Web3 has no shortage of buzzwords. Everywhere you turn, projects tout terms like “decentralization,” “DEX,” “DAO,” “utility coin,” “Web3,” and “self-sovereignty.” It’s as if adding these magic words instantly grants credibility and hype.

But if we dig a little deeper, the uncomfortable truth emerges: much of the so-called Web3 ecosystem is still running on old centralized rails and hollow marketing promises. It’s decentralization smoke and mirrors, in the form of buzzwords for token speculation rather than true peer-to-peer empowerment.

Meanwhile, a project called Qortal has been quietly delivering the actual decentralized infrastructure that others only talk about. In this post, we’ll break down some of the biggest Web3 buzzwords, see how mainstream projects often misuse or dilute them, and then explore how Qortal’s architecture and community deliver the real deal in practice.

The Web3 space is saturated with buzzwords most projects don’t even attempt to adopt¹

“Decentralization” – A Buzzword Losing Meaning

Decentralization is supposed to mean no single point of control or failure. Yet many Web3 projects throwing this word around still rely on centralized servers and services. For example, Ethereum, often held up as a decentralized Web3 pillar, has a huge chunk of its nodes running on Amazon AWS and other cloud providers. In fact, over 65% of Ethereum nodes were hosted on centralized cloud data centers in 2023 (with AWS alone accounting for ~61%).²

That’s not a censorship-proof, resilient network at all. That’s just a centralized platform with a few extra steps. If your “decentralized” blockchain would collapse if AWS had an outage or changed its policies, can you really call it decentralized? Doubtful. Many projects similarly depend on cloud databases, corporate-run API endpoints, or a small group of maintainers with override keys. It’s decentralization in name, centralization in practice. By contrast, Qortal is built to be decentralized for real. There are absolutely no middlemen, and the entire codebase is open source for anybody to fork and see for themselves that there are no corporate fingerprints anywhere in the code.

Every Qortal node is equal, and the network is run entirely by its users’ nodes without any cloud-master or privileged server. Qortal’s blockchain and applications run on the nodes of volunteers worldwide, not on Big Tech’s servers. The project’s official mission is to rebuild the internet as a community-driven, custom-built network that is truly decentralized in architecture and governance.³

In Qortal, there is no corporation to subpoena, no central team to shut down, and no single company controlling infrastructure – the power is distributed among thousands of user-run nodes. Even the Qortal developers themselves cannot unilaterally remove an account or block a transaction on the network.This leaderless, borderless design means the network is resilient to censorship and outside coercion. In short, Qortal earns the decentralization badge by eliminating single points of failure, not just claiming to be decentralized while quietly leaning on them.

Qortal’s peer-to-peer blockchain does one thing very well: it cuts off ALL middlemen from any data transfers between users. This means that users are no dependant on Big Tech to perform actions on the network, as well as being liberated from the stress of being censored or monitored.⁴

DEX vs. Qortal’s Truly Decentralized Exchange

Another buzzword thrown around liberally is “DEX” (decentralized exchange). Plenty of projects advertise having a DEX or being “DEX-friendly.” But what does that mean in practice? Often, not as much as you’d hope.

Many so-called DEXs still have centralized components: maybe a company runs the user interface or hosts order book servers, maybe an “AMM” smart contract exists but the front-end can censor assets or users. Some require you to deposit tokens into a smart contract (introducing risk) or use bridging services run by a few operators. In worst cases, projects mislabel things as a DEX when there’s actually a hidden custodian or admin key.

If a “DEX” can freeze trades or if you’re handing your coins to any third party in the process, it’s not truly decentralized. Qortal takes a radically different approach: it built a DEX directly into its blockchain, called the Trade Portal (the Q-App is named Q-Trade).

This isn’t a website or a company, it’s a protocol-level feature that lets users trade crypto peer-to-peer with no middlemen whatsoever. Want to swap QORT for LTC, DOGE, BTC, or other supported coins? Just open Qortal’s Trade Portal and do it directly from your wallet to someone else’s wallet via on-chain atomic swaps.⁵

There are no deposits, no custodial accounts, and no trusting an exchange operator. Trades execute using atomic cross-chain swap contracts, meaning either both parties get the agreed coins or the trade fails. There is no opportunity for scamming or interception.

When an exchange holds no user funds and has no order-book servers to attack, there’s nothing to hack and nothing to steal. By cutting out centralized exchanges entirely, Qortal ends the exploitative fees and catastrophic counterparty risks that have plagued crypto users for years. Not your keys, not your coins? Qortal’s Trade Portal means you always hold your keys: problem solved!

DAO Hype vs. Qortal’s Community Governance

DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) are supposed to democratize decision-making in Web3 projects. The ideal is that the community collectively governs a protocol, rather than a CEO or board. But in reality, many “DAOs” have turned into plutocracies or marketing mirages. Token-based voting often means whoever holds the most tokens (usually early investors or whales) has the most power. In fact, research has shown that voting power in many DAOs is highly centralized, with fewer than 10 addresses effectively having full control over most major DAO decisions.⁶

In other cases, a core team might have veto power or the community votes are just advisory while devs do as they please. We’ve even seen instances where governance token votes are manipulated, either by whales buying up tokens to swing a vote, or by the ease of Sybil attacks (one person creating multiple pseudo-identities). The result? Many DAOs are “decentralized” in name only, with real control still resting in a few hands, just like a traditional corporation.

Qortal deliberately avoids the typical DAO token-voting model. There is no governance token at all, no 1 token = 1 vote that wealthy speculators can buy up. Instead, Qortal’s governance is community-driven through a contribution-based system. The network runs on an egalitarian minting consensus, where those who support the network over time gain influence (more on “minting” shortly). Every Qortal participant who runs a node and mints blocks earns voting weight as a function of their contributions over time.⁷

In other words, influence is earned by helping the network, not by purchasing tokens. This levels the playing field dramatically. You can’t just swoop in with a bag of money and take over Qortal. You have to put in the time and effort to support the blockchain to have a say. Qortal’s upcoming on-chain voting system plans to use this meritocratic weight, ensuring long-term community members guide the project’s future (not random token whales). Even adding new core developers follows a similar philosophy: new devs are brought in by proving their skills and dedication over time to the existing community.

“Utility Coins” and Token Speculation vs. QORT’s Real Utility

Browse any crypto forum and you’ll see every project insisting their token is a “utility coin.” In theory, a utility token powers some useful service in the ecosystem. In practice, many such tokens exist primarily to be sold, traded, and speculated on. These projects often introduce a token not because it’s needed, but because it’s a convenient way to raise funds or reward insiders. Sometimes the “utility” is contrived, where you must use the token for fees or governance, even if an existing crypto could have served the purpose. And in many cases, utility tokens end up as just investment vehicles with price pumps and dumps, rather than something people truly use daily.

The QORT coin (Qortal’s native coin) stands out as a utility coin that actually earns the name through inherent usage and fair design. First off, Qortal never did an ICO or big pre-mine. There was no massive token allocation to founders or early investors. QORT is only created through the act of minting (block creation) on the network, so it’s distributed to those who help run the network rather than speculators. This means from day one, QORT’s value is tied to participation, not hype. And QORT has plenty of real use: it’s the fuel of the Qortal network. You use QORT to pay for transactions, to register names (usernames/domains on Qortal), to create groups, and to access various Qortal services. For example, in Qortal’s decentralized social apps and marketplaces, QORT can be used for tipping or “super Likes” (directly rewarding content creators) in the Q-Tube video platform.⁸

Crucially, QORT’s economic model isn’t about pump-and-dump; it’s about incentivizing people to run nodes and keep the ecosystem growing. Every active minter receives a small QORT reward each block as thanks for securing the chain.³

This contrasts with Bitcoin or Ethereum, where only a few winners (big miners or stakers) reap large rewards. Qortal’s reward system spreads the coins to all contributors, reinforcing a community ownership of the platform. In essence, QORT is a true utility coin and a community equity token, not a speculative plaything. Its utility is baked into Qortal’s infrastructure, and its distribution is aligned with decentralization (no pay-to-win influence, no insider dumps). When Qortal says QORT is for utility, they mean you’ll actually use it on a daily basis within a self-sustaining decentralized economy, not just watch its price on an exchange.

With so many buzzwords floating around Web3, it’s wild that Qortal is the one project actually delivering on all of them.
No hype. Just real infrastructure, built from scratch.

Conclusion: From Buzzwords to Reality

It’s easy to speak the words “decentralized, self-sovereign, Web3 revolution.” It’s much harder to build them. The mainstream blockchain and Web3 space has seen no shortage of grand promises and catchy buzzwords, but too often these ideals have been watered down by convenience, profit motives, or technical shortcuts. We ended up with “decentralized” projects that still rely on AWS, “DEXes” that still get hacked or censored, “DAOs” dominated by whales, and “utility tokens” that fuel speculation more than utility. It’s enough to make one cynical about the whole Web3 narrative.

But Qortal shows that truly decentralized infrastructure is not only possible, it’s already happening. By eschewing the hype and designing from first principles, Qortal delivered what many Web3 projects only preach. Its minting-based blockchain flips the script on mining and staking, proving you can secure a network through cooperation and time instead of raw capital. Its built-in Trade Portal proves that exchanges can be just code and users, with no company needed! Its data network and apps prove we can have social media, video platforms, and web hosting without Big Tech servers or surveillance.

Qortal is demonstrating, piece by piece, what truly decentralized infrastructure looks like in reality. And as the broader Web3 world grapples with living up to its ideals, Qortal stands as proof that those ideals can be realized, no buzzwords needed!

1. MobilePeople. (2022, April 12). Web3 glossary illustration [Image]. Medium. https://medium.com/mobilepeople/web3-series-the-web3-glossary-cfdab4e4b3ff

2. Ferrari, J. (2025, March 15). Three signs a Web3 project isn’t actually decentralized. Qortal Blog. https://qortal.dev/blog/qortal-dev-blog-7QpH28O7fw

3. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal Wiki. Qortal. https://wiki.qortal.org

4. System Design School. (n.d.). Client-server vs. peer-to-peer architecture diagram [Image]. System Design School. https://systemdesignschool.io/blog/peer-to-peer-architecture

5. Ferrari, J. (2025, March 22). Qortal vs. The Four Horsemen of Crypto Exploitation. Qortal Blog. https://qortal.dev/blog/qortal-dev-blog-KV6cVKsVUu

6. Choy, A. (2024, April 18). Whales, Sybil attacks and low trust: Can DAOs avoid centralization pitfalls? Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/whales-sybil-attacks-and-low-trust-can-daos-avoid-centralization-pitfalls

7. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal homepage. Qortal. https://qortal.org

8. Ferrari, J. (2025, April 12). How Qortal Revolutionized Video Sharing. Qortal Blog. https://qortal.dev/blog/qortal-dev-blog-mdMCvAdnPT

Blockchain technology was supposed to eliminate middlemen, and allow the exchange of data between two individuals directly!

Yet today, four types of intermediaries have wormed their way into the blockchain ecosystem, extracting outsized value under the guise of “security,” “scalability,” or “legitimacy.” They have disparaged the real meaning of peer-to-peer communication, and have blurred the lines between Web2 and Web3 entirely!

These intermediaries are: corporate mining operations, centralized exchanges, government regulators, and hardware wallet companies. Each promised to bolster crypto’s success; instead, they’ve often undermined decentralization and profited at users’ expense. This post takes a sharply opinionated look at how each of these four gatekeepers has failed the community, and how the Qortal blockchain renders them obsolete by design. We’ll see real examples of their exploits and argue why Qortal’s architecture is a philosophical break that restores power to the people.

Mining Companies: The Centralization of “Decentralization”

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work mining was meant to be decentralized, whereby anyone with a computer could support the network. This was obviously an unreachable ideal. Fast forward to 2025, and two giant mining pools (Foundry USA and AntPool) now control 57% of Bitcoin’s hashrate.¹ In a system built to resist central authority, the emergence of mining cartels is a bitter irony. These companies pour millions into ASIC hardware and electricity, concentrating power in a few hands. The result? A handful of players can potentially censor transactions or even attempt 51% attacks, threatening the network’s security. We’ve also seen miners openly censor transactions under regulatory pressure. For example, F2Pool, a large mining pool, briefly blocked OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanctioned addresses in early 2025.² So much for the egalitarian dream of crypto mining. The truth is that mining has become an arms race where only those with massive capital win, undermining Satoshi’s vision of a one-CPU-one-vote system!

Qortal blows up this paradigm! Instead of mining, Qortal uses a novel minting system where every node operator can earn rewards for supporting the network. There are no expensive GPUs nor ASICs required to do so!³ Furthermore, it’s needless to say that there are no mining pools or token-staking schemes in Qortal. Every individual with a modest computer (even a Raspberry Pi) can participate on equal footing. The network’s security doesn’t depend on corporations with warehouses of machines; it rests on a community of users distributed worldwide. Qortal’s consensus actually rewards every active minter for each block, not just a single winner. By removing the incentive for brute-force hash power, Qortal makes the mining company model irrelevant. There are no more “miner kings” extracting rent from the blockchain. It’s just individuals collectively securing the network in a fair, energy-efficient way. It’s a structural change that restores decentralization and economic fairness at the base layer.

Centralized Exchanges: Single Points of Failure and Exploitation

Centralized crypto exchanges present themselves as convenient on-ramps and liquidity providers. In reality, they have been the Achilles’ heel of this industry time and again. We only need to talk about the Mt. Gox incident, for example, where approximately 850,000 BTC went missing.⁴ Or, if not, the FTX scandal , which turned out to be a $8+ billion fraud, to recall how badly this can end.

FTX, once the third-largest exchange, collapsed in 2022 amid revelations that its executives embezzled customer funds.⁵ Users who trusted the FTX team as intermediaries paid a terrible price . There were approximately $8 billion in deposits that vanished, and Sam Bankman-Fried is now a cautionary tale in prison. And it’s not just FTX: countless exchanges have been hacked or mismanaged, from Bitfinex to Quadriga, shedding billions of dollars of users’ assets over the years. Even when not outright failing, centralized exchanges re-centralize crypto. They hold your private keys, they can freeze withdrawals, enforce intrusive KYC, and act as gatekeepers of which tokens get listed (often for hefty fees). In effect, they recreate the very custodial risks and power imbalances that Bitcoin was meant to avoid. The infamous “Not your keys, not your coins” stems from the dangers of storing your coins on wallets found on centralized exchanges.⁶

The FTX scandal sent shockwaves through the crypto space!⁷

Qortal’s answer to this problem is quite simple: get rid of exchanges entirely. Built into Qortal is a decentralized cross-chain Trade Portal called Q-Trade, that lets users trade crypto assets peer-to-peer without any middleman. Want to swap QORT for LTC or DOGE or ARRR or BTC or DGB or RVN? You do it directly from your wallet to someone else’s wallet, on-chain, via atomic swaps. There are no deposits, no custodian, and no trust in a third party.⁸ The Trade Portal uses an Atomic Cross-Chain Trade smart contract (ACCT) to automate trades, so it’s as easy as using a normal exchange interface but without handing your coins to an operator. The result: not your keys, not your coins is no longer an issue.

