Decentralizing the Social Web - Can Blockchains Solve Ten Years of Standardization Failure of the Social Web?

For over a decade, standards bodies like the IETF and W3C have attempted to prevent the centralization of the Web via the use of open standards for ‘permission-less innovation.’ Yet today, these standards, from OAuth to RSS, seem to have failed to prevent the massive centralization of the Web at the hands of a few major corporations like Google and Facebook. We’ll delve deep into the lessons of failed attempts to replace DNS like XRIs, identity systems like OpenID, and metadata formats like the Semantic Web, all of which were re-cuperated by centralized platforms like Facebook as Facebook Connect and the “Like” Button. Learning from the past, a new generation of blockchain standards and governance mechanisms may be our last, best chance to save the Web.