It is hard on Android and very hard on iOS to have a handset receive
unsolicited messages, which is the only way to avoid centralized
servers, even the rendezvous-only ones. This is by design. Tor is not
the solution because the number of exit nodes is many orders of
magnitude lower than the number of popular social operator users, so it
is effectively centralized.
The solution is not going to be along the lines of some privacy-loving
entity setting up a privacy-loving servers and distributing
privacy-loving apps - that's the dead end, as we have seen. It is harder
- what is needed is ubiquitous serverless p2p connectivity between
consumer devices. Very hard (if you think getting out decent crypto is
hard, you haven't seen hard.) But it's the only viable direction which
is not a total waste of time and a temporary distraction. This is not a
new concept - it has already been mentioned that public needs to own and
operate the basic infrastructure.
The main obstacle is that the current dead-end infrastructure acts as a
perfect honeypot and sinks millions of developer-hours. Maybe the way to
start dealing with this problem is to tell anyone who designs a new
server-assisted app to fuck off. The real solution, as usual, is
ideological, and the technology will follow.
This is a huge amount of work, uphill and against the wind, and there is
no way around it.
I think we need distributed social networking, with nodes that act
like a Facebook on your own device but only interact through a network
of agnostic relays, Tor style, with zero external authorities. Not even
"trusted" people running some pods or other overinformed server nodes.
That's what I'm working on since 2010.
Before that I tried decentralization and federation, but realized that
it was a dead-end street. I wished everyone had learned that lesson as
me, instead many still preach decentralization and federation.
Probably also some lobbyists, since it is the best way to ensure
that Facebook and Google aren't challenged at all.
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