Users never relinquish control of their coins during a trade, and thus exchange hacks or freezes become impossible. When an exchange has no order books and holds no user funds, there’s nothing to hack and nothing to steal. Qortal effectively nullifies the need for centralized exchanges, ending the exploitative fee-taking and the catastrophic counterparty risks. After all the billions lost and trust broken by exchange CEOs, a trustless trade network is a breath of fresh air.

Government Regulators: Gatekeepers in the Name of Legitimacy

One can argue that Bitcoin (crypto) and blockchain technology was born as a form of revolt to government control, but governments have since tried to quell this revolution. Under the guise of “investor protection” and “legitimacy,” regulators often introduce rules that paradoxically reinforce centralization and hinder self-sovereignty.

A glaring example came in 2022, when a proposed U.S. law (the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, strongly backed by FTX’s founder) would have effectively outlawed DeFi by imposing compliance requirements that only big centralized players could meet.⁹ In other words, the very response to FTX’s failure was a bill that strengthened exchanges like FTX and undermined decentralized alternatives. This is governmental regulation at its finest! Big insiders cozy up to lawmakers to craft rules that punish their open-source competition. Even outside such bills, we see regulators forcing crypto into old molds: licensing that only wealthy companies can afford (e.g. New York’s BitLicense), crackdowns on privacy tools (e.g. the Tornado Cash sanctions), and pressure on miners or, as we’ve seen earlier in the blog, validators to censor transactions for compliance. The pattern is clear: when regulators step in heavy-handedly, the little guys get pushed out and the essence of decentralization gets diluted in favor of surveillance and control by a few approved entities.

Qortal takes a radically different stance: build a system that governments can’t easily control or co-opt. Its network is leaderless, borderless, and immune to on-demand censorship. There is no corporation to subpoena or license. The code is open-source and the nodes are run by volunteers worldwide. By design, no one (not even the Qortal developers) can unilaterally remove an account or block a transaction.8 Attempts to censor or sanction at the protocol level are essentially impossible, because any such change would invalidate the blockchain’s integrity. In Qortal’s world, “code is law” truly prevails over political whims.

Qortal resists Web2-style infiltration by government or corporate interests, keeping the power of the platform firmly in the hands of its users. After years of seeing regulators alternately ignore and hamstring the crypto space, Qortal’s approach is a return to cypherpunk first principles: privacy, freedom of speech, and self-regulation on a platform that values sovereignty over compliance.

Hardware Wallet Companies: Selling Security as a Service

If you hold your own crypto in a self-custodial cold wallet, chances are you’ve heard of hardware wallets from companies like Ledger or Trezor. These devices are sold as the ultimate way to secure your crypto, keep them isolated, tamper-resistant, and safe from online attacks. And yes, hardware wallets do mitigate many risks, but let’s not ignore the irony: crypto enthusiasts fled the banks only to be told to trust new middlemen with safeguarding their keys.

Cold wallet companies have built profitable businesses charging a premium for security, and recent events show even they are not infallible. In 2020, Ledger (a French hardware wallet maker) suffered a data breach leaking personal info of hundreds of thousands of customers, leading to phishing attacks.¹⁰ Then in 2023, Ledger outraged its user base by announcing “Ledger Recover,” an optional service to back up seeds by splitting them with third-party custodians. This move blatantly undermined Ledger’s previous promise that private keys never leave the device. The backlash was swift and severe. Users realized that a firmware update could export their keys if enabled, effectively a built-in backdoor capability. For a company whose motto was security, it was a PR disaster showing that ultimately you still must trust the vendor not to betray your expectations.

Even storing your coins in a cold wallet device now comes with risks. The companies building them have begun introducing centralized components, like cloud backups or proprietary chips, which can be compromised if stored on centralized cloud services¹¹

Even without such missteps, reliance on closed-source hardware and proprietary elements means you place a lot of faith in these companies’ competence and honesty to manage your wallet. They’ve essentially monetized self-custody, trading convenience for self-sovereignty and security!

Qortal makes the role of hardware wallet vendors much less relevant. Every Qortal user is by default a self-custodian, because running a Qortal node means you hold your own keys on your own hardware, secured by strong encryption and the network’s design. There is no need to purchase a separate $150 gadget to achieve “real” security.

Qortal was built to be secure from the ground up on standard devices. You retain sovereignty without having to rely on a third-party manufacturer’s firmware updates or opaque chips. Importantly, your keys never leave your Qortal node or local wallet. Of course, good operational security is still up to the user (Qortal isn’t magic), but it frees users from the need to entrust a specialized company as a permanent wallet guardian. In the Qortal model, security isn’t a product you buy; it’s an inherent feature of the decentralized platform!

A Future Without Parasites – By Design

The crypto revolution has been held back by these four parasitic intermediaries that claim to “help” the Web3 space, but end up helping themselves to power and profit. Mining conglomerates turned blockchain security into a centralized commodity. Exchanges asked users to forsake trustlessness for convenience, and repeatedly betrayed that trust. Regulatory bodies preached consumer protection while often protecting the incumbents and strangling decentralization. And hardware wallet firms sold users peace of mind, then reminded them that closed systems ultimately require blind trust. Enough is enough!

Qortal demonstrates that we can ditch these middlemen and still have a thriving, secure, user-friendly crypto ecosystem. In fact, we can have a more decentralized, censorship-proof, and fairer ecosystem without them. Qortal’s architecture isn’t about tweaking the old model. Instead, it’s a complete shift from those exploitative paradigms. It achieves security through cooperation, not competition; it achieves trading through code, not custodians; it achieves governance through community, not bureaucracy. The result is a platform aligned with the original Web3 ethos: by the people, for the people, with no middlemen in between.

The four horsemen of crypto exploitation have had a good run, but projects like Qortal are proving that their services were never truly needed – and that the future doesn’t belong to those who would centralize and control, but to those who empower and decentralize. The message is clear: evolve or die – and for these crypto middlemen, Qortal is making that choice for them.

Qortal removes the need for mining pools, centralized exchanges, government regulators, and hardware wallet companies

1. Coinpaprika. (2024, February 5). Two mining pools now control 57% of Bitcoin’s hashrate. Coinpaprika News. https://coinpaprika.com/news/two-mining-pools-now-control-57-of-bitcoin-s-hashrate/

2. Atlas21. (2025, March 3). F2Pool accused of transaction censorship and vulnerability in Bitcoin Core. Atlas21. https://atlas21.com/f2pool-accused-of-transaction-censorship-and-vulnerability-in-bitcoin-core/

3. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal Wiki. Qortal. https://wiki.qortal.org

4. Chang, A. (2014, February 28). Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, says it lost 850,000 bitcoins. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-mt-gox-bankruptcy-bitcoins-20140228-story.html

5. Kvilhaug, S. (2023, November 15). What went wrong with FTX? Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/what-went-wrong-with-ftx-6828447

6. Ledger. (n.d.). Not your keys, not your coins: Why it matters. Ledger Academy. https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters

7. Fox Story India. (2022, December). The FTX collapse scandal [Image]. Fox Story India. https://www.magzter.com/stories/business/Fox-Story-India/THE-FTX-COLLAPSE-SCANDAL

8. Qortal Project. (n.d.). What is the Qortal project? Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=what_is_the_qortal_project

9. Britzky, A. (2022, November 15). The ‘SBF bill’: What’s in the crypto legislation backed by FTX founder? CoinDesk. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/11/15/the-sbf-bill-whats-in-the-crypto-legislation-backed-by-ftx-founder

10. Browne, R. (2023, May 16). Ledger bats back criticism of new wallet recovery service. CoinDesk. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/05/16/ledger-bats-back-criticism-of-new-wallet-recovery-service

11. Leswing, K. (2019, January 6). Ledger Nano X hardware wallet [Image]. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/06/ledger-announces-next-generation-cryptocurrency-hardware-wallet/

Decentralization is the way! Or, at least, that’s what all the Web3 projects currently doing their marketing are yelling in their megaphones.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: a massive portion of the Web3 space is still running on centralized infrastructure, controlled by centralized teams, and vulnerable to the same old points of failure as the normal internet!

According to a 2023 article by Resonance Security, over 65% of Ethereum nodes are hosted on centralized cloud providers, with AWS alone accounting for more than 61% of that share.¹ ​

Those are some crazy stats! That’s not a censorship-proof ecosystem at all. That’s just centralized with extra steps.

As someone who has been building on Qortal since 2021, I can firmly say that it really is a peer-to-peer blockchain platform, with no centralized points of failure! And in my journey, I’ve also come to see a few dead giveaways that a project isn’t actually decentralized. And once you see them, you can’t unsee them. Let’s get into it!

1. It Runs on AWS or Another Cloud Provider

As mentioned in the introduction, if a Web3 project claims decentralization but relies on centralized cloud services like AWS, it's inherently centralized. One article recently stated that three major cloud providers account for 69% of hosted nodes on the Ethereum Mainnet, with over 50% of that coming from Amazon Web Services (AWS), over 15% from Hetzner, and 4.1% from OVH.²

So can we say that Ethereum, the Web3 project with the biggest market cap, is actually decentralized? Doubtful!

The issue is that this heavy reliance on centralized infrastructure introduces significant vulnerabilities. For example, centralized cloud providers can experience outages, impose restrictions, or be compelled by authorities to shut down services, directly impacting the availability and integrity of supposedly decentralized applications. Not to mention that AWS has documented procedures for setting up Ethereum nodes on its platform, highlighting the ease with which blockchain infrastructure can be centralized.³ Such an uncanny partnership between a Web3 project and one of the biggest cloud providers of the normal internet should not be applauded, let alone documented!

Ethereum relies heavily on Amazon Web Services to host up to 50% of its nodes⁴

Moreover, the dependence on centralized services contradicts the core principles of decentralization. As noted in a study published in ScienceDirect, the reliance on cloud services allows blockchain nodes to operate without investing in their own digital storage, but this convenience comes at the cost of true decentralization.⁵ For simplicity’s sake, if a user’s data is living on someone else’s server, it’s not decentralized!

In contrast, platforms like Qortal are built on a peer-to-peer infrastructure, eliminating the need for centralized cloud services and ensuring that applications remain truly decentralized and resilient against censorship or centralized control. When users run a full node on Qortal, they don’t just participate in the network — they own their digital footprint. They publish their data through their own machine, and that data is distributed peer-to-peer on their terms. Compare that to the status quo:

• Facebook: You post → they own, store, monetize, and can delete

• Ethereum: You interact → Infura or Alchemy brokers it

• Qortal: You post → your node distributes it, and you remain the source of truth

That’s what real decentralization looks like. No hidden APIs. No centralized chokepoints. No platform risk. This leads us into our next section which is:

2. You Can’t Run a Full Node Yourself

In most Web3 ecosystems, running a full node, the supposed cornerstone of decentralization, is anything but accessible!

For the average user, setting up and running a full Ethereum node is a complex, hardware-intensive process. As of 2024, a fully synced Ethereum archive node takes up more than 12 terabytes of space and requires significant bandwidth and uptime to function properly.⁶

Because of this, almost no one runs one. Instead, most users interact with dApps via centralized RPC endpoints like Infura, Alchemy, or Chainstack. So while the blockchain itself may be decentralized in theory, the access layer, where users actually connect to the network, is deeply centralized.

It’s a situation where the network looks decentralized on paper, but in practice, it’s brokered by infrastructure giants that act as gatekeepers.

Most Solana apps rely on centralized RPC servers to access the blockchain. If this middleman goes down or censors traffic, users are cut off. Qortal eliminates this single point of failure by letting every user interact with the chain directly.⁷

In contrast, Qortal offers every user the chance to run a full node by default, not as an afterthought or an optional feature. This can be done on something as small as a Raspberry Pi! It’s part of how the platform works from day one. This design ensures that every user is fully sovereign and verifiable, that there’s no reliance on centralized middlemen to interact with the chain, and that the network remains resilient and independent from any third-party hosting provider.

Ultimately, if you can’t run your own node, you’re not truly part of the network. You’re just a customer of whoever owns the infrastructure.

3. It Doesn’t Have Its Own Data Layer

And the third sign we’ll explore, which is often overlooked, despite being extremely critical, is the blockchain’s data layer. This is the infrastructure that stores and serves content across the network for its users.

Many Web3 projects claim decentralization but still rely on centralized or semi-centralized storage solutions.

For instance, platforms like IPFS, which are used extensively by Solana and Ethereum, require third-party pinning services to ensure data persistence, which can introduce central points of failure and additional costs.⁸ Similarly, projects utilizing Filecoin or Arweave depend on external storage providers. Filecoin operates as a decentralized storage network where users pay storage providers to store their data. However, if payments cease, data may no longer be retained. Arweave offers permanent storage, but once data is uploaded, it cannot be altered or deleted, raising concerns about data mutability and privacy.⁹ Once again, if a user's data is anywhere else but on their own node, or distributed voluntarily across the network by that person, then it is not decentralized by definition!

In contrast to the previous architecture employed by other Web3 projects, Qortal once again does things properly, and integrates its own decentralized data layer known as the Qortal Data Network (QDN) within the platform itself. QDN allows users to publish and retrieve data directly through their nodes, eliminating the need for external storage services. Data is encrypted, chunked, and distributed across the network, ensuring resilience and censorship resistance.

Moreover, QDN's design ensures that data is not stored on the blockchain itself, preventing chain bloat while maintaining data integrity through on-chain hashes. This architecture enables near-instant data access and a truly decentralized hosting environment.

By operating its own data layer, Qortal offers a level of decentralization that many other projects aspire to but have yet to achieve.

Most Web3 projects rely on third-parties for handling user metadata, which introduced centralization, and additional points of failure!

In conclusion, Web3 promised us a better internet, one that’s censorship-proof, user-owned, and independent of legacy infrastructure.

But most of what’s being built today still leans heavily on centralized cloud servers, inaccessible node infrastructure, and off-chain storage that undermines the entire point of building a brand new internet.

It’s no wonder so many people are disillusioned. We were sold decentralization… and got Web2.5 instead. Users are no closer to owning their data. They are no closer to being self-sovereign, or being able to use an alternative internet without fear of censorship. And that’s why Qortal exists.

From day one, Qortal was built l without compromise. Every user runs a full node, and every piece of content is shared through its own peer-to-peer data network. Furthermore, every application lives outside the reach of gatekeepers, platform bans, or hosting shutdowns. The future of the internet doesn’t need more hype. It needs infrastructure that actually works. And with Qortal, it’s already here.

