[avhwl]

There are inherent benefits to large, centralized platforms. Users, especially content creators, desire a large network of users and excellent UX, both of which have typically been properties of centralized systems or at least far easier to achieve with centralized systems. Every decentralized social network thus far has failed, and the modestly successful ones (Mastodon, for example) are in fact federated.

Many of the problems alluded to in this article, in particular the privacy risk of centralized data, are more effectively solved by policy changes and iterated technology (differential privacy as well as bread-and-butter cryptography) rather than furious hand-waving about blockchain protocols.