<center> # My Views on Decentralization *Originally published 2021/12/08 on docs.sweeting.me/s/blog* </center> - decentralized storage layers with centralized regulation / reputation = good - fully decentralized deregulated markets with DAO regulation = bad (you're building libertarianism) - decentralization does not free you from bad actors, it just makes their behavior more obfuscated and harder to regulate - there is no such thing as "trustless", you're just trusting a layer that's not immediately visible until it fails or turns against you - there is no such thing as "zero knowledge" no matter how much fancy zksnarking and onion routing you do, you're just making the knowledge harder to find (through side-channels only available to those with the most power and money to do expensive analysis) - distributed systems fail in complex ways, and all systems are distributed systems. centralize your state and remove some of that complexity in favor of more predictable failure modes - if you design a decentralized system with no central regulation I lose some respect for you, because you're making the world worse by enabling unchecked bad actors ## Required Reading Do not attempt to design a decentralized system without reading, understanding, and internalizing these articles first. - https://monadical.com/posts/Trustless-is-A-Myth.html - https://apenwarr.ca/log/20211201 - https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm - https://maxread.substack.com/p/is-web3-bullshit - https://yesterweb.org/no-to-web3/index.html - https://mnot.github.io/avoiding-internet-centralization/draft-nottingham-avoiding-internet-centralization.html#name-the-limits-of-decentralizat