1. Resonance Security. (2023, November 13). Paradox of centralized cloud infrastructure in the decentralized world [Medium post]. Medium. https://medium.com/@resonance.security/paradox-of-centralized-cloud-infrastructure-in-the-decentralized-13c246c1155e

2. Jones, S. (2022, August 19). 3 cloud providers are responsible for over two-thirds of Ethereum nodes: Data. Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/3-cloud-providers-accounting-for-over-two-thirds-of-ethereum-nodes-data

3. Amazon Web Services. (2023, July 31). Run Ethereum nodes on AWS. AWS Web3 Blog. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/web3/run-ethereum-nodes-on-aws/

4. DL News. (2024, January 29). Ethereum infrastructure graphic [Image]. DL News. https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/ethereum-decentralisation-threatened-by-reliance-on-amazon/

5. Salman, M. A., Kumar, A., & Nayyar, A. (2023). Evaluation of cloud-based Ethereum network performance. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369024208_Evaluation_of_Cloud-Based_Ethereum_Network_Performance

6. Ethereum Foundation. (n.d.). Nodes and clients. Ethereum. https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/

7. Step Data. (2024, March 20). GenesysGo RPC distribution chart [Image]. Step Data Insights. https://stepdata.substack.com/p/step-data-insights-genesysgo

8. IPFS. (n.d.). Persistence. IPFS Documentation. https://docs.ipfs.tech/concepts/persistence/

9. Arcana Network. (2023, July 26). Filecoin vs Arweave: A comparison of decentralized storage networks. Arcana Blog. https://blog.arcana.network/filecoin-vs-arweave/

In the last blog post, we explored how Bitcoin and Ethereum had, thus far, a mediocre impact on the existing internet economy. Now we turn our sights to a project making significant headway in changing the game about how to properly leverage blockchain technology to make a significant impact on the internet economy. This project is called Qortal!

Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, Qortal was designed from the ground up to be a fully decentralized ecosystem, aimed at providing real-world use cases beyond just transferring coins or running dApps on unreliable, overly expensive networks. Qortal’s approach is radically different: it offers a censorship-proof, peer-to-peer alternative internet infrastructure, powered by its own native currency, QORT. The key word here is alternative. The only tie a person using Qortal has to the normal internet is through their internet service provider (ISP), meaning that it is almost completely decoupled from the normal internet! And being built on a peer-to-peer network leveraging the power of blockchain technology, it also benefits from having trustless data transfers, the former being uncensorable, unhackable and completely private in the case of encrypted transactions.

A visual breakdown of how Qortal’s peer-to-peer architecture differs from traditional, server-based networks.

And since most of the transactions involve the transfer of QORT for the different services offered by the numerous Q-Apps found on Qortal, then by definition Qortal transforms into a parallel economy thriving and growing in its own decentralized ecosystem. Definitions are one thing, but how does Qortal work pragmatically at achieving a successful, thriving economy?

Well first, let’s look more closely at the QORT coin, which is at the heart of the Qortal economy. Upon looking into it, one will notice a very interesting concept: that of limitless coin supply. Unlike other crypto projects that place an artificial supply limit on their coins, Qortal does things differently, and offers a coin with no total cap!¹

Bitcoin is famously known for having a total limit of 21 million coins mined, which will be reached approximately in the year 2140.² This idea of scarcity was first perceived as beneficial, and has probably contributed to the elevated valuation of Bitcoin today. But upon further reflection, it is clear that this hard cap is a bad idea in the long-run. For one, the obvious reason being that around 3.7 million Bitcoin (approximately 20% of the total supply) have already been lost³, or are going to be lost in the future due to bad wallet management by human beings! As more coins are lost, the circulating supply will shrink, making the currency increasingly difficult to use and, ironically, creating more centralization as people are forced to rely on centralized exchanges to access liquidity. So the Bitcoin scarcity model, which was initially meant to drive up demand and valuation, eventually only served to centralize control into the hands of a few major exchanges that dominate its network. For example, 10 exchanges process about 90% of trades, and the largest, Binance, accounts for about half the market!⁴ This is not an example of true decentralization. Bitcoin has become a financial instrument masquerading as a decentralized network, driven by speculation rather than utility.

Now, contrast that with Qortal, which operates on a completely different economic model. Instead of a hard supply cap, Qortal employs an infinite supply model with a carefully designed release schedule. At first, this may seem counterintuitive. But in reality, it’s a revolutionary approach that ensures Qortal can thrive for generations to come.

How Qortal compares to Bitcoin and Ethereum across supply, infrastructure, and purpose.

Looking more closely, it becomes apparent that, unlike other Web3 projects in the blockchain space, Qortal focuses on actual utility and real-world use cases. Its economy is built around the principle that as the Qortal ecosystem grows, so too will the demand for QORT. And with countless Q-Apps being built, each one offering a unique way for users to interact with the network and exchange value, the potential demand is virtually limitless! Just like there are countless ways to spend money on the normal internet with a credit card, the same can be said about spending QORT on Qortal. Its valuation is real, and essentially the opposite of speculative.

To reiterate, Qortal’s economic model is designed to sustain itself indefinitely. Its supply is limitless, because its potential use cases are limitless! And when you compare Qortal’s current supply of just over 8.6 million QORT⁵ to Ethereum’s 120 million ETH,⁶ the sheer efficiency of Qortal’s model becomes strikingly obvious.

And that brings us to another important facet of the Qortal economy, which is how the coins are minted. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, which both require lots of capital to validate transactions, and hence favors players with more money,^{7 8} Qortal’s “mintership” system promotes a free and accessible path towards participating in consensus of the blockchain. What’s more is that minting can be accomplished through almost any device, even something as small as a Raspberry Pi.⁹

Once you are admitted into the mintership group on Qortal, by proving you are not a bot, and actually care about the platform beyond simply earning QORT through it, you can begin leveling up, and go up what are called tiers, which is how block rewards are divided amongst the minters every 1000 blocks. The higher tier you’re in, the more you’ve kept your node online and shown your reliability and allegiance to Qortal, and so the more QORT you earn from the block rewards. At the time of writing in April 2025, there is a three QORT reward per block minted, which will trickle down to two over the next four years, where it will stay unless a vote happens to change it.

This design makes QORT’s distribution both merit-based and sustainable over time. And even with this ongoing issuance, projections show that by 2030 there will only be around 14 million QORT in circulation, a mere 11% of Ethereum’s current supply. This makes the argument that QORT’s infinite supply model leads to runaway inflation completely unfounded, especially when paired with a decentralized minting system that incentivizes contribution and reliability.

Now that we’ve established Qortal’s sustainable economic foundation, let’s now explore how QORT is actually being used inside the ecosystem. From digital tips to peer-to-peer commerce, QORT is already fully integrated into the real, parallel economy found on the platform! As we’ve seen in previous blog posts, Q-Shop, Q-Fund, Q-Share and Q-Tube are all propelled by QORT, allowing developers and users to thrive together, in tandem, within the ecosystem.

One prime example can be found on the popular Q-Tube app, which is one of the most popular at the moment on Qortal. One of the coolest features with the application is the ability to tip content creators for uploading interesting videos, through what is known as a super-like. Super-likes are simply normal text comments published on chain, with the exception that they are also tied to a specific QORT amount, which is transferred to the content creator’s wallet upon receiving the super-like. And it goes without saying that the entirety of the amount is received by the creator, with absolutely zero platform fees other than the tiny fee paid by the sender for making the transaction.

Tipping creators on Q-Tube with Super-Likes—100% of the QORT goes to the uploader.

Or perhaps another significant example is the ability to raise funds for any idea you may have on Qortal through the crowdfunding app called Q-Fund. This revolutionary idea, of raising funds to further build within the Qortal economy, can only be made possible by the permissionless, peer-to-peer nature of the Qortal blockchain, which was built to allow data transfers without any middlemen. Gone are the days where crowdfunders must pay extravagant platform fees to raise funds for their next big idea! Instead they can keep everything they earn. This opens up a revolutionary new path for entrepreneurs, software developers, solopreneurs and anybody else towards building on top of Qortal and being able to profit directly from its economy. And once again, all profits made on the platform are retained entirely by the app developers themselves, which flips the script on the revenue models or walled-garden app stores of the normal internet.

Q-Fund enables peer-to-peer crowdfunding with no middlemen and zero platform fees.

This creator-first, quasi feeless parallel economy is not only empowering, but it's also sustainable by design. Instead of relying on venture capital, third-party funding, or even token speculation to stay afloat, Qortal is growing organically, one app, one developer, and one user at a time. And because there are no hosting fees, no centralized infrastructure, and no dependence on third-party platforms, builders can scale their projects without ever sacrificing control or taking on financial risk. This slow-and-steady approach may not grab headlines like the latest memecoin does, but it's laying the groundwork for something far more enduring: a self-sufficient digital economy that doesn't collapse under its own hype.

So let’s recapitulate! Qortal is building an alternative internet where a parallel economy thrives! This is possible by its open source, peer-to-peer permissionless architecture which is maintained by the minters, who are rewarded with QORT for maintaining the integrity of the network. In other words, minters become the facilitators of the Qortal economy, being responsible for the distribution of QORT throughout the ecosystem, which attracts developers, users, and investors alike. Hence a sort of circular economy begins to form, all completely decentralized, with no middlemen or government intervention, as free economies should always be!

The no middleman concept is key here, as this is what allows Qortal to prosper indefinitely; unhindered, and unrestricted by big money or big tech which have stumped development on the normal internet for so long. Users are also free to participate in the economy without needing a bank account or divulging private information that could tie them back to any of their own activity. True economic freedom arises on Qortal!

The Qortal economy isn’t just something to casually disregard as the next Web3 fad. It’s a reinvention of how the internet itself can function: peer-to-peer, borderless, censorship-proof, and community-driven. With every Q-App launched, every new user onboarded, and every block minted, we move closer to a world where individuals, not corporations, own the web and the value exchanged on it. This is not a trend. This is not hype. This is infrastructure. And it’s already live. If you’re tired of waiting for real decentralization to arrive, you’re not alone. Join the builders, the thinkers, the freedom-lovers who are already here, on Qortal! The future economy isn’t coming. It’s here. And you can be a part of it. Install Qortal today. Start building tomorrow!

1. DodgersDesign. (2023, December 19). Understanding the Qortal project: A new perspective on max supply. Medium. https://medium.com/@dodgersdesign/understanding-the-qortal-project-a-new-perspective-on-max-supply-fc8e8989534

2. Gemini. (n.d.). How many Bitcoins are left? Gemini Cryptopedia. https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/how-many-bitcoins-are-left

3. Chainalysis. (2023, March 29). What Chainalysis data tells us about the Bitcoin market. Chainalysis Blog. https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/bitcoin-market-data-exchanges-trading/

4. Reuters. (2024, April 10). Crypto trading concentration a ‘considerable concern’, says EU watchdog. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/crypto-trading-concentration-considerable-concern-says-eu-watchdog-2024-04-10/

5. Exqlorer. (n.d.). Exqlorer. https://exqlorer.com/

6. Coinbase. (n.d.). Ethereum price. Coinbase. https://www.coinbase.com/price/ethereum

7. Toptal. (n.d.). What is Bitcoin mining? Toptal. https://www.toptal.com/management-consultants/blockchain/what-is-bitcoin-mining

8. CoinTracker. (2023, January 25). Ethereum 2.0 tax guide. CoinTracker. https://www.cointracker.io/blog/ethereum-2-tax-guide

9. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal glossary. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_glossary

Since the rise to stardom of Bitcoin in mainstream culture, and shortly thereafter of Ethereum (though on a much smaller scale), crypto and blockchain enthusiasts around the world have been monitoring closely how these projects would transform the digital economy, and ways of transacting online. One can safely say that Bitcoin has definitely succeeded in permitting decentralized payments between users from occurring safely and repeatedly, and this since 2008, meaning it has withstood the test of time thus far, strengthening its authenticity from a security and integrity perspective.

And given that it has a daily trading volume of $27.57 billion USD¹ at the time of writing, Bitcoin has undoubtedly made its mark on the global economy as a currency capable of being traded without the need for banks or any centralized entities.

Ethereum has also found success in its own regard, with a daily trading volume of $14 billion USD² at the time of writing. Thanks to its pioneering use of blockchain for dApps, transforming it into a platform for decentralized applications rather than just monetary transactions, it has also made its mark on the global economy, though in a different capacity. Suffice to say that both these projects have left a heavy footprint in the blockchain and crypto spaces, becoming trailblazers for other projects to follow down the road to a new, decentralized technological reality in the 21st century.

But what if we take a step back, zoom out a little bit, and escape the crypto bubble to look at the bigger perspective? To replace the talk of nonces, cryptography and ledgers, for e-commerce checkout carts, monthly SaaS subscriptions and Facebook authentication. In reality, how has Bitcoin and Ethereum impacted the internet economy as a whole? Has the average web user been affected in their daily rituals, enhancing their experience significantly, or even at all? This might be a controversial take, but one can argue that not at all!

For one, most e-commerce websites still choose to integrate with big fiat payment processors, such as Stripe or Paypal, to handle transactions. As a matter of fact, only 15,174 businesses worldwide accept bitcoin³, which is a tiny fraction in relation to the total number of businesses that exist. Bitcoin also suffers from poor scalability issues which makes it impractical for everyday transactions.⁴ On the other hand, Ethereum has not been able to spearhead much of anything on the normal internet. The most attention it has garnered thus far involves speculative opportunities to exchange NFTs or metaverse land parcels. It also relies extensively on centralized nodes such as Amazon Web Services,⁵ especially to handle the bulkier user metadata, which raises concerns of how decentralized the platform really is. It’s fair to say that thus far, crypto has not garnered enough momentum outside its own microcosm to have a significant impact on the greater internet economy. Next time: We explore the project that actually is changing the rules: Qortal.

The normal internet relies on centralized platforms for access and profits, while Qortal opens the doors for everyone to own, build, and earn.

1. CoinMarketCap. (2025, March 29). Bitcoin (BTC) price, chart, and market cap. CoinMarketCap. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin

2. CoinMarketCap. (2025, March 29). Ethereum (ETH) price, chart, and market cap. CoinMarketCap. https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/

3. Edwards, S. (2023, November). Will retail ever truly embrace cryptocurrency payments? Sherwen Studios. https://www.sherwen.com/insights/retail/will-retail-ever-truly-embrace-cryptocurrency-payments

4. Trust Machines. (n.d.). Bitcoin scalability problem: Achieving scale. Trust Machines. https://trustmachines.co/learn/bitcoin-scalability/

5. Melinek, E. (2024, January 29). Ethereum’s decentralisation threatened by reliance on Amazon, experts warn. DL News. https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/ethereum-decentralisation-threatened-by-reliance-on-amazon/

Over the past few blog posts, we examined how Qortal has transformed entire industries found on the normal internet, through its revolutionary peer-to-peer blockchain technology. This transformation was facilitated by Qortal’s Q-Apps, which as we’ve seen, are decentralized apps built on top of this blockchain infrastructure platform.

But this dramatic and sudden upheaval of these different industries did not occur because there was suddenly a more ingenious way of doing e-commerce on the web, for example, or because of a major improvement to the way we watch videos online. No, instead, every single changeover was fomented by an incredibly simple concept, yet one that is also super radical: no middlemen!

The no middleman concept is so simple, yet so revolutionary when it comes to how we exchange data on the internet!

