Distributed protocols that combat economy of scale

[agave]

On Sun, 06 Mar 2016 16:41:05 +0100
rysiek <rysiek at hackerspace.pl> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> as "A Miner Problem" shows, even a distributed, p2p solution like
> BitCoin suffers from a secondary centralisation flaw. Simply put,
> economy of scale lets the biggest player or a cartel of thoise
> basically undermine the "decentralized" part and take control over
> the network.
> 
> A similar thing has happened with e-mail and GMail. GMail basically
> dictates the rules in the e-mail world, simply because they're the
> largest and have the most users. Again, economy of scale is to blame.
> 
> So let me pose a question here: is it possible to design a protocol
> that does not succumb to economy of scale-based secondary
> centralisation? Is it possible to design a protocol that does not
> lend itself to economy of scale?
> 

There's always things like TorChat for instant messaging and IPFS for
content distribution. There's no concept of any centralisation in
either - they're completely peer-to-peer. I'm not sure why you drew a
comparison to e-mail - it's inherently centralized, just among
several servers.