The case for a decentralized internet | Tamas Kocsis

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: 易帆 余

Three years ago,

三年前，

I started building a decentralized web

我開始建造一個份散式網路，

because I was worried about the future of our internet.

因為我擔心我們網際網路的未來。

The current internet we are using is about gatekeepers.

目前我們使用的網路， 重點在於守門人。

If you want to reach something on the web,

如果你想要到網路上的某個地方，

then you need to go through multiple middlemen.

你就得要經過好幾個中間人。

First, a domain name server,

首先是 DNS（網域名稱伺服器），

then a server hosting company,

接著是伺服器代管公司，

which usually points you to a third party,

它通常會將你指引向第三方，

to a web hosting service.

一個網頁寄存服務。

And this happens every time you want to reach a website on the web.

每當你想要到網路上的一個網站， 就會發生上述的流程。

But these gatekeepers are vulnerable to internet attacks

但這些守門人易受網路攻擊，

and also makes the censorship and the surveillance easier.

而且他們對審查和監視 也越來越隨心所欲。

And the situation is getting worse.

而情況正在變糟。

Everything is moving to the cloud,

什麼都被放上雲端，

where the data is hosted by giant corporations.

雲端的資料是由大型企業來代管。

This move creates much, much more powerful middlemen.

移動到雲端的現象，創造出了 許多更強大的中間人。

Now, move to the cloud makes sense

移到雲端是合理的，

because this way it's easier and cheaper

因為這種方式對於 開發者及服務商來說

for the developers and the service operators.

比較容易也比較便宜。

They don't have to worry about maintaining the physical servers.

他們不用擔心要維護實體的伺服器。

I can't blame them, but I found this trend to be very dangerous,

我不怪他們，但我發現 這個趨勢是非常危險的，

because this way, these giant corporations

因為，這麼一來，這些大型企業

have unlimited control over the hosting services.

對於主機代管服務 就有無限的控制權。

And it's very easy to abuse this power.

這種權力是非常容易被濫用的。

For example, last year, a CEO of a company

比如，去年，一間公司的執行長

that acts as a gatekeeper for nine million websites

身為九百萬個網站的守門人，

decided, after some public pressure,

在受到一些公眾壓力之後，

that one of the sites it manages,

他決定他們所管理的其中一個

a far right page, should be blocked.

極右派網站，應該要被封鎖。

He then sent an internal email to his coworkers.

接著，他發了一封內部 電子郵件給他的同事們。

"This was an arbitrary decision.

「這是一個霸道的決定。

I woke up this morning in a bad mood

我今天早上起床時心情很差，

and decided to kick them off the Internet."

但還是決定要把它們踢下網路。」

Even he admits,

即使他承認：

"No one should have this power."

「沒有人應該擁有這種權力。」

As a response, one of the employees asked him,

有一位員工回應，問他：

"Is this the day the Internet dies?"

「這是網際網路的忌日嗎？」

I don't think we are actually killing the internet,

我不認為我們在殺害網際網路，

but I do think that we are in the middle

但我確實認為我們正處於一種

of a kind of irresponsible centralization process

不可靠的中心化過程當中，

that makes our internet more fragile.

這過程讓我們的網際網路更加脆弱。

The decentralized, people-to-people web

分散式，人對人的網路

solves this problem by removing the central points,

能夠移除網頁寄存服務的中繼點，

the web-hosting services.

進而解決這個問題。

It empowers the users

它把權力賦予使用者，

to have host sites they want to preserve.

讓他們能擁有他們 想要保存的主機網站。

On this network, the sites get downloaded directly from other visitors.

在這個網路上，網站會 直接被訪客下載下來。

This means, if you have a site with 100 visitors,

意思就是，若一個網站 有一百個訪客，

then it's hosted [by] 100 computers around the world.

它就是由全世界的 一百台電腦來代管。

Basically, this is a people-powered version of the internet.

基本上，這是一種以人 為動力的新版網際網路。

The security of the network is provided by public-key cryptography.

