent-seeking is being exposed?
In practice, the effect of a government filter is more than the literal filtering. In the US, you need money transmitter licenses (MTLs) in every state. Expensive and time consuming. Killed centralized currency e-gold in ‘09 taking 1mdc w/ it I believe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-gold#Changing_definition_of_a_money_transmitter …
Requiring a license to do business is a hallmark of rent-seeking, big and small. Sometimes it is pure special interest like dentists creating barriers around teeth whitening. Sometimes it is market paralysis: huge cost to enter, uncertainty that gov could cut you off at any time
Finally, a motivation for building a blockchain product that I can confidently say to VCs
if government keeps cracking down enough on internet freedom, token-economy youtube or twitter - run by anonymous developers that don't even know each other's identies - might eventually actually become economically viable. anti-fragile.
copyright #bittorrentn + #tribler
Anti money laundering^W^W^Wspy on your customer: zcash
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