The internet had so much potential at its inception.
About a quarter of a century after its widespread adoption in the West, the worldwide web looks a lot different than it could have.
While Web 2.0 connected billions of people worldwide, the centralized nature of the internet has resulted in numerous issues.
What early dialup internet users didn't have in terms of speed and ease of access may have been less important than the freedom they had to not rely on one company or service provider for their internet needs.
While there are some problems with Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) oft-repeated claim that 70% of internet traffic goes through Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB), Sandvine estimates that those two companies along with Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) generate nearly 57% of all internet traffic.
The internet could have been decentralized once it became open to the wider public, but the benefits a centralized network provided to internet service providers led to the web we have now.
The form of the internet we have today had many parents, and over the weekend, one of them expressed regret about how his offspring has turned out.
Jack Dorsey Laments His Role in Centralized Internet
Former Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey feels partly to blame for what the internet has become over the last three decades.
This isn't the fist time Dorsey has taken a shot at the centralized internet that he helped create.
Back in 2019 while he was still CEO of Twitter, Dorsey said that the company is funding a small team of developers to work on a "decentralized standard" for social media companies.
Dorsey did say that Twitter's decision to move in a centralized direction was "reasonable at the time," but much has changed of the years.
"The value of social media is shifting away from content hosting and removal, and towards recommendation algorithms directing one's attention, unfortunately, these algorithms are typically proprietary, and one can't chose or build alternatives. Yet," Dorsey tweeted in late 2019.
Decentralized vs. Centralized Internet
As referenced by Dorsey, the centralize internet for all its faults does have some benefits for ISPs, according to 101 Blockchains.
Those pros include a defined command chain, which allows employees within an ISP to know what they have to do and how much authority they have over certain elements.
Centralized internet also helps reduce costs as any centralized network or infrastructure "requires less support and cost," according to 101 Blockchains.
Finally, a centralized internet allows for the quick implementation of any updates due to fewer nodes and people being involved with that implementation.
However, there are also several disadvantages of a centralized network.
For one, it's hard to trust a centralized mega conglomerate like Alphabet or Facebook. So a lack of trust is almost built into the relationship between internet companies and the people that rely on them.
Then there are security issues that come with centralization as the entire network is dependent on a single point of failure, according to 101 Blockchains.
And finally since a single server is used in most cases, there are scalability limitations baked into the centralized internet.
Dorsey may lament his role in turning the internet into what it currently is, but there is a long way to go into crafting the web into what it could be with a decentralized infrastructure.