網路安全性是由公開的 金鑰加密方式來提供的。

This makes sure that no one can modify the sites

這樣確保其他人不能修改這些網站，

but only the real owner.

只有真正的網站所有人可以。

Think of it like instead of getting electricity from big power plants,

可以把它想像成，我們不再 從大型發電廠取得電力，

you put solar panels on top of your house,

改成在你自己的屋頂上裝太陽能板，

and if your neighbor down the street needs some extra energy,

如果你同條路上的鄰居 需要一些額外的能源，

then they can just download some from your house.

他們可以從你的房子下載一些來用。

So by using the decentralized web,

所以，使用分散化的網路，

we can help to keep content accessible for other visitors.

我們有助於讓內容維持在 其他訪客可以取得的狀態。

And by that, it means

這麼說的意思就是，

that we can also fight against things

我們也能夠對抗

我們認為不公正的事物，

that we feel are unjust,

like censorship.

比如審查制度。

In China, the internet is tightly controlled.

在中國，網際網路受到嚴密控制。

They can't criticize the government,

他們不能批評政府，

organize a protest,

策劃抗議，

and it's also forbidden to post

也禁止張貼

a kind of emoticon to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

追思天安門受害者的表情符號。

With the decentralized web, it's not the government that decides

若有分散化的網站，政府就無法決定

什麼能被看見、什麼不能，

what gets seen and what doesn't.

It's the people,

而是由人決定，

which makes the web more democratic.

這使得網路更民主，

But at the same time, it's hard to use this network

同時還會更難用這網路

to do something that is clearly illegal

來做一些明顯犯法的事情，

everywhere in the world,

在世界各地都一樣，

as the users probably don't want to endanger themselves

因為使用者可能並不想要

因為代管這些有問題的內容 而讓自己陷入危險。

hosting these kinds of problematic content.

Another increasing threat

還有另一項對網際網路的自由

to internet freedom

越來越嚴重的威脅，

is overregulation.

就是過度規範管控。

I have the impression

我覺得

that our delegates

我們的代表，

who vote on the internet regulation laws

對網際網路法規進行投票的代表，

are not fully aware of their decisions.

並不完全清楚了解他們的決定。

For example, the European Parliament has a new law on the table,

比如，歐洲議會正討論一條新法，

a new copyright protection law,

一條新的版權保護法，

that has a part called Article 13.

其中有一部分叫做「十三條款」。

If it passes, it would require every big website

如果通過的話， 它會要求每一個大型網站

to implement a filter

都要導入一個過濾器，

that automatically blocks content

它會根據大企業所控制的規則

based on rules controlled by big corporations.

來自動阻擋某些內容。

The original idea is to protect copyrighted materials,

原本的想法是要保護有版權的素材，

but it would endanger many other things we do on the internet:

但它會危及到我們在網際網路上 做的許多其他事情：

blogging, criticizing, discussing, linking and sharing.

寫網誌、批評、討論、 連結，和分享。

Google and YouTube already have similar systems

Google 和 YouTube 已經有類似的系統，

and they are receiving 100,000 takedown requests every hour.

它們每小時會收到十萬則 要求下架的請求。

Of course, they can't process this amount of data by hand,

當然，它們不可能用人工 來處理這麼大的量，

so they are using machine learning

所以它們採用機器學習，

to decide if it's really a copyright violation or not.

來決定是否有違反版權的狀況。

But these filters do make mistakes.

但這些過濾器會犯錯。

They're removing everything from documentation of human rights abuses,

它們什麼都移除，

濫用人權的紀錄，

lectures about copyrights

觸及版權的演講，

and search results

以及搜尋到的

that point to criticism of this new Article 13.

批評這新「十三條款」的結果。

Beside of that, they are also removing many other things.

