OP used an argument I see too often: that the (current) market success of centralization is evidence of centralization's superiority with consumers. For instance:
> Open platforms can’t win by directly appealing to users on philosophical grounds, or even cost (see Linux on the desktop). Mainstream users have no good reason to directly interact with blockchain technology—or any piece of code—without intermediaries involved. Openness and decentralization matter to _developers_.
I think both centralization and decentralization can appealing to consumers, depending on the case and on zeitgeist.
For instance, personal computers were decentralization of computing power, back in the days when the Mainframe (centralization) was dominating. Apple is a decentralized computing company. Often decentralization can become businesses through products, read more https://staltz.com/layers-of-the-internet-economy.html
There are also other "stealth" success examples of decentralized software and protocols that are directly appealing to consumers, such as the Camera and Gallery apps on smartphones and the use of JPEG (open standard) and Bluetooth (open protocol) to create (offline-first) and socially share pictures.
The problem with "decentralization" in 2018 is that it was a buzzword related mostly to blockchain technologies, and software built with those were often shadowing and imitating the recent success that tech giants have accumulated. But decentralization goes way back and its success cases are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted and leave them out of the discussion.
> personal computers were decentralization of computing power, back in the days when the Mainframe (centralization) was dominating
This "decentralized" computing power as an accidental side effect. Personal computers (and open protocols) caught on because they were thought, by consumers, to fulfill a need. The number of people for whom that need was "decentralize $x" is a rounding error.
One very basic value proposition of decentralization for consumers in the context of the internet is offline usage. When you're in an airplane, that's when the need to have the capability at the end device becomes most obvious, and decentralization directly fulfills that need.
Indeed, it's possible that if Multics had caught on with its apparent long-term vision, personal computing could have been delayed for a decade or more because people's needs could have been met.
Bitcoin itself is a pretty good example of centralization caused by economies of scale. Most miners do not run a full node, instead they opt to use a centralized full node called a "pool" and only calculate hashes on behalf of that node with the hope that they end up getting paid.
> Open platforms can’t win by directly appealing to users on philosophical grounds, or even cost (see Linux on the desktop). Mainstream users have no good reason to directly interact with blockchain technology—or any piece of code—without intermediaries involved. Openness and decentralization matter to _developers_.
I think both centralization and decentralization can appealing to consumers, depending on the case and on zeitgeist.
For instance, personal computers were decentralization of computing power, back in the days when the Mainframe (centralization) was dominating. Apple is a decentralized computing company. Often decentralization can become businesses through products, read more https://staltz.com/layers-of-the-internet-economy.html
There are also other "stealth" success examples of decentralized software and protocols that are directly appealing to consumers, such as the Camera and Gallery apps on smartphones and the use of JPEG (open standard) and Bluetooth (open protocol) to create (offline-first) and socially share pictures.
The problem with "decentralization" in 2018 is that it was a buzzword related mostly to blockchain technologies, and software built with those were often shadowing and imitating the recent success that tech giants have accumulated. But decentralization goes way back and its success cases are so ubiquitous that we take them for granted and leave them out of the discussion.