The reality of the modern internet is that user data is constantly harvested by major corporations like Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet (MAMAA).¹ Their services dominate the internet, often requiring users to surrender privacy through opaque data collection practices, whether through cookies or less explicit methods.² But Qortal’s peer-to-peer approach cuts out these middlemen entirely, ensuring user privacy and data ownership in a truly decentralized environment.

MAMAA corporations control most of what happens on the current internet

And as we saw over the course of the last few blog posts, this “no middleman” concept can be transmuted to many different industries, each one vastly different from the next. Whether it’s enabling the buying and selling of goods without a centralized platform skimming fees, or facilitating crowdfunding without unnecessary intermediaries, Qortal’s trustless, peer-to-peer nature is proving itself to be a versatile solution to many of the problems plaguing today’s internet.

Furthermore, by boasting its own coin, QORT, which is what powers the entire ecosystem, Qortal offers the chance for developers to build monetization into their applications, profiting directly from this decentralized blockchain. In other words, a parallel economy has formed on top of the parallel internet which is Qortal, further elevating its remarkable status amongst Web3 projects everywhere.

The Q-Apps Library is a prime example of how Qortal is building a revolutionary parallel internet, with its own economy nested in it.³

More importantly, Qortal’s fair-launch minting system ensures that anyone, regardless of financial status or technical expertise, can participate and contribute to the network. There are no pre-mines, no ICOs, and no whales controlling the supply of QORT. Fair launches embody crypto’s decentralization ideals, fostering trust and community ownership while avoiding regulatory pitfalls.⁴ Qortal embodies them all!

And unlike the other big names in the Web3 space, the barriers to entry on Qortal are very low, whether that be users ready to “mint”, and contribute to the parallel economy by validating transactions as minters, or whether that be developers, who can come in and start building Q-Apps almost immediately, using only Javascript! These Q-Apps are not only decentralized, but scalable, private, and resilient to attacks! Over time, building them will become easier and easier, and with no hosting fees attached to them, and being completely sheltered from any potential censorship or hacking, it will become the logical choice for developers to build apps on Qortal rather than on the normal internet.

So what we are witnessing with Qortal is not just a better way to build apps or exchange data. It’s the blueprint for a new era of the internet, where users reclaim control over their data, digital identities, and online interactions. The “no middleman” approach may sound radical, but it’s already proving itself as a viable model for reshaping how we think about online interaction, ownership, and commerce.

And with more Q-Apps in development and the network continuing to grow, Qortal is no longer just a theoretical solution. As a matter of fact, it’s not been a theory since its launch in June 2020.

Rather, it’s a working, real-world alternative to the centralized web. One which has the immense potential to crystallize the original vision of the cypherpunks, Satoshi him or herself, and of the entire Web3 audience, to give every individual self-sovereignty when interacting online!

The question is no longer whether blockchain can fix the internet. The question is: Are you ready to be a part of it?

1. Walker, L. (2021, November 17). Is MAMAA really the new FAANG or were we missing Microsoft the whole time? InterviewNoodle. https://interviewnoodle.com/is-mamaa-really-the-new-faang-or-were-we-missing-microsoft-the-whole-time-88b693e85921

2. Vigliarolo, B. (2024, September 19). Big Tech under fire for 'harmful' harvesting of data. The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/19/social_media_data_harvesting_handling_ftc/

3. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Apps Library [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

4. Bitbond. (2025, March 5). Fair launch crypto: A comprehensive guide. Bitbond. https://www.bitbond.com/resources/fair-launch-crypto-a-comprehensive-guide/

The internet was once like the wild west. It was a digital frontier, where information flowed freely, and where all the world’s information and web traffic wasn’t controlled by a handful of corporations. It seems the idea of a free and open internet changed along the way. Did we somehow tacitly and collectively trade convenience and speed in exchange for a lack of privacy? Or perhaps the internet has become the centralized data hoarder it was always doomed to be, which was necessary for the advent of blockchain to arise as a potential solution. Whatever it may be, there are countless issues with the current internet, and very few projects working on solving them.

This unfortunate situation all began in 1968 when J.C.R. Licklider, then director at ARPA, foresaw a computing revolution on the horizon. In his seminal paper, "The Computer as a Communication Device," he envisioned a future where computers facilitated seamless, interactive communication among users, enabling a "truly effective man-computer partnership."¹ Licklider anticipated a decentralized network, free from centralized control, fostering open collaboration and innovation.²

J.C.R. Licklider (1915 – 1990) is often referred to as “the father of the Internet”³

However, the current state of the internet diverges significantly from Licklider's vision. The commercialization of the internet in the 1990s led to the emergence of dominant corporations, resulting in the centralization of online platforms and services. The digital landscape is now dominated by a few tech giants, often referred to as "Big Tech," which exert substantial control over online platforms and services. This centralization has led to concerns about monopolistic practices, data privacy, and the suppression of competition. ​

For example, it’s not uncommon to hear about websites taken down by governments around the world, or various types of content pulled from the websites of big companies such as Youtube, Facebook, Tiktok and so many others. In addition, Google, being the world’s most visited website, and dictating much of the traffic of the web through its powerful and infamous search engine, can make a website completely disappear from the web at the snap of a finger, practically annihilating its chances at obtaining any sort of page visits at all!

The commercialization of the internet was being discussed as early as 1994⁴

All of this is known as the “Virtuous Cycle”, which paradoxically isn’t virtuous at all, since it does not promote virtue in the classical sense.⁵ Instead, this cycle tries to explain how centralization is directly tied to big companies knowing more and more about their users as they benefit from their products in exchange for their data. This data can then be harvested to further improve these companies’ products, making them increasingly more alluring and addictive, all the while attracting an even bigger user base, hence leading to the internet of today, whereby a handful of corporations control all the traffic of the internet. In other words, the virtuous cycle inherently drives a concentration of data in a few hands through consumerism and convenience: i.e centralization.

But a countermovement to this centralization trend began in 2014, when Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum coined the term Web3, which inaugurated a new era of the internet. This movement was sparked by a need to reclaim back control of the data found on the internet, essentially wresting it back from the hands of big tech and restoring it to the users.

The idea that blockchain technology, the same technology that was used in getting Bitcoin to the popularity and mass adoption it attained, could be used to propel a brand new decentralized internet, began to form. Indeed, if a peer-to-peer, decentralized network could allow the transfer of funds between two people, without the need for a middleman, what was stopping it from allowing the transfer of any sort of data?

Theoretically, it seemed possible. But in practice, most Web3 projects stumbled into the same pitfalls they were trying to avoid: centralized hosting, reliance on venture capital, and token speculation overtaking real infrastructure development. Instead of replacing Big Tech, these so-called “Web3” projects became just another layer of centralization disguised as decentralization, all the while distorting the whole purpose of the movement in the first place.

The current state of the Web3 space is muddled by countless DeFi projects claiming to be decentralized while promulgating the big tech machine they are supposedly fighting against.⁶

And judging by the current state of affairs in 2025, it really seems that speculation, greed and a desire to get rich quickly overtook most projects in the Web3 space. Whether that be through some gimmicky “minted” NFTs, that serve absolutely no purpose than to be resold at a later date for a profit, or through memecoin tokens that are made even by politicians nowadays, it seems the cypherpunk movement that started this quest for decentralization got side-tracked along the way.⁷

The original cypherpunks sought to build systems that couldn’t be censored, controlled, or co-opted.⁸ Web3 failed them. Censorship didn’t suddenly go away with these new DeFi projects. Control of data and of digital identities wasn’t suddenly back in user hands with these corporate-backed projects striving for more regulation in the blockchain space. In reality, nothing changed. The market was just flooded with fiat money going to projects built on a KYC (Know Your Customer) mentality. And because KYC is so centralized, implementing it in Web3 is antithetical to Web3 itself.⁹

Picture form the famous Cypherpunk article by Wired 30 years ago¹⁰

But while Web3 lost its way, one project stayed true to the vision of a decentralized, trustless, privacy-driven, open-source internet. That project is Qortal! Released in June 2020, it has managed to offer a proper replacement to the existing internet, while still upholding strict standards which make it a role-model for others in the Web3 space: a completely open source codebase, a peer-to-peer network with no middlemen, its own decentralized data layer without the need for any centralized nodes, a fair launch with no Initial Coin Offering (ICO), and the ability for anybody to run a full node!¹¹

Qortal sticks to the Web3 fundamentals!¹²

In parallel to sticking to these very high standards, Qortal has also quietly grown into a complex ecosystem which is already host to many Q-Apps, offering it real utility for users looking to browse an alternative internet! Unlike the speculative, VC-backed Web3 projects that have dominated the headlines, Qortal is driven by a real, community-powered network designed for long-term adoption!

And as we’ve seen in other blog posts, the use cases for Qortal are innumerable. This infrastructure truly has the potential to upend the entire internet economy, transforming it into a peer-to-peer web, where the end users are back in control, and not big corporations. There are many Q-Apps which are already progressively transforming industries, including video sharing, e-commerce, torrents and crowdfunding. This is just the beginning of course, as the platform will never cease to grow and improve over time!

There are already many Q-Apps built on the Qortal Blockchain!¹³

There’s never been a better time to start exploring this project, whether that’s as a user looking to reclaim your digital footprint, or as a contributor, helping to refine the platform itself. We look forward to welcoming you to this new era of the internet, facilitated by the power of blockchain technology and the formidable team behind the Qortal project. Install it today at qortal.dev! See you on Qortal!

1. Chase, J. (n.d.). J.C.R. Licklider and the dream machine. Duke University. https://users.cs.duke.edu/~chase/cps49s/licklider.html

2. Living Internet. (n.d.). J.C.R. Licklider and the universal network. Living Internet. https://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_licklider.html

3. HCI Pioneers. (2015, July). J.C.R. Licklider [Image]. HCI Pioneers. https://hcipioneers.wordpress.com/portfolio/jcr-licklider/

4. ACM Digital Library. (1994). Computer network diagram from “The Worldwide Web” [Image]. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/188280.188286

5. White, R. (2021, August 11). The centralization of the Internet. Public Discourse. https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2021/08/77139/

6. Hydro Protocol. (2019, April 15). DeFi interactions: Composition of objects and actions [Image]. Medium. https://medium.com/hydro-protocol/defi-interactions-composition-of-objects-and-actions-c75e66c5a353

7. BitDegree. (2025, February 12). The evolution of Web3: Understanding the next generation of the internet. BitDegree. https://www.bitdegree.org/crypto/news/the-evolution-of-web3-understanding-the-next-generation-of-the-internet

8. Nabben, K. (2022, August 22). The socio-political history of DAO: From Cypherpunks to Web3. ChainCatcher. https://www.chaincatcher.com/en/article/2078333.

9. Crawford, M. (2023, March 28). DeFi KYC: The contradiction of knowing your customer in Web3. Hiro Systems. https://www.hiro.so/blog/defi-kyc-the-contradiction-of-knowing-your-customer-in-web3

10. u/[RedditUsername]. (2023, May 5). Can’t believe that crypto went all the way from Cypherpunks… [Image]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/137tbuc/cant_believe_that_crypto_went_all_the_way_from/

11. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal 101. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_101

12. Pixrate. (2024). Qortal: The Future of Web3 [Screenshot]. Qortal Project.

13. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Apps Library [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

The internet as we know it is broken! When the World Wide Web was launched 32 years ago by Tim Lee-Berns of the CERN foundation, he had a goal in mind of making it free and accessible to everybody.¹ But somewhere along the way, the internet strayed far from this vision. What was meant to be an open digital space has turned into a corporatized, data-harvesting machine, where access to information comes at a price, and true freedom online is disappearing.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee became the inventor of the World Wide Web in 1989 while working as a software engineer at CERN²

Between the ubiquity of paywalls guarding every website (trying to make as much money from users as possible), the countless passwords to remember for every website asking for a login to capture user data, the plastering of commercial ads, ad nauseam, across all forms of content, and the recent explosion of AI-generated content blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s fake, the internet of today is an absolute mess.

And these problems don’t even begin to address some of the bigger issues at hand, such as the growing grasp of big tech on almost all the data found on the internet, as well as a centralization of DNS on the platforms of web giants.

For example, it has been said that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, now control up to 70% of all web traffic, up from 50% in 2014.³ One could argue this is due to the excellence of their service offering, and improvement of their tech, but this has indubitably been at the expense of freedom and anonymity on the web. Furthermore, with the striking down of net neutrality in the US, internet service providers can continue their practice of “blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization” for big corporations having the money to be able to buy bandwidth, therefore drowning out small internet companies.⁴ In other words, turning the internet into a place where only the wealthiest and most powerful corporations have a voice to be heard.

Alphabet and Meta are recipients of most of the web traffic on the internet at the moment⁵

Another big issue, as mentioned above, is the centralization of the Domain Name System (DNS), which serves as the internet’s phonebook. It is highly centralized and controlled by a few major entities like ICANN, GoDaddy, and Cloudflare, with GoDaddy controlling up to 11.62% of the domain registrations on the internet.⁶ That means that every website owner is at the mercy of these big corporations, and can have their site suspended, censored, or transferred on a whim. For example, in 2010, the US government seized 82 domains in a single day through ICANN’s jurisdiction, without trial or due process. This was possible because the organizations that administer .com, .net, and .org domains—like VeriSign—are based in the United States, giving the government authority over them.⁷

And what’s worse is that these domain names are never truly owned. They are simply rented for a yearly fee, meaning that website owners must continually pay renewal fees to keep their domains active. If payments stop, the website can disappear in flash, which fuels the cybersquatting industry, where predatory buyers scoop up expired domains and ransom them back to original owners for absurd prices.⁸ Needless to say, the domain names market has become highly commercialized, centralized, and rendering true digital sovereignty nearly impossible under the current system.

As the problems of the normal internet piled up, Web3 emerged as the next evolution of the web. Coined in 2014, Web3 promised a new era of online freedom; one where users could truly own their data, control their digital assets, and escape Big Tech’s grip. And with its arrival, a new promise was made: there could, in fact, exist an alternative internet where users truly own their digital assets, where censorship is impossible, and where central authorities could no longer seize control of online identities.

However, lamentably, the movement got side-tracked, and this Web3 vision failed to reach its original vision of a decentralized, open source, and user-controlled web. Instead, from what we’ve seen so far, it became a breeding ground for hype-driven DeFi schemes, NFT cash grabs, and memecoins. Worse, many so-called 'decentralized' projects rely on centralized AWS and IPFS servers, proving they’re no better than the systems they claim to replace! Indeed, we traded privacy, self-ownership and data control for convenience, greed and speculation!

NFTs are a prime example of the failures of the Web3 space, driving interest purely on speculation and hype alone!⁹

So the search goes on for an alternative internet that puts the power back in the users’ hands. But wait…that project is already out there, flying under the radar of most people. It’s called Qortal, and it is realizing the idea of a new, decoupled web, where there is no censorship possible, no data harvesting possible, and where users can exchange data peer-to-peer, with no middlemen! Sounds too good to be true? Would it sound even more unbelievable if you learned that it was live since 2020, and could be installed on your favorite device, such as an operating system laptop, Chromium browser extension, or even Android phone? Well, it’s not that incredible, since it’s the truth!