此外，它們還會移除許多其它東西。

And sometimes, these filters aren't just removing the specific content,

有時，這些過濾器

並不只是移除特定的內容，

but it could also lead to loss of your linked accounts:

也有可能會讓你失去你連結的帳戶、

your email address, your documents, your photos,

你的電子郵件地址、 你的文件、你的照片，

or your unfinished book,

或你寫到一半的書，

which happened with the writer Dennis Cooper.

作家丹尼斯庫珀就遇到了這種事。

It's not hard to see how a system like this could be abused

不難想像，像這樣的系統

能被政客和企業競爭者濫用。

by politicians and corporate competitors.

This Article 13, the extension of these automated filters to the whole internet,

「十三條款」就是 在將這些自動過濾器

延伸到整個網際網路上， 它遭受強烈反彈，

got strong opposition

from Wikipedia, Github, Mozilla, and many others,

抗議者包括維基、GitHub、 Mozilla，及許多其他人，

including the original founders of the internet and the World Wide Web,

包括網際網路和全球 資訊網的原始創始人，

Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee.

文頓瑟夫與提姆柏內茲李。

But despite this strong opposition,

但，儘管有強烈的反彈，

on the last European Parliament vote,

在最後一次的歐洲國會投票上，

two thirds of the representatives supported this law.

三分之二的代表支持這項法律。

The final vote will be early 2019.

最後一次投票會在 2019 年初。

The result is important,

其結果極其重要，

but whatever happens,

但不論發生什麼事，

I'm pretty sure it will be followed by many other similar proposals

我很確定，全世界會有許多

其它類似的提案跟進。

around the world.

These kinds of regulations would be very hard to enforce

透過分散化的網路，

這些規定會非常難執行，

through a decentralized web,

as there is no hosting companies.

因為沒有代管公司。

The websites are served by the visitors themselves.

網站是由訪客自己來服務的。

I started to build this network three years ago.

我三年前開始建造這個網路。

Since then, I've spent thousands, tens of thousands of hours

從那時起，我已經花了數千、

數萬小時在開發上。

on the development.

Why?

為什麼？

Why would anyone spend thousands of hours on something anyone can freely copy,

為什麼會有人花數千小時 去做任何人都能自由複製、

rename, or even sell?

重新命名，甚至銷售的東西呢？

Well, in my case,

嗯，就我來說，

one of the reasons was to do something meaningful.

理由之一是我想要做有意義的事。

During my daily regular job as a web developer,

我平日的工作是網路開發者，

I didn't have the feeling that I'm working on something

我不覺得我的工作產出

that had a chance to be a bigger than me.

有機會變得比我更大。

Simply, I just wanted to make my short presence in this world

簡單地說，我只想讓 我在這世上的短暫存在

to be meaningful.

變得有意義。

Last year, the Great Firewall of China started blocking this network I created.

去年，中國的防火長城 開始阻擋我創造的網路。

This move officially made me the enemy

這一舉動正式使我成為

of the government-supported internet censorship.

政府支持的互聯網審查的敵人。

Since then, it's been really a game of cat and mouse.

從那之後，就成了貓捉老鼠的遊戲。

They make new rules in the firewall

他們在防火牆上建立新的規則，

and I try to react to it as fast as I can

我則是盡快做出對策，

so the users can keep hosting content and create websites

讓使用者能夠繼續 代管內容和創建網站，

that otherwise would be censored by the centralized Chinese internet.

要不然，就會被中心化的 中國網際網路給審查。

My other motivation to create this network was worry.

我創立這個網路的 另一個動機是擔憂。

I fear that the future of our internet is out of our control.

我擔心我們網際網路的未來 將不受我們控制。

The increasing centralization and the proposed laws

越來越嚴重的中心化 以及被提出的法律

are threatening our freedom of speech

都在威脅我們的言論自由，

and, by that, our democracy.

進而威脅我們的民主。

So for me, building a decentralized web

所以，對我來說， 建造去中心化的網路

means creating a safe harbor,

就意味著創造一個安全港，

a space where the rules are not written by big corporations and political parties,

在這個空間中，

規則不由大企業和政黨所寫，

but by the people.

而是由人民所寫的。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）