this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
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Enshittification
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What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
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If nothing else, its because easy, anonymous access to freedom and privacy respecting open-source computing is, as far as I'm concerned, a human right.
Unfortunately if you want to anonymously use a decent VPN, or host a vm on a static IP you need to pay for it. That if nothing else is a good reason.
I don't have good answers to these issues, honestly if you're not someone who puts a lot of effort into their computing then crypto isn't for you. Not against those who don't, it simply asks for a level of security and organization the average user is neither used to, nor willing to commit to.
Underneath the giant hotbed of scammers and dipshit venture capitalists is a genuinely useful tool for those who care to use it. Whether or not that's worth it depends on your priorities and beliefs.
At the end of the day scammers and predatory investors have existed, and will continue to exist as long as capitalism has and does. With or without crypto-currencies.