Unlike the countless token-driven projects that have flooded Web3, Qortal launched with no ICO, no pre-mine, and no venture capital backing. No insiders, no early whales, no pay-to-win schemes, just true decentralization from day one! And it’s 100% open-source, meaning anyone can inspect the code, contribute, or even fork the project. On top of that, everyone can run a full node on Qortal, meaning it’s no longer only big players who can validate transactions on the blockchain.

There’s already so much you can do on Qortal. It truly is an alternative internet!¹⁰

To summarize, Qortal has created a self-sustaining, censorship-proof infrastructure designed for long-term adoption, not short-term profit. Its approach to Web3 has been spotless: a fair launch, a distributed peer-to-peer network where anyone can contribute to the blockchain and earn rewards, an open source codebase, real utility that you can use today, and a parallel economy based on trust and transparency. Now this is the kind of blockchain infrastructure which has the potential to offer an alternative to the normal internet. And with many Q-Apps already built, offering real use cases, all powered by the QORT coin, it is already proving to be one! Install it today!

1. Dinmore, N. (2023, April 30). 30 years of a free and open Web. CERN. https://home.cern/news/news/computing/30-years-free-and-open-web

2. Thinking Heads. (2017, August). Tim Berners-Lee at a conference [Image]. Thinking Heads. https://thinkingheads.com/en/speakers/tim-berners-lee/

3. Cuthbertson, A. (2017, November 2). Facebook and Google control 70 percent of web traffic. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/facebook-google-internet-traffic-net-neutrality-monopoly-699286

4. Wheeler, T. (2023, October 30). Don't be fooled: Net neutrality is about more than just blocking and throttling. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/dont-be-fooled-net-neutrality-is-about-more-than-just-blocking-and-throttling/

5. Visual Capitalist. (2024, July). Most visited websites in 2024 [Image]. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-most-visited-websites-in-2024/

6. Domain Name Stat. (n.d.). Domain name registrars list. Domain Name Stat. https://domainnamestat.com/statistics/registrar/others

7. Kravets, D. (2012, March 6). Uncle Sam: If it ends in .com, it's seizable. WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2012/03/feds-seize-foreign-sites/

8. Mysterium VPN. (2025, February 17). What is cybersquatting? A deep dive into domain name hijacking. Mysterium VPN. https://www.mysteriumvpn.com/blog/what-is-cybersquatting

9. Studio North. (2022, August). Web3 and NFTs: What are they and what do they mean for businesses and brands? [Image]. Studio North. https://studionorth.co.uk/web3-and-nfts-what-are-they-and-what-do-they-mean-for-businesses-and-brands/

10. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Share Homepage [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

When we think of video sharing platforms online, only two big names come to mind: Youtube and Tiktok! And given that TikTok users spend more than 1.5 hours on the app each day, and that over 2.6 billion people around the world use YouTube every month, it’s not surprising to hear that these corporations hold so much influence on the internet!¹

But the truth is that such concentration of power in just a few hands always leads to problems, and video-sharing platforms are not exempt from that! Deplatforming, censorship, demonetization and an ads overload are just a few of the negative realities that have come to be associated with these applications!

Given their extensive purchasing power, these corporations can keep content creators hooked on their application, tempting them constantly with alluring monetization programs. The more videos they post on their channel, the more the company can run ads on those videos, and finally the more they can pay the content creators for their efforts. In theory, it’s a good reward mechanism for creators, but for users it leads to an video experience that is extremely commercialized, vapid and simply irritating!

Indeed, the internet was built to enable the free-flow of information. One where users could exchange in full freedom, without worrying about having their data being harvested against their will, or without having to watch 23 ads, comprising 10 double ads and 3 single ads, a single hour of video watching on Youtube.² Or without users having to compromise on their privacy, because their personal data is being harvested and studied by a big corporation, without prior consent from the user him or herself.³

Youtube ads are so ubiquitous that we hardly notice them anymore, even if there can be as many as 3 in one video!⁴

And let’s not even talk about how rampant the censorship is on these platforms! Here is one quick example: just in the first quarter of 2024, YouTube removed over 157,000 videos for violating hate speech policies.5 Here is another: back during the covid pandemic, Youtube banned Sky News Australia’s channel for 1 week for spreading misinformation about Covid, which simply meant pushing a narrative that was different from the mainstream one at the time.6 This led to a significant loss of money for the news outlet, since their monetization was also cut off at this point too.

Youtube censorship has become a real, widespread problem⁷

Are we starting to see the problem with centralized platforms holding so much influence on the normal internet? Especially for something as common as videos, which are some of the most consumed data sources on the internet. Well, it doesn’t need to be that way, and Qortal offers a new hope to content creators around the world.

It offers this hope through a Q-App called Q-Tube, which is a video-sharing platform where there are no ads, no data harvesting, no censorship, no corporate monetization programs, and most importantly, no deplatforming! This means that when a video is posted on Q-Tube, it will stay up forever, unless replaced by another video by its owner.

Screenshot of Q-Tube on Qortal Hub⁸

On YouTube, every search, view, and like is stored, analyzed, and used to manipulate what you see next. With Q-Tube, there is zero data tracking! What you watch is your business and your business alone. Also, Q-App developers must request the user’s permission before accessing any data, such as the user’s name, avatar, QORT balance, or anything else. There are also no more annoying ads, since Qortal doesn’t enforce any third-party marketing on its platform, unless it’s embedded by the content creator him or herself inside the video.

Regarding monetization, it is still possible on Q-Tube, using a feature known as a super-like. Sending a super-like means rewarding content creators for videos they’ve uploaded on the platform, by adding a comment on the video which has a certain amount of QORT attached to it. And the best part? The entirety of the amount goes to the creator. No more splitting revenues with a big corporation, or paying unnecessary taxes on revenues made online.

To conclude, the arrival of Web3, and specifically, Qortal, has revolutionized many industries on the normal internet, as explored in previous blogs. And today, we saw that video sharing platforms have also been completely overhauled, with the arrival of Q-Tube! Privacy lovers, content creators, decentralization evangelists, and Web3 enthusiasts worldwide can rejoice, now that they can watch videos in full confidence that their data is safe, and that no third-party is snooping on their viewing preferences. It’s time to reclaim control of your data when watching videos, and Qortal has a solution available today that is both user-friendly and with low barriers to entry. The future of video is already here! If you’re tired of ads, censorship, and corporations controlling what you see, it’s time to take back control! Install Qortal today, open Q-Tube, and experience video-sharing the way it was meant to be!

1. Lukan, E. (2024, December 6). 50 video statistics you can’t ignore in 2025. Synthesia. https://www.synthesia.io/post/video-statistics

2. Confused Bird. (n.d.). How many ads does YouTube serve for 1 hour of video? Confused Bird Forum. https://confusedbird.com/thread-359.html

3. McKinnon, J. D. (2024, September 19). Social-media firms lack adequate privacy controls, FTC report says. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/social-media-cos-lack-adequate-privacy-controls-ftc-report-says-3f5b68db

4. Waffle Bytes. (2022, August). YouTube ads [Image]. Waffle Bytes.

5. Reuters. (2024, August 13). YouTube shuts Portuguese extreme-right group's channel after NYT queries. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/youtube-shuts-portuguese-extreme-right-groups-channel-after-nyt-queries-2024-08-13/

6. BBC News. (2021, August 1). Australia COVID: Brisbane extends lockdown as Delta outbreak grows. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-58045787

7. Liberties. (n.d.). YouTube face logo [Image]. Liberties. https://www.liberties.eu/en/stories/protect-free-speech-campaign-online-censorship/224

8. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Share Homepage [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

If you speak to any millennial having grown up with dial-up internet, with early, scrappy versions of Windows 95 or 98, and with floppy disks of 360kb, they’ll also tell you about their history with downloading music off Limewire or Kazaa. These were old torrenting softwares, mostly known for downloading pirated music. In 2007, it was estimated that Limewire had been installed on over one-third of all computers globally.¹ They were eventually forced by injunction to stop distributing the software, and to pay $105 million dollars in damages. As we’ll see in this article, this is the fate met by most torrenting websites, but with the arrival of Qortal’s Q-Share app, it doesn’t need to be. Let’s get into it.

Millennials will immediately recognize this screenshot of Limewire²

Another recent significant event in the torrenting space occurred in 2016 when the website domain “Kickass Torrents” was seized by the US government, and its founder arrested in Poland.³ This torrenting website had by 2014 become the most visited BitTorrent directory in the world, overtaking The Pirate Bay, according to the site's Alexa ranking. When it went down, the domain shortly reappeared not longer after, under a different top-level domain. Today, there are still countless torrenting websites in existence, with millions of users still downloading and sharing files on a daily basis.⁴

Kickass was taken down in late 2015 as seen in this screenshot of its domain⁵

But torrents face many other problems, on top of their precarious existence in the eyes of governments around the world. One of these is that many files downloaded on torrent websites are disguised malware or contain malicious files that can harm your device or steal your data. They can also serve as trojan horses so that hackers can infiltrate your computer.⁶ Privacy lovers should also be concerned about downloading torrents, because doing so exposes their IP address to the torrent swarm. Malicious actors can then target their connection or attempt to identify them, making them vulnerable to various threats.⁷

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have gone so far as to install malware on their subscribers' computers, in an attempt to interfere with and block torrent traffic, which was believed to have been placing financial pressure on the company.⁸ As crazy as this sounds, it is true, and is only possible because of the centralization of the normal internet.

This Korean News Agency reports on the telecommunications giant KT is under investigation for allegedly hacking the systems of customers who used torrent services.⁹

Enter Q-Share! It’s a Q-App found on the Qortal Ecosystem which allows users to share and download files uploaded by other Qortal users. For the first time ever, users can share and download files without fear of takedowns, censorship, or surveillance! These files are separated into categories for easy filtering, just like with a normal torrent website. The biggest difference lies in the fact that it isn't a website, but an uncensorable, unhackable, and untraceable application propagated by every node on the Qortal network. When a user uploads a file to the Qortal Data Network (QDN), it’s stored across multiple nodes instead of a single location. As others download it, they also help propagate and store the file, ensuring permanent availability.

Screenshot of Q-Share on Qortal Hub¹⁰

In other words, Q-Share solves every problem found with traditional torrent websites by simply offering a better way to exchange data between users on the network. Traditional torrenting relies on centralized websites, such as The Pirate Bay, to list torrent files. And these torrents depend on central trackers to coordinate downloads. While modern BitTorrent clients have implemented decentralized methods like Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) to discover peers without trackers, trackers are still often included with torrents to improve the speed of peer discovery.¹¹ Hence, when these centralized trackers get taken down by governments, or blocked by ISPs, all the data is by definition gone too!

Governments cannot take down Qortal, as you cannot take down a network which has no single point of failure. As for ISPs, they are absolutely powerless in the face of Qortal, as nothing that happens on the Qortal ecosystem can be tracked or traced back to an IP address. Users can be as anonymous as they wish, by creating as many accounts as necessary. So while censorship and deplatforming is a big problem for torrent websites on the normal internet, the same can be said for content creators on big tech social media websites, or small sellers on e-commerce giants, as we’ve seen in previous blog posts.

To conclude, while torrenting has been on a downward trend over the years, it is still a major industry on the normal internet. Users looking for a better, innovative way to trade data easily should turn their eyes to Web3, and specifically to Qortal, which has facilitated this kind of data transfer, while also removing any chance of censorship, data harvesting, hacking, viruses, and so many other issues that plague the normal internet.

The future of file sharing is already here, but only for those who take action! If you’re still relying on outdated torrent sites that could disappear tomorrow, it’s time to make the switch. Install Qortal today, explore Q-Share, and experience truly unstoppable file sharing.

1. Zahn, J. (2010, November 4). The life and death of LimeWire. Marquette Wire. https://marquettewire.org/3777966/tribune/marquee/the-life-and-death-of-limewire-mr1-se2-je3/

2. Wikimedia Commons. (2008). LimeWire 2008 interface [Image]. Wikimedia Commons. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Limewire2008.PNG

3. Statt, N. (2016, July 20). KickassTorrents domains seized after alleged owner is arrested in Poland. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/20/12243592/kickass-torrents-artem-vaulin-founder-arrested-domains-seized

4. PC Matic. (n.d.). Torrent usage trends & statistics: A year-by-year analysis. PC Matic. https://www.pcmatic.com/blog/torrent-usage-trends-statistics-a-year-by-year-analysis/

5. ThinkComputers. (2015, February). KickassTorrents domain taken down by domain name seizure [Image]. ThinkComputers.org. https://thinkcomputers.org/kickasstorrents-domain-taken-down-by-domain-name-seizure/

6. SOCRadar. (2023, September 29). The torrent landscape: Understanding security, risks, and the future. SOCRadar. https://socradar.io/the-torrent-landscape-understanding-security-risks-and-the-future/

7. Frank Line Tech. (2024, July 17). Why torrenting is risky: The safety concerns you need to know. Frank Line Tech. https://franklinetech.com/why-torrenting-is-risky/

8. Burgess, R. (2024, June 15). Korean ISP accused of installing malware on 600,000 customer PCs. TechSpot. https://www.techspot.com/news/103548-korean-isp-accused-installing-malware-600000-customers-pcs.html

9. The Cyber Express. (2024, February). South Korean KT ISP installing malware [Image]. The Cyber Express. https://thecyberexpress.com/south-korean-isp-installing-malware/

10. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Share Homepage [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

11. Ross, K. W. (n.d.). Peer-to-peer systems [PDF]. NYU Tandon School of Engineering. https://cse.engineering.nyu.edu/~ross/papers/PEXIEEEp2p.pdf

With the arrival of Q-Shop in the Qortal ecosystem, the Qortal community witnessed the upheaval of another major internet industry: e-commerce. This may sound like a hyperbolic overstatement, but this blog will seek to explain why it’s not. The ramifications of the advent of Web3 and blockchain technology continue to disrupt the current ways of working on the normal internet, and with every new Q-App built on Qortal, the disruptions will continue. Let’s begin!

The current state of e-commerce on the internet can be summed up in one word: Amazon. This may seem like another exaggeration, but with Amazon controlling a whopping 40% of the market share for online purchases, it hardly is one.¹

Amazon has become a giant in the e-commerce space²

There is no doubt that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, can be lauded as one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 21st century, from launching a lowly book-selling business to capturing the entire e-commerce market in three short decades. However, this entrepreneurial prowess cannot hide the fact that there is always room for improvement, especially in the realm of technology. Amazon has mastered the art of simplicity, speed, and efficacy for its customers, but at what cost?

