Decentralized Web Concept - Summer 2016

https://www.oreilly.com/ideas/decentralize-now

By the end of that day, I had a vision of a very different web, a web of servers combining secure identification with shared publishing responsibility. Instead of posting files or data to "a web server" under my control, I'd just be publishing to the web (using identifiers linked to my identifiers), and letting the web sort out what goes where, optimizing its own storage and delivery structures. That architectural shift takes me into what feels like uncharted territory, but it is clearly technically and financially possible.

It's hazy to me how this works. Someone has to pay for the servers and manage them.

Blockchain may open doors, however. One of the features of MaidSafe that was popular in my lunch conversation at the summit is its ability to give "coins" to users who provide storage. Building a payment network into the system from the beginning makes it easier to talk people into providing hosting and possibly more.

I assume that users would have no idea what content they would be hosting. What about server availability? Is the same "file" or post is stored on multiple servers?

Also, while it was clear that the people attending the summit (including me!) were eager to see and use a decentralized web, it's much less clear that a broader audience craves decentralization.

Bingo. The masses would view the decentralized web idea as too complicated. And the masses don't care about silos and decentralization.

#indieweb