I think it is important to realize that you are actually paying for the service, and that that is actually the right way to pay for it: You pay for the infrastructure of the internet by paying your ISP, and for the processing and storage of your own hardware by buying it. That is the service that someone actually has to operate for us, and it is a product everyone does already buy.

Yes, distributed infrastructure, including mesh networking in a hypothetical ideal world.

The actual cost of what e.g. FB does for its users is tiny.

My hunch is that there is a critical mass in number of active users, that once achieved, Network effects make it more expensive to be left out of the network than opt in to it.

What the magnitude of such metric actually is, probably depends as much on cultural aspects of your target demographic as the quality and usefulness of the network provided services.

Surely there is an academic paper on the subject, but if there isn't, then the real question is Why?!

We built such a platform. Our company already has mass adoption.

There are various ways to get it. I would say viral expansion is the best way.

Qbix, eh? It looks great, congratulations!

Thank you!

Feel free to reach out by email if you want to get help getting started with the FOSS platform

Cheers! Will do.