You may have used Signal as a random example but as side trivia... The non-profit Signal Foundation's Moxie Marlinspike did not want others to federate with Signal servers: https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

He said others could re-use the Signal source code and create their own ecosystems but to not federate with Signal's servers. He cited costs was one issue.

I am down for a standard, it doesn't matter which one it is, so long as it's consistent. Mostly it's for power distribution, I want every single one of my devices to be able to draw from a USB battery bank.

Oh god please no. I’ve been waiting years for Apple Maps to lose drop the gosh forsaken existence that is Yelp into a burning sun.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/22/apple-maps-ratings-plac...

There are always unintended consequences, but it seems like it would be good in that if there are more upstarts there should also be more jobs for software engineers. The pay may (probably) won't be like what it is in FAANG companies, but not everyone can work for a FAANG company.

I also think it would lead to more innovation. How many engineers aren't working on their own ideas because the insane salaries at big tech would be stupid to give up? I don't blame someone on 200-500k a year for just sitting tight and soaking up the dollars. 500k a year is as much or more than a successful small business owner, and you don't have to take on any of the risk.

> I just feel like the worlds software talent could do better work in more interesting and varied fields.

Agreed, but I'm not sure how these measures will do anything to provide more interesting work. It would probably just be more of the same, but more different companies doing it.

We have our fair share of 30 something's on here already eyeing their exit. Nice mountain home, fun side projects, and perhaps some consulting here or there.

I think the fact that federated systems are harder to design and maintain is exactly the reason we need legislation enforcing this. It is extremely important for the benefit of humanity that communication between us is not beholden to one private company. This is basically where we are with Facebook at the moment, for the majority of the Earth's population (except China). For example, if you get banned from Facebook and whatsapp, in large parts of the world you will unable to communicate online with friends and businesses.

I think a judge is going to have to do a lot of homework on this law to come up with a realistic interpretation.

Would it be the worst thing if these went away and were replaced with open protocols that do the same thing? I say go back to systems that work together and tear down the walled gardens.

Couldn't you use Public Key Cryptography? Kind of like what we've done for encryption between the Web Browser and Service Provider using PKI+TLS (HTTPS).

Such-as...say each chat network having a certificate authority which crypto-signs each end-user's Public Key. With PKI used to encrypt messages between users. A 4096 PKI key can transmit 4KiB of data, which should be enough for most chat networks. For attachments or very large messages, can just copy how TLS uses PKI to transmit an AES key for decrypting a larger payload.

The user's Private Key(s) can remain on phone/browser. To keep traffic e2e encrypted.

For example, AirPlay requires HW chips that aren’t actually needed and could be done in SW. This gives Apple a non trivial economic advantage in the BOM of their products.