[sanity]

Nothing has been destroyed—Hyphanet is still available at https://hyphanet.org/. Freenet's most remarkable feature is its use of a small-world network to achieve decentralization; anonymity systems weren't new even in 1999. A pluggable approach to anonymity is simply a better architecture.

Nor is this the first time Freenet has been redesigned; the last time was in 2005.

The notion that this is some sort of catastrophe is melodramatic. Rebrands and rearchitectures happen all the time, and in this case, for good reasons—reasons that critics of the decision always fail to address.

[brokenmachine]

What are the good reasons for the "rebrand"?

[sanity]

I summarize here [1], you can find more context here [2], and learn more about the differences here [3]. For a detailed explanation of the new design see the video talk above.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40483749

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Freenet/comments/1d05zw9/questions_...

[3] https://freenet.org/faq#faq-3

[brokenmachine]

I see reasons listed for the rearchitecture but not the "rebrand".

[sanity]

Same thing.

[brokenmachine]

Only if you want to confuse and mislead everyone.