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Ask HN: Truly successful applications based on decentralized networks?

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Ask HN: Truly successful applications based on decentralized networks?

#1

Post by rafiki6 »

My definition here is something that has reached global scale.

The only things so far seem to target digital assets (cryptocurrency, music, movies, art etc.)

I think the primary issue always tends to be two fold: - Decentralized network applications (e.g. bittorrent) tend to be started against an established oligopoly or monopoly and then face the wrath of the establishment eventually - Massive scaling issues without the inclusion of some centralization

A perfect example of my second point is git. Git is the perfect example of a decentralized Merkel Tree based network solution. It grew and grew, but only really took off when the likes of Github gained a footing, using a centralized mechanism for discovery and sharing.

I feel that all decentralized applications will end up facing the same challenges. But the internet is huge, and DApps have grown substantially.

I am hoping to hear if there are any other massive or massive-potential decentralized apps out there?

Re: Ask HN: Truly successful applications based on decentralized networks?

#4

Post by scrollaway »

The internet? And many of its protocols that came with it, including email, etc.

Sidenote, and I dunno if it's what you're implying but many people do: "company x takes decentralized solution, offers services on top that aren't decentralized" doesn't make the whole thing centralized. Git is still a wonderful decentralized tool. There is very little functionality that Github offers on top of git that is particularly centralized -- permissions, maybe, but that's about it and it doesn't make much sense to centralize them. Nearly all of Github's featureset could be, like, a separate app that has nothing to do with git - it competes with the atlassian suite, for example; they just chose to make the projects "repo-centric" and make git a first-class citizen. They've also supported svn for a while.

Re: Ask HN: Truly successful applications based on decentralized networks?

#6

Post by tetrisgm »

aklemm wrote: post #2

Email remains underrated in terms of decentralized notions.

That’s a very sharp realization, that a lot of people don’t think about.

Email is the largest decentralized network in the world, with people routinely setting up federated instances. It’s the de facto standard protocol for b2b communication. It’s even used as a protocol beyond conversations, for meetings and notifications for example.

By far the most successful application of the ideals of decentralization.

Re: Ask HN: Truly successful applications based on decentralized networks?

#10

Post by jazzyjackson »

Skype used to use each user's PC as a node, and every once in a while your PC would become a "supernode" and handle other people's traffic. The only part that was centralized was the login, as there was only one global namespace. [1] It was end-to-end encrypted too, tho it was proprietary and maybe backdoor'd but what's new. After microsoft bought it they started handling the supernode traffic. "nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism" [2]

[1] "An Analysis of the Skype Peer-to-Peer Internet Telephony Protocol" http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~salman/publications/skype1_4.pd...

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...

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