Its centralized approach to e-commerce means all the sellers listing products on its website are subject to between 6% and 15% in fees of the product's sale price, depending on the category.³ This doesn’t even include the monthly fees for having an account. Other e-commerce websites such as Ebay or Etsy also have similar fee structures.⁴ Can you imagine the struggles startups selling physical products must face, having to suffer such costs, on top of the normal taxes they must pay to their respective governments? Every dollar counts when you’re starting a company, and these fees are definitely not favorable for new companies to launch.

Another major issue with the centralized nature of all e-commerce sites on the internet is that sellers are at the mercy of their iron fists in regards to censorship and deplatforming. For example, a book publisher was recently deplatformed from Amazon for selling a book of a slightly more controversial nature.⁵ Furthermore, big payment processors used by some e-commerce websites have a definite list of prohibited businesses from using their services, as well as people living in many countries around the world.⁶ Needless to say, both buyers and sellers are not completely free when dealing with these e-commerce websites.

Certain payment processors explicitly block certain types of businesses, as well as users from certain countries, from using their services⁷

Buyers are no better off in the freedom department. It has been proven time and time again that big tech companies, from which Amazon is a part of, harvest and study customer data to their benefit. This data is taken without prior consent from their users, despite the tiny font in the terms and conditions they sign when creating an account. They claim they collect data on users' online activities, preferences, and purchasing habits to deliver personalized advertisements.8 Who knows how this data is really studied, and by whom. It may provide a better user experience, but from a privacy perspective, it is absolutely awful! But what if there was an alternative? A marketplace where sellers keep 100% of their earnings, transactions are completely private, and no central authority has control over your business? That’s exactly what Q-Shop delivers.

Q-Shop is a marketplace which facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers on Qortal. Sellers can sell both products and services, listing their items in either QORT or ARRR (which is a privacy coin).

There are already many shops built on Q-Shop at the moment⁹

By leveraging the power of the Qortal blockchain, sellers benefit from a peer-to-peer network where there are no middlemen! That means they are in complete control of their shops, and can do whatever they so choose with them. This means that they can rest easily that their shop will not be taken down for selling a certain product, or hacked by any ambitious hackers on the normal internet. Hacking is impossible on Qortal, as user data is not stored on any centralized server, but spread out amongst all the nodes on the network. Beyond this, all orders on Q-Shop are totally encrypted, adding another layer of privacy to Q-Shop! Sellers looking to be extra private can also sell their items in ARRR, one of the most private cryptocurrencies that have ever been created!

But most important of all, sellers retain 100% of their revenues which they earn on Q-Shop (excluding tiny transaction fees for publishing their shops and items). Just that, in and of itself, is such a gigantic leap forward from e-commerce on the normal internet! Launching new startups would become easier than ever, with no red tape or geographic boundaries in place to hinder the process. Also, banking regulations become a thing of the past, as Qortal’s QORT coin becomes commonplace for all transactions in this parallel economy.

To conclude, Qortal’s Q-Shop will offer both buyers and sellers a new innovative way to transact in the Web3 space. Gone are the astronomical fees, censorship and data harvesting that are commonplace on the e-commerce websites of the normal internet. Instead, Qortians can benefit from an ecosystem which is built to be fully decentralized, and peer-to-peer, for every, single, block. And the fact that these e-commerce shops will thrive on Qortal also means they’ll be able to leverage other cool functionality of Qortal’s ecosystem, such as encrypted chats on Q-Chat, encrypted mails on Q-Mail, and a decentralized trade portal to go from QORT to 6 different other coins very easily using Q-Trade.

So while the current e-commerce giants are thriving on the normal internet, it shouldn’t stop innovation, especially when it comes to respecting digital privacy, and favoring a more egalitarian approach to doing business. The sky-high fees for participating on their websites, and financial gatekeeping, harm both buyers and sellers. These problems are solved by Qortal’s Q-Shop. So if you’re looking for a blockchain project that pushes boundaries, with a project offering real utility and solving the real problems with e-commerce, then Qortal is your project. Install it, set up your shop, and start selling—free from corporate interference!

1. eMarketer. (2024, February 15). Amazon will surpass 40% of US ecommerce sales this year, despite competition in grocery, home improvement. eMarketer. https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-will-surpass-40-of-us-ecommerce-sales-this-year

2. Geddes, R. (2019). Amazon fulfillment center [Image]. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/when-amazon-went-from-big-to-unbelievably-big/582097/

3. Amazon. (n.d.). Pricing. Amazon Seller Central. https://sell.amazon.com/pricing

4. Sellercloud. (n.d.). What are marketplace fees? Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy. Sellercloud. https://sellercloud.com/blog/what-are-marketplace-fees-amazon-ebay-walmart-etsy/

5. Haring, B. (2021, February 27). Amazon under fire for erasing from its sales site book critical of transgender movement. Deadline. https://deadline.com/2021/02/amazon-under-fire-for-removing-transgender-study-1234702507/

6. Stripe. (n.d.). Restricted businesses. Stripe. https://stripe.com/en-bg/legal/restricted-businesses

7. Whop. (2025, February). Why was my Stripe account suspended/restricted? [Image]. Whop. https://whop.com/blog/stripe-account-closed/

8. McKinnon, J. D. (2024, February 12). Social media companies lack adequate privacy controls, FTC report says. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/social-media-cos-lack-adequate-privacy-controls-ftc-report-says-3f5b68db

9. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Q-Shop Homepage [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

The arrival of a decentralized, peer-to-peer and open source blockchain infrastructure such as Qortal brings about innumerable benefits with it, probably enough to write books upon books about it! However, in this blog we’ll explore one especially good advantage of Qortal and its parallel economy: crowdfunding!

Yes, you heard correctly, crowdfunding! The concept of raising money amongst people inclined to support a given cause goes as far back as 1798, when Auguste Comte, a French philosopher and mathematician issued notes for the public support of his future work as a philosopher.¹

Crowdfunding isn’t a new concept, and has been around for a long time²

The idea is not new, and it’s widely spread on the normal internet, with websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter being extremely popular for startups, aspiring artists, solopreneurs, and pretty much everybody looking to raise money for a cause. So if the idea and concept are not new, and already vastly popular, where’s the innovation and advantage brought forth by Qortal?

Well, first let’s take a look at some recent scandals surrounding GoFundMe and Kickstarter, as this will set the tone for why Qortal is so revolutionary and cool (in so many ways).

Recently, a protest in Canada during the Covid lockdowns led to a Trucker convoy descending on the capital of the country, Ottawa, in a peaceful measure to denounce the overreach by the government during the pandemic years. Truckers and other protestors started an encampment and blockade which disrupted the city streets for over 3 weeks!

To fund these efforts, an organizer called Tamara Lich started a GoFundMe campaign, which surpassed 10 million Canadian dollars in donations. However, GoFundMe decided to freeze the funds after it ruled that the crowdfunding went against their terms and conditions, and would be used for violent purposes.³ Needless to say the crowdfund failed, and GoFundMe ended up reimbursing everyone who had donated to the cause.

To make matters worse, many protestors who had donated to the cause saw their bank accounts frozen by the Canadian government, including Ms. Lich who would also eventually be prosecuted in court for inciting the movement.⁴ The whole fiasco painted GoFundMe, and crowdfunding in general, under a very bad light!

A screenshot showing the frozen GoFundMe crowdfund to support the Freedom Convoy of 2022⁵

As for the Kickstarter, it is not exempt from its own scandals, as it’s been reported that with nearly a fifth of revenue raised on the crowdfunding giant going toward scams.⁶ This is due to incompetence on the company’s end in handling fraudulent crowdfunds, and can be directly attributed to it being a centralized website.

All these problems would be avoided if people began crowdfunding on Qortal’s very own Q-App called Q-Fund, which works the same way as traditional crowdfunding platforms, but with one major kicker: no middlemen! That’s right, all the QORT, Qortal’s native coin, raised on Q-Fund would go directly to the crowdfunder’s account, thereby saving the person up to 10% in fees, which are normally charged on normal internet websites.⁷ This is due to the fact that Qortal is decentralized and peer-to-peer blockchain, meaning that transactions between users are direct, with no third parties involved!

A screenshot of a crowdfund on Q-Fund on Qortal Hub⁸

This decentralized architecture also means that censorship and freezing of crowdfunds based on political motives is impossible! Had the truckers used Q-Fund to raise their money back in 2022 for their protest, they would have received all the amount they had funded, with nobody standing in their way. And to top it off, nobody who had donated to the crowdfund would have had their bank accounts frozen, as it is impossible to trace an user’s name on Qortal back to their ip address. In other words, people who donate to Q-Fund are doing so practically anonymously.

And in regards to the fraudulent crowdfunds found on Kickstarter, Qortal also has a solution to this! They are called “Automated Transactions”, and work as an automatically executable contract that runs in the blockchain when certain conditions are met. In this example, Q-Fund could be technically updated to add an escrow service to it, whereby it could automatically release the QORT funded in stages based on milestones achieved by the person raising the money. We say technically because this is not yet in place, but an ambitious developer could update the app to allow for this if he or she so desired. And Q-Fund is open source, as is all code on Qortal!

So now that we’ve seen all the problems with crowdfund applications found on the normal internet, and how they are absent on Qortal, the question must be asked: why would anybody want to ever raise money using centralized services ever again? And let’s not forget that you can trade QORT against 6 other coins, including Bitcoin, on Qortal, meaning you could technically raise funds for other types of cryptocurrencies too. Q-Fund could also be updated to accommodate this too. Everything is possible on Qortal, and the infrastructure is still in its infancy!

Qortal has revolutionized crowdfunding, and it will revolutionize many other applications on the normal internet too! It’s just a matter of time. If you haven’t installed Qortal yet, you can do so here. See you on Qortal!

1. Positivists.org. (n.d.). Auguste Comte's appeal for public support. Positivists.org. http://positivists.org/blog/archives/5959

2. AMEF Consulting. (2024). Crowdfunding: Source of financing and investment opportunity [Image]. AMEF Consulting. https://www.amef-consulting.com/en/2024/01/crowdfunding-source-of-financing-and-investment-opportunity/

3. The Star. (2022, February 4). GoFundMe pauses donations to Freedom Convoy as fundraiser surpasses $10 million. The Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/gofundme-pauses-donations-to-freedom-convoy-as-fundraiser-surpasses-10-million/article_14b6093b-ee75-5514-9d52-a7f1e6b178e4.html

4. Austen, I., & Bilefsky, D. (2022, February 22). Canada protest's unexpected legacy: Uniting disparate groups. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/world/americas/canada-protest-finances.html

5. GoFundMe. (2022, January 14). Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser page [Screenshot]. GoFundMe.

6. Jarvis, M. (2024, March 12). Almost a fifth of money raised by Kickstarter projects goes to scam campaigns, report alleges. Dicebreaker. https://www.dicebreaker.com/companies/kickstarter/news/fifth-of-money-raised-by-kickstarter-projects-goes-to-scams-report-alleges

7. eFulfillment Service. (2023, November). Pricing your crowdfunding campaign: A guide for success. eFulfillment Service. https://www.efulfillmentservice.com/2023/11/pricing-your-crowdfunding-campaign-a-guide-for-success/

8. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Support My Marketing Efforts – Q-Fund campaign [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

The arrival of the new wave of the internet, the colloquial “Web3” movement, has been the impetus for a large number of projects to explode onto the scene. There were approximately a whopping 5,300 new tokens launched every day in 2024¹, all of them associated with their own roadmaps and people behind them, investing time and money. Needless to say, it has become a combined maze, labyrinth and puzzle for a Web3 enthusiast to find his or her way on the scene, in the search for projects offering real utility, and solutions to the pain points found on the normal internet.

There are countless new crypto currencies tokens and coins being created every single day²

This blog aims to ease that confusion, and propose Qortal as a coveted prize to this endless treasure hunt. And not because it’s a cool-looking project with a flashy user interface (which it is), but because it unequivocally sticks to the Web3 fundamentals, and is a shining example of a genuine project embracing this new evolution of the internet.

To make it simpler, one can safely assume that the Web3 fundamentals are as follows:

• A decentralized and peer-to-peer blockchain (or network in familiar lingo)

• Complete control of one’s data as a user

• No censorship and hacking possible

• Decoupled parallel economy

• No third party funding or services involved

• Anybody being to run a full node

• The project was launched with no initial coin offering (ICO) and fair tokenomics.³

Woo! That was a lot of words. This might sound like a hefty criteria to abide by for a project, and it is! The sad part is that most so-called Web3 projects fail to even pass the first major criteria: complete decentralization!

See, even major projects and industry leaders such as Ethereum and Solana are not decentralized in the sense that they still rely on centralized servers to store user data, such as the metadata of user NFTs to give a popular example. Furthermore, a recent study showed that 65 percent of Ethereum nodes are housed in centralised data centres. According to the study, two-thirds of them come from three major data providers of web services.⁴ If the industry leaders cannot even abide by the first fundamental rule of Web3, how can expect smaller microcap projects to do so? They do not.

Even big time projects like Solana and Ethereum and centralized, and therefore don’t respect the criteria necessary to be considered “Web3”⁵

Indeed, because they fail at decentralization, most projects coming into the space right now are based entirely on speculation and greed alone, with the sole purpose of generating fiat revenues for its creators and some lucky investors. But these projects shouldn’t garner much attention from Web3 enthusiasts, privacy lovers, or decentralization fanatics. Instead all their attention should be placed on a project that respects ALL the Web3 fundamentals, and that project is Qortal!

Unlike Ethereum, Solana, or most blockchain projects, Qortal was built from the ground up to be completely decentralized, with no central servers, no corporate backing, and no hidden control mechanisms. It is completely decoupled from the normal internet, with the only tie to the regular internet being one’s internet service provider (ISP). At last! A project which satisfies the first fundamental principle for being considered Web3.

And if this wasn’t enough, Qortal also happens to meet every single other Web3 fundamental we listed earlier:

• All a user’s data is completely their own, with self-custodial wallets also meaning they completely control their coins too.

• Data stored on the Qortal Data Network (QDN) cannot be hacked nor censored by anybody, as the data is completely distributed across all nodes on the network.

• Qortal contains many Q-Apps where people can use their QORT, including Q-Shop and Q-Tube, meaning it can already be considered a parallel economy

• There was no third-party funding involved when Qortal launched

• Anybody can run a node on Qortal, including on something as small as a Raspberry Pi, which means that money does not equate power on the network

• Qortal was launched with no ICO nor pre-minted QORT. Genesis Block #1 minted the first QORT coin.⁶

Qortal truly embodies the Web3 fundamentals, like every blockchain project should!

To conclude, Web3 was meant to be a revolution; an internet where users have full control over their data, transactions, and online identities. But somewhere along the way, many so-called Web3 projects lost sight of these principles, choosing profit over decentralization, speculation over real utility.

Qortal is different. It was built with ethics at its core, ensuring that no corporation, venture capitalist, or wealthy individual could manipulate the network. With complete decentralization, true censorship resistance, and an economy free from third-party control, Qortal embodies everything Web3 was supposed to be. We’re talk about an actual internet alternative now!

