[ehg45h5h56]

Disclaimer: pro-bitcoin maximalist.

I believe you are wrong. Bitcoin is a decentralized network which is difficult to stop, but not impossible. Semi centralized networks like Kazaa and Napster are great examples. If you want another example of a completely decentralized network then applications that use gnutella are great examples, like bearshare.

In all cases, the legal arm of a few entities straight up discouraged the use of all these networks forever through extreme legal action and mass marketing. Remember the stories of people getting crazy fines for downloading a few songs? They didn't do that to punish that person. They did that to intimidate everyone else and it worked. As recent as 2010, people has been attempting to develop clients for gnutella. None successful at rebooting the network. To assume bitcoin is somehow immune to this is lunacy.

[davesmylie]

to play devils advocate, they've also been trying to kill torrents for almost 20 years now, with very little to actually show for their efforts.

The most impactful thing that I've seen was the rise of netflix and the ease of getting legally paid for content making torrents not worth the effort. With the splintering of streaming content into many different services, I'm drifting back to torrents and finding it as reliable as it ever was.

[fakedang]

It's kind of funny that when a discussion about multiple players in an industry comes up, HN is often the bastion of competition. But when we talk about an industry like streaming content, too many people despise the fragmentation.

[derlvative]

In most industries competition improves user experience.