[freedomben]

I think you and GP are both right. The original idea and design of the internet is decentralized, but we're at a point where it's pretty hard to do that. Email being the best example. I'm quite the self-hoster and I've self-hosted email before, but even I pay for it now because unless you own your IP address and have invested years into building reputation, deliverability is abysmal. And one accidental click of "this is spam" by a recipient and your reputation is shot to hell.

So philosophical you're right, it's decentralized. But practically, it's more complicated.