So the question isn’t whether Qortal aligns with Web3 fundamentals—the real question is, why aren’t more Web3 enthusiasts paying attention? Get started today if you haven’t already, and install it on your favorite device!

1. CoinGecko. (2024, January 18). How many cryptocurrencies are there in 2024? CoinGecko Research. https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/how-many-cryptocurrencies-are-there

2. 365 Web Resources. (2023, October 10). A collection of virtual currency & Bitcoin graphic design freebies. 365 Web Resources. https://365webresources.com/collection-virtual-currency-bitcoin-graphic-design-freebies/

3. Bains, A. (2023, July 7). Web3.0 guide: Understanding the basics of Web3. CCN.com. https://www.ccn.com/web3-0-guide-understanding-the-basics-of-web3/

4. Bhardwaj, S. (2022, September 12). 3 cloud providers accounting for over two-thirds of Ethereum nodes. Forbes India. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/crypto-made-easy/3-cloud-providers-accounting-for-over-twothirds-of-ethereum-nodes/79163/1

5. Kolhe, A. (2023, September 10). Solana vs. Ethereum: Comparing the titans of blockchain. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/solana-vs-ethereum-comparing-titans-blockchain-ashwin-kolhe/

6. Qortal Project. (n.d.). Qortal 101. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_101

The explosive rise of social media websites on the internet has undoubtedly made a profound mark on the web, transforming how we share information about ourselves with friends, family, and even complete strangers! It has significantly changed the way communities unite and grow, has influenced political movements and celebrity fandom, and one could say has completely overhauled the ways businesses approach online commerce, forging a new chapter in online marketing forever!

But such a sudden cataclysmic shift in where people spend time online, with as many as 63.8% of the world's population using social media everyday, with average usage of 2 hours and 19 minutes¹, has not had its fair share of concerns, both moral and social. The giant corporations in control of the major social media websites now have the datasets of billions of people around the world at their fingertips. They are in a powerful position, able to use this data for all sorts of potential uses, including malevolent ones. There are many such examples in recent history.

Social media applications are ubiquitous on the normal internet, and are used by 5.22 billion people every day²

For example, the 2010 Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a British consulting firm harvested data from 87 million Facebook profiles to sway political elections in the United States.³ This data had been taken surreptitiously, without users having consented to it of course. Or the Tiktok scandal of 2022, where the company admitted that it used its own app to spy on reporters as part of an attempt to track down the journalists’ sources.⁴

Facebook has taken a lot of heat over the years for being caught up in countless scandals over mismanagement of their users’ data⁵

And these are only stories which came to light through the work of whistleblowers! The full extent to which social media companies mismanage user data is unknown, but there is a fair chance that it is used to covertly improve their own algorithms to subconsciously influence people into taking certain actions, or worse yet, sold to third parties⁶ where it then becomes impossible to know how this data is used.

So are internet users beholden to these tech firms, forced to give up their data in order to use an application they enjoy on the web? The short answer is no - but there’s work to be done! The evolution of the internet into Web3, where the data control falls back into the users’ hands, and where centralized servers no longer reign in data hosting, is the hope to solving this privacy issue.

But most existing Web3 projects offer little in the form of a decentralized product. Most still rely on centralized services such as Amazon Web Services to store user data, or ask users to use a Chrome wallet for managing their coins, which leaves it very vulnerable for phishing or hacking attacks.⁷

Chrome wallets are easy pray for hackers looking to steal people’s crypto⁸

That’s where Qortal comes in. It’s a project that sticks to the Web3 fundamentals: open source, peer-to-peer, fully decoupled from the normal internet (apart from your ISP), and having launched with no initial coin offering (ICO). It also allows developers to build what are known as Q-Apps, directly on the blockchain, using only Javascript. These apps run inside the Qortal UI, and are thus integrated within the Qortal infrastructure, meaning they are unhackable, uncensorable, and together form a parallel economy which can thrive outside the normal internet.

With that being said, Qortal would be a perfect place for an ambitious developer to build a new social media app, one where the users are in full control of their data, and one where censorship doesn’t exist. This kind of app can only be possible on an infrastructure such as Qortal. Because of its fully autonomous architecture, nobody can control anybody else’s data to their own advantage. Furthermore, given that anyone can run a full node, including on something as small as a Raspberry Pi, the chances of a single node controlling most of the data on the network significantly decreases.

There are already so many apps built on the Qortal ecosystem!⁹

On top of this, given that QORT powers everything on the Qortal ecosystem, a smart developer would also leverage this to his advantage, allowing communities on his social media Q-App to earn income for managing their groups, or to charge for extra services on the app itself. The possibilities are endless, and the transactions seamless! Small fees too!

To conclude, it seems obvious that the current model used by social media websites isn’t working as best as it could, with a new scandal associated with these companies coming into light regularly. The problem always remains the same: concentrating most of the data of users using these applications onto the private servers of giant corporations always leads to problems, with censorship and mismanagement a common occurrence.

It’s not a matter of if, but when a Facebook, or Instagram, or X clone is built on Qortal by a developer. And this time, it will be built with the end user’s data sanctity in mind! It’s time to reclaim our data on the internet, and start browsing an alternative internet based on transparency, trust, open source code and data control. Head to the downloads page now, and install it right away! See you on Qortal!

1. https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/

2. The Sun. (2023). [Social media topic banner image]. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/TOPIC-BANNER-750x352-social-media-1.jpg?strip=all&w=750&h=352&crop=1

3. Business Insider. (2019). Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie explains how Facebook data was misused. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-facebook-data-2019-10

4. The Guardian. (2022). TikTok owner ByteDance fires workers for accessing data of journalists. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/22/tiktok-bytedance-workers-fired-data-access-journalists

5. The Economist. (2018, March 24). Print edition cover: USD001. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20180324_USD001_0.jpg

6. Futurism. (n.d.). Twitter is selling your data to the government. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-selling-data-government

7. CCN. (2024). How scammers target hot wallets: Protect yourself. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.ccn.com/education/crypto/how-scammers-target-hot-wallets-protect-yourself/

8. CCN. (2024). [Hackers targeting hot wallets]. Retrieved January 24, 2025, from https://www.ccn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/hackers-hot-wallets-768x432.webp

9. Ferrari, J. (2025, January 24). User interface of the Qortal Hub showing the Q-Apps Dashboard [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

With the arrival of Qortal, and its clear allegiance to a decentralized, peer-to-peer infrastructure model, the advent of a new, parallel economy is upon us, one that is is completely decoupled from the normal internet!

Indeed, such an infrastructure, where data is exchanged between the different nodes of the network, using blockchain technology, opens up a boundless amount of possibilities for businesses, content creators, solopreneurs and anyone looking to transact with other people, without needing to pass by any intermediary.

Qortal embraces peer-to-peer blockchain technology to unlock a parallel economy¹

Earning revenues as a content creator has not always been the same. The evolution of the content creator, from the early days of television, where money was made mostly through advertisement, and where one had to split revenues with a whole production company, to the 2010s decade, where the arrival of Youtube ushered in a new tidal wave of content creators, all being paid by one centralized entity, to now, with Web3 blooming as it is, has brought creators ever-so closer to their audience.

Content creation and distribution has evolved drastically over the years, with creators getting closer and closer to their audience over time²

With that being said, Qortal would make an especially good use case for Patreon subscribers, who have seen themselves be taken down from the platform in the past, for their political views.³ Some OnlyFans creators would also be interested by Qortal, given their huge scare, when the website threatened to remove NSFW content from its website back in 2021, thereby threatening their livelihood by consequence.⁴

The common disrupting denominator in both examples above is the intermediary between content creators and their audience. Not only do they take a big cut of the profits from the hard work of the creators, but they also stifle them through censorship, or new regulations on their platforms. The solution is a simple one: take away the intermediaries, and allow creators to be paid directly by their fans.

Furthermore, creators can also leverage platforms like Qortal to express themselves more creatively, without someone standing over their shoulder to make sure they meet community guidelines, or forcing them to use branding that doesn’t necessarily bode well with them.

These opportunities are only possible using Web3, where the information is exchanged peer-to-peer, with no centralized entities in charge of all the information on their own private servers. The data remains in the custody of the users on their own nodes, and they choose whom they share it with.⁵

Qortal is already providing an awesome platform for new creators, with its decentralized apps called Q-Apps, which can be built using only Javascript by any web developer. For example, there are already two platforms that would be of interest for content creators: Q-Tube and Q-Shop.

Q-Tube is a platform where you watch videos uploaded by anybody, downloaded directly from their computers onto yours. You can also send a superlike to creators, which is a comment on a video tied to any sum of QORT, Qortal’s native coin which powers the platform. It goes without saying that the entirety of this superlike sum goes directly in the creator’s wallet, minus the tiny transaction fees of the platform. Fans can therefore support their favorite creators directly on Qortal.

Q-Tube is great Q-App for content creators looking to make video content, where they can receive superlike tips for their efforts from viewers⁶

Q-Shop is another Q-App where entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and content creators can open a shop and start sellings goods and services, directly on the Qortal blockchain. This revolutionizes the idea of e-commerce where you no longer need a centralized entity such as Amazon or Ebay to buy a product from somebody online. And once again, sellers can expect to keep all their revenues, minus transaction fees.

Q-Shop is revolutionizing e-commerce, allowing buyers and sellers to interact directly with each other on a decentralized network, allowing for faster and less expensive transactions, with sellers keeping 100% of their earnings⁷

And this is just the beginning. As Qortal continues to grow, content creators can expect new Q-Apps to be built, as well as a more and more secure infrastructure for transacting in confidence, whether it’s for keeping their data secure or for making sure they remain in full possession of their coins at all times.

If you’re curious about how all this works after reading this article, we’ve recently launched the Qortal Trifecta: Qortal Hub for Windows and Linux, Qortal Go for Android, and Qortal Extension for any Chromium browser. You can download Qortal today on your favorite device, wherever you are. See you on Qortal!

1. Unknown. (n.d.). Fotolia image of a sunflower [Photograph]. Eternal Sunshine of the Is Mind. https://eternalsunshineoftheismind.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/fotolia_10155189_xs.jpg

2. Unknown. (n.d.). Image of the evolution of media [Digital image]. Medium. https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1200/0*c0cpF9rjWAuSFSnA.jpeg

3. Labbé, T. (2017, August 3). Crowdfunding site Patreon is purging far-right figures. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/crowdfunding-site-patreon-is-purging-far-right-figures

4. Brown, L. (2022, August 28). OnlyFans, Patreon models turn to Web3 over payment censorship fears. Cointelegraph. https://cointelegraph.com/news/onlyfans-patreon-models-turn-to-web3-payment-censorship-fears

5. Verix. (n.d.). What is Web3? Verix. Retrieved January 16, 2025, from https://www.verix.io/blog/what-is-web3

6. Ferrari, J. (2025, January 16). User interface of the Qortal Hub showing the Q-App Q-Tube [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

7. Ferrari, J. (2025, January 16). User interface of the Qortal Hub showing the Q-App Q-Shop [Screenshot]. Qortal Hub.

Communities are the backbone of the normal internet! Whether they come in the form of a Facebook group for dog lovers, a Reddit subreddit for coffee aficionados, or a Telegram chat group of expats in Mexico, there are countless examples of how the internet has facilitated socializing and finding people with similar interests as one’s own.

But things aren’t always rosy, especially when certain communities, or even entire platforms, go against ideologies espoused by higher authorities, whether that be governments, or big corporations.

For example, Wikipedia was blocked entirely in Turkey when they were unable to censor an article they disagreed with.¹ Egypt blocking the entire Medium blogging platform in 2017 is another example.² This is only possible due to Web2's centralized internet control, where platforms rely on specific servers and IP addresses to deliver content. Governments can exploit this by blocking access at the ISP level, targeting these centralized points of failure.

Medium was taken down by the Egyptian government in 2017. It remains blocked to this day³

But communities aren’t meant to be shut down so easily, just because of another person’s authoritarian choice. Communities should have the freedom of speech to discuss what they choose (while remaining in the rule of law, of course). This is where the Web3 vision of giving back users control of their data comes to life.⁴

Qortal is an excellent example of such a project. Its decentralized architecture removes reliance on centralized servers, distributing data across a peer-to-peer and distributed network that can’t be taken down nor censored, ensuring true user control and resilience.

Users can join communities almost immediately after completing the installation on their favorite device, whether that be a Windows or Linux desktop or laptop, Chromium browser window, or Android phone. What’s more is that all private groups on Qortal benefit from group-encrypted messaging, meaning that chat messages sent between users cannot be read by anyone outside the group, making them that much more secure from censorship!

Qortal is available on many different platforms and operating systems!⁵

From a quick installation, to joining a group of their favorite community, a new user on Qortal can, in a matter of minutes, become uncensorable!

With the new releases of Hub, Go, and Extension, users can also benefit from improved accessibility, and a clean new user interface, which makes engaging with their different communities more exciting and dynamic than ever before!

Qortal Hub's clean and sleek new user interface as shown here, makes collaborating with communities easier and more fun than ever!⁶

Communities can take the experience on Qortal even further, by for example raising funds for a fundraiser, using the decentralized app called Q-Fund, or perhaps by leveraging Threads for a Reddit decentralized alternative. Whatever a community currently needs, they’ll find it on Qortal. And if they cannot find it now, it can be quickly coded by the amazing dev team.

The crowdfunding Q-App called Q-Fund is another amazing community feature on Qortal, where community admins can raise QORT to fund their different ideas on the platform!⁷

And the QORT coin is what powers it all, ensuring that Qortal can thrive as a completely parallel internet, and economy too! The risk of censorship and having things taken down goes to zero, meaning every community can exchange free of the worry of threats or censorship.

There’s no better time to migrate your community onto Qortal. The trifecta of Hub, Go, and Extension means anyone in the community can access it, regardless of their device preferences. And they can do so without even running their own node, with Qortal’s new gateway nodes. Accessibility and data control intertwined in this amazing blockchain project, built with communities in mind. Download it here, create your own group, and then invite your friends.

1. The Net Monitor. (2017). Global internet censorship. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://thenetmonitor.org/research/2017-global-internet-censorship/

2. MENABYTES. (2017, June 12). Egypt has blocked the online publishing platform ‘Medium’. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://www.menabytes.com/egypt-blocks-medium/

3. Security Affairs. (2017). Medium blockage in Egypt [Image]. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://i0.wp.com/securityaffairs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/medium-blockage-egypt.jpg?fit=1024%2C556&ssl=1

4. Irish Tech News. (n.d.). Web3 unchained: The future of a decentralized internet. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://irishtechnews.ie/web3-unchained-the-future-of-a-decentralized-internet/

5. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal downloads page [Screenshot].Screenshot taken by the author on January 8, 2025 from https://qortal.dev/downloads

6. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal Hub group chat user interface [Screenshot]. Screenshot taken by the author on January 8, 2025, from Qortal Hub application.

7. Qortal. (n.d.). Q-Fund application interface [Screenshot]. Screenshot taken by the author on January 8, 2025, from the Qortal Hub application.

