The Internet’s Evolution: From Open to Controlled, and Now to Decentralized

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.