some projects/ideas i found in the last couple of years, that try to solve our current problem of the internet being a centralized structure that is controllable by big corporations or governments and not so easily usable with mesh technology or when not being connected for long amounts of time
https://scuttlebutt.nz/docs/introduction/
https://yggdrasil-network.github.io/
https://www.inverse.com/science/39507-mesh-networks-net-neutrality-fcc
https://redecentralize.github.io/alternative-internet/
https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns
Yeah, if they used monero instead of lightning would be a better option for the user. Not a lightning fan. Layer 2 solutions seems a waste of time and money for me, lightning included…but well, that’s the result of the blocksize war.
You can either increase blocksize (and therefore decrease decentralization) or build L2s. Look at ETH with their big, frequent blocks. You can run a Bitcoin node on a 10 year old laptop, good luck running an Eth node with those specs. You need at least 1TB of space, and it’s gotta be SSD, and you need a pretty fast processor. Which is why many Eth nodes are hosted in corporate datacenters, over half the network. You can split hairs over what counts as a “node” etc but the end result is the same: increased centralization due to large chain size/requirements.
Monero doesn’t need L2s yet because it doesn’t have the transaction load to fill up available chain space enough to impact decentralization. Long-term, we cannot store all transactions on every node and do that forever. Small txs do not belong on chain. I love XMRs approach to privacy, it will need L2s at some point. Or pruning, which comes with some significant tradeoffs.