The free internet is dying! Yes, it’s true: a free and unfettered access to the internet is becoming a privilege for more and more people every year, as governments, and even corporations, crack down on content that doesn’t align with their particular viewpoints or ideologies. But the arrival of Web3, more specifically, Qortal, presents a new hope for an uncensorable, alternative internet. This will be explored further in this article.

Censorship is very bad news for the current internet in many ways, especially given that the foundations of today’s internet are based on openness, permissionless innovation, security, stability and global interoperability.¹

Censorship has become commonplace on the internet²

These values have been compromised in many ways, making it harder to express one’s opinion freely, especially in the domain of politics, religion, and other sensitive topics. For example, China’s Great Firewall was deployed in 1994, with the objective to selectively separate Chinese cyberspace from the outside world and to prevent Chinese citizens from accessing information that the government has deemed detrimental or potentially destabilizing to the country’s interests.³ This is an extreme example, but is not the only country censoring their internets, with Iran, North Korea, Russia, and even Singapore having similar measures in place.

Not every country benefits from the same kind of internet freedom⁴

An example of censorship more relevant to Western countries is that of Amazon Web Services refusing to host the servers for the internet news company “Parler”, after it deemed it had not done enough to moderate or police content posted there, and was thus in violation of their various terms of service.⁵ This can be a devastating blow for an internet company, especially if they had much of their services being run by AWS.

Needless to say, censorship has become commonplace on the normal internet, but is this something humanity must simply accept as the new normal going forward? The answer is no, and comes from a brand new way to exchange data on the web: Qortal.

Qortal leverages blockchain technology to permit users to browse a peer-to-peer, decentralized network, where no single entity (or node) controls all of the data, as is the case on the normal internet.

In the Web2 sphere, private companies are wholly in control of user data, being able to use it as they please. This data is often negligently misused, being sold to third-parties, leaked to hackers, or in the case of censorship, deleted entirely! All this without any recourse from the users which are completely at the whims of these companies.

Qortal and Web3’s promise is to return the control of the data to ther users themselves, giving them the power back in how, and to whom, they choose to share their data. In the case of Qortal, all the data is tied to the user's name, and follows them everywhere they go on the blockchain.⁶

Most importantly, nobody can censor, delete, or prevent a name from doing anything at all on Qortal, since there is no centralized authority at all. The most one can do is “block” a name, which would effectively prevent that person’s node from viewing and propagating data attached to that name.

In essence, Qortal’s entire infrastructure and architecture is censorship-proof, and gives hope to individuals having been silenced on the normal internet. Furthermore, with the future arrival of “Reticulum”, a mesh network on Qortal, users will theoretically no longer even need an Internet Service Provider (IPS) to be able to access Qortal, ensuring that every transaction and communication on the Qortal network will be shielded from external surveillance and interference once implemented.⁷

One of the cornerstones of Qortal is that it is censorship-proof!⁸

Therefore, the future of the internet is not so bleak after all, and those having suffered at the hands of centralized authoritarian bodies, can find refuge and comfort knowing alternatives exist, including a very good one in Qortal, which has been around since 2020, and continue to grow in strength and reach every single day! And the best part: it’s available on your favorite device, whether that’s a laptop, phone, or even browser extension. Visit the downloads page to download it today!

1. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. (n.d.). The open internet on the brink: Origins and evolution. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://institute.global/insights/tech-and-digitalisation/open-internet-brink-origins-and-evolution

2. Google Blogger. (n.d.). Internet censorship CISPA: Newest cybersecurity bill [Image]. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2pvhbLKv0hl4MVbx8BTWYAu8v3xIsCa83VgaXaDdTNa1eCsk-IS7eKApo_LRvij-d9hkxD3y5-oPzAb1nT6XbCvLc13MNfUulKDKHHLWjbI7kz2xoz4Ghm2oHF6QmoDXsuN5A7f_89vJ/s640/Internet+Censorship+CISPA+-+Newest+Cyber+Security+Bill.png

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Great Firewall. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Firewall

4. Voronoi App. (2024). Freedom on the Internet 2024 [Map]. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://www.voronoiapp.com/maps/Freedom-on-the-Internet-2024-2776

5. Harwell, D. (2021, January 11). Amazon, Parler, and the perils of moderating the internet. Time. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://time.com/5929888/amazon-parler-aws/

6. Qortal Wiki. (n.d.). Name registration. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=name_registration

7. Dodgers Design. (n.d.). Qortal Reticulum: Pioneers of untraceable decentralization. Medium. Retrieved December 29, 2024, from https://medium.com/@dodgersdesign/qortal-reticulum-pioneers-of-untraceable-decentralization-3b049c702e5b\

8. Ferrari, Justin. (2024). The 6 Cornerstones of Qortal [Image]. Canva.

Opening up any crypto trading platform page nowadays, one may be awestruck at the sheer number of coins and projects available to invest in and learn about.

Indeed, at the time of writing, there are about 11,000 different cryptocurrencies available!¹ But how are blockchains associated with coins, and why are coins even needed to exchange data between users of the network? The answer is a complex one, but here’s the gist of it:

There are a litany of cryptocurrencies available on the market²

At its core, blockchain is a secure way to record and share information across a network of computers.

Imagine it as a public database that anyone can access, but no one can alter once an entry is made. Each new entry, or “block,” links to the one before it, creating an unbreakable chain that strengthens as more blocks are added.

Different blockchains use unique protocols to create these blocks, embedding information that ties each block to its predecessor, ensuring the data remains secure and organized.

When a new block is added, it can include a “minted” digital asset—essentially, a newly created item on the blockchain. Users can then exchange these digital assets or even create new ones as the blockchain grows.³

Mining on Bitcoin allows the network to remain secure and free from centralized control ⁴

There are many different types of digital assets possible on blockchains, including crypto assets, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), central bank digital currencies (CBDC), securities, stablecoins and tokens.⁵

For the sake of this blog we will focus only on cryptocurrencies and the value they provide to blockchains. This branch of blockchain technology is called cryptoeconomics, and it covers a wide breadth of different topics related to cryptocurrencies and the role they play in blockchains.

In essence, in a decentralized, peer-to-peer network, where any actor is corruptible and can act selfishly, there needs to be an incentive structure in place to motivate the majority of the peers to uphold the integrity of the ledger.

Bitcoin was the first to implement such an idea, with its Proof-Of-Work protocol, which rewarded miners for adding valid transaction blocks to the chain, and keeping the system honest.

With cryptoeconomics, Bitcoin created a new kind of trust—one built on math and code instead of legal contracts.⁶

Qortal is another blockchain project where the integrity of the network is maintained by the peers' nodes verifying the transactions that are done over the network. They are rewarded with QORT through verifying the transactions over time, accumulating more rewards the longer they have their nodes running. This is a different protocol than on Bitcoin, and is known as Proof-Of-Time.

However, QORT plays another important part in the decentralized infrastructure known as Qortal. In fact, given that the Qortal motto stands as “rebuilding the internet from the ground up, completely decentralized; a new ecosystem free of any outside control”, it becomes apparent what other purposes the QORT coin can accomplish.⁷

It functions as a currency within the parallel economy found on Qortal, while simultaneously protecting the decentralized and independent nature of the project.

Anybody building a Q-App on Qortal (an application that is decentralized and utilizing the Qortal blockchain to store its data) can accept QORT payments for offering services, selling products, or even crowdfunding new software development within the platform.

Furthermore, anyone running a full node can also “mint” QORT, which means earning a reward for taking part in the consensus process of the blockchain. Anyone can earn QORT merely by providing their node to the growth of the network, and helping secure newly created block.⁸

QORT also serves as a fee mechanism within the ecosystem, allowing anybody to publish Q-Apps, Websites, and even files to the blockchain. The fees serve to maintain the integrity of the blockchain, being paid to the minters for running their nodes.

So one can truly call QORT a “utility” coin, given its multifaceted purpose. This allows it to stand out from many other projects, whose coins do not offer much in terms of intrinsic value.

QORT is not your average Joe coin…⁹

So, why are coins necessary for decentralized networks like Qortal? Well, they are the bulwarks to the network’s decentralized nature, and guarantee its freedom from third-party interference.

Bitcoin was the first mover in showing us you can encourage the majority of people in a blockchain to act honestly through a mining reward structure. Qortal took this a step further by allowing users to also build businesses, apps, and much more on top of the blockchain, and be rewarded for providing value to the users of the chain.

QORT is the backbone of the parallel, decentralized economy that is brewing on Qortal, and which continues to grow every day. It is the epitome of a utility coin, and will continue to grow in value as Qortal’s economy grows as well.

If you’re new to crypto, and this blog was informative for you, it may be time to look into Qortal more closely, by installing the Qortal Browser Extension perhaps, and afterwards obtaining your first QORT coins. Come join a new internet, where blockchain and cryptocurrency are much more than buzzwords!

References

1. Coinbase. (n.d.). Why are there so many cryptocurrencies, and why do we need them? Coinbase. https://www.coinbase.com/en-gb/learn/crypto-basics/why-are-there-so-many-cryptocurrencies-and-why-do-we-need-them

2. Ferrari, J. (2024). Image on 11,000 Cryptocurrencies [Image created using Canva]. Canva.

3. PwC. (n.d.). Understanding cryptocurrency and digital assets. PwC. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/emerging-tech/understanding-cryptocurrency-digital-assets.html

4. The Motley Fool. (n.d.). Financial infographic [Image]. The Motley Fool. https://m.foolcdn.com/media/dubs/images/original_imageshttpsg.foolcdn.comeditorialimag.width-880_8y7ib2T.png

5. Investopedia. (n.d.). Digital asset framework. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-asset-framework.asp

6. Voshmgir, Shermin. Token Economy: How the Web3 reinvents the Internet (Token Economy: How the Web3 reinvents the internet (English original & foreign language translations) Book 1) (p. 45). Token Kitchen. Kindle Edition.

7. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal 101. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_101

8. Qortal. (n.d.). Minting overview. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=minting_overview

9. Ferrari, J. (2024). Image on QORT…Way More Than A Coin! [Image created using Canva]. Canva.

Have you ever come across the term “Web3”, and how it is associated with a brand new internet, and stared at it in confusion, thinking the internet you were currently using to browse your favorite website was definitive, and had no room for improvement?

It’s understandable! The current internet as we know it, also called Web2, is extremely complex, grandiose and has been around since 2004.¹

Its utility and mass adoption has had a profound ripple effect across every human endeavor, from economics, to arts, to engineering and even political governance methods.

But as with every great technological leap, progress and improvement are inevitable, especially when problems with the existing solution become more and more apparent, or worse when they are taken advantage of for the benefit of the few in favour of the many.

The internet has many evolutions since its inception in 1983²

These problems, which can be summarized as a concentration of data in Big Tech companies’ servers, has led many Web3 projects to spring up since 2014, when the term was first coined by Gavin Wood of Ethereum.³

Qortal, which launched in June 2020⁴, was one of these projects, which promised a new way to transfer data, without the need for intermediaries and where users are much more empowered with how their information is used.⁵

Indeed, in Web2, a server hosted by companies like Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services houses the backend code that drives apps. This arrangement concentrates power, allowing these corporations—collectively known as Big Tech—to obstruct access to anyone, or trade users’ sensitive data for cash.⁶

MAMAA (Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Alphabet) corporations have a vertiginous grasp of the data on the normal internet⁷

Web3 projects leverage blockchain technology to enable peer-to-peer data transfer between users, without the need for an intermediary. In other words, the need for big centralized servers to serve and deploy data on any network becomes obsolete.

Instead, in the case of Qortal for example, it utilizes a data layer known as the Qortal Data Network (QDN), to store the data being transferred between peers in the network. Instead of placing data directly on the blockchain, which can lead to bloating and decreased performance over time, QDN utilizes the blockchain merely for securing the data. The actual data is stored off-chain, and is both encrypted and divided into chunks while being relayed across peers on the network.⁸

This architectural advantage makes Qortal an attractive alternative to the existing internet, especially given its low transaction fees, and that QDN is completely encrypted and chunked, meaning that the data transmitted from node-to-node is completely encrypted, and unable to be seen at all by any third parties.⁹

There are many reasons to think Qortal is the future of the internet¹⁰

Furthermore, Qortal also boasts its own coin called “QORT” which is used as a cryptocurrency within the decentralized infrastructure. This means that any transaction fees can be used to reward the minters supporting the blockchain. Additionally, Q-App creators can crowdfund their own app ideas directly inside Qortal using an application known as Q-Fund. This is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to the capabilities of the QORT coin.

QORT being an integral part of the Qortal network cements Qortal as a serious contender to the normal internet, given that it would be decoupled from any centralized server, and now from any centralized government fiat currency as well. In other words, it has the potential to transform itself into a complete parallel economy, one far more secure and decentralized to the one found on the current internet.

If reading this article has sparked your curiosity about Qortal, and you want to learn more, the best way to get involved is to dive in directly, and install the Qortal Browser Extension on the Chrome store found here.¹¹ You can also download the open-source code on Github here¹² and load it manually on any Chromium browser of your choice.

If not, join our Discord¹³ or Telegram¹⁴ and start chatting with existing Qortal members directly. We will be glad to welcome you into the community and answer any questions you may have! Dive into a brand new internet with Qortal!

Join the Web3 project that is taking the internet by storm¹⁵

References

1. O'Reilly, T. (2005, September 30). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. O'Reilly Media. https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

2. Impact Millions. (2023). Group of people in a business setting [Image]. Impact Millions. https://impactmillions.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Group-2-1170x620.webp

3. Deltec Bank & Trust. (2022, July 26). A brief history of Web 3.0. Deltec Bank & Trust. https://www.deltecbank.com/news-and-insights/a-brief-history-of-web-3-0/

4. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal 101. Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_101

5. McKinsey & Company. (n.d.). What is Web3? McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-web3

6. Prestmit. (2023, February 2). How Web3 resolves critical problems in Web2. Prestmit. https://prestmit.io/blog/how-web3-resolves-critical-problems-in-web2

7. Inside Telecom. (2023). The path of big tech and world domination [Image]. Inside Telecom. https://insidetelecom.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/the-path-of-big-tech-and-world-domination-1024x597.jpg

8. Dodgers Design. (2023, August 10). Qortal vs Web3 hosting: A comparative study of decentralized web hosting platforms. Medium. https://medium.com/@dodgersdesign/qortal-vs-web3-hosting-a-comparative-study-of-decentralized-web-hosting-platforms-1131b2a36ae8

9. Qortal. (n.d.). Qortal data network (QDN). Qortal Wiki. https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_data_network_qdn

10. Ferrari, J. (2024). Infographic on the Reasons Why Qortal is the Future of the Internet [Image created using Canva]. Canva.

11. https://bit.ly/qortal-chrome-extension

12. https://github.com/Qortal/chrome-extension

13. https://discord.gg/tDkjMDJRgu

14. https://t.me/qortal_official

15. Ferrari, J. (2024). Image on QORT Taking the Internet By Storm [Image created using Canva]. Canva.