Decentralization Matters

Published: Mon 14 July 2025

Have you ever invested time and energy into using a digital service and noticed that it gets worse as time goes on? Maybe the provider added some useless AI integration or started feeding all your data into an AI against your will. Maybe they introduced ads or made it worse some other way. You're not alone in these experiences - in tech, the process is ubiquitous, and gained the name enshittification. It is an example of companies acting against the interests of their users.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) helps with some of these problems, but leaves others unsolved. E2EE is designed to protect you from the service reading your content, but that is not the only threat people need protection from. The real issue isn’t just privacy - it’s power. Who controls your digital life?

Most tech companies turn bad eventually. This can happen in many ways, but it always eventually happens if the right balancing incentives are not in place. They can be sold to private equity, their investors can demand an exit or push for growth at all costs. The company could be infiltrated by intelligence services. They can simply grow too big and turn evil, or the markets could change, leaving the company bankrupt. Or perhaps more than one of these at once! The question isn't if a company will betray you, but when - and, most importantly, what can you do about it.

Digital feudalism vs digital citizenship

The problem lies at the core design of the service. If it is centralized (i.e., there is only one provider), then your choices are either to stop using the service entirely, or to put up and shut up; naturally, neither of these are good options. If you cannot easily switch provider of a service then you are locked in. When you are locked-in, you are vulnerable to the following consequences: - Arbitrary price hikes - Holding data hostage - Adding ads - Arbitrary censorship, account bans - Risk of inserting a backdoor (may be forced by a government)

A centralised service is, by construction, a single point of failure, or an infrastructure choke point where control can be exerted.

In contrast, a decentralized service has multiple independent providers, giving users the choice to switch. And if the switching costs aren't too high, clients are likely to move if they are dissatisfied with the service, giving them a way out. More than that, the mere fact that users can switch keeps the original provider honest and more aligned with their interests.

The solution: Fix the incentives

Being able to switch provider presupposes that there is more than one provider. This means centralized services controlled by a single company are bad for you, your personal sovereignty and digital resilience. If you choose services that have the following properties, then you are protected against the provider turning malicious now or in the future, and the incentives are likely to keep them good.

  1. End-to-end encryption This protects you against misuse or exposure of your data.

  2. Open source servers (not just clients)
    The most important component is open source servers. This means that even if the company disappears, another can spring up to run a compatible service. Many companies, particularly ones with end-to-end encrypted services, try to skirt around this by open sourcing only their clients, not their servers. Don't be fooled by this. Open source clients do not help you to switch providers. True freedom means anyone can run a compatible service.

  3. Portable identity
    Your identity should belong to you, not your current provider. Portable identity means you can keep your identity if you switch provider. One example of this is mobile phone numbers, which you can keep if you switch phone company. This is important because it means you can switch provider without needing to tell all your friends about your new identity.

  4. Portable data
    Most services use location-based addressing for data. This means something like a URL that points to a file, e.g. https://drive.google.com/myuser/myfile. By if I move my account and data to a different provider then those links do not work any more, especially so if the company ceases to exist. Portable data means data is not addressed by its location. This means that if you switch providers all existing access continues to work. The best way to achieve this is with content-addressed data, where data is addressed by its cryptographic hash. In this case, you can get the data from anywhere, and automatically verify that it hasn't been tampered with.

  5. Companies without investors
    If you don't have investors, then they can't sell you out. Venture capital investment in particular is famous for selling out users. The problem is that the users are not the customer, the investors are. So the company does it's best to keep the investors happy, which involves growing as fast as possible, trapping users and then exploiting them for profit to maximise returns to investors. Relatedly, check if the company has a viable business model. Are they charging customers, or are they burning investor money and giving it away for free. A good example of a company without investors is a non profit.

  6. Multiple implementations - a standard specification
    If you have a specification for the product that has multiple open source implementations then this is the best defence. In this case, the software development, as well as the providers, are decentralised.

Centralized services are digital feudalism. If you care about long-term freedom, avoid centralized, proprietary platforms. Choose systems that put you in control. Don't be a subject in a digital fiefdom, be a sovereign digital citizen.

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