Piotr PORZUCZEK
Department of Business Informatics, University of Gdansk, Sopot, Poland
Platform monopolies have turned the contemporary internet into digital feudalism, extracting profit from human connection while enabling surveillance and censorship. Iran’s 2019 near-blackout, which cut connectivity to 5 %, exposed how centralized architectures become authoritarian chokepoints. Yet scholarship remains fragmented: most studies isolate protocols instead of synthesizing how technical design and political economy co-evolve. We compare federated systems such as ReP2P Matrix, Nostr’s peer-to-peer networks, Bluesky’s AT Protocol, blockchain communication hybrids, and Named Data Networking. Our multi-method study of decentralized internet alternatives blends traffic analytics of 4 million Nostr users on 600 relays, performance benchmarks, economic sustainability modeling, and architectural case studies. We ask whether these designs can fulfil the promise of a truly decentralized internet. The evidence is mixed. SendingNetwork scales group messaging linearly, and Waku proves spam-resistant peer-to-peer networks with <300 ms proof generation; however, no single protocol reconciles censorship resistance, usability, and economic sustainability. Nostr delivers uncompromising censorship resistance yet consumes 35 × the resources of centralized systems. Bluesky’s growth leaves 98.9 % of identities non-portable. Community mesh networks invite new hierarchies of technical privilege. Accepting irreducible trade-offs must guide emerging web3 governance. Communities will choose architectures aligned with their values, but meaningful decentralization will remain aspirational until funding models and accessibility gaps are resolved.