Re:The promise and paradox of decentralization
by rhn_mk1 on Friday November 05, 2021 @05:04PM
(#29124728)
While it's not strictly centralized, as in, there's no single root, the sets of root certs in usage are extremely similar. There are only a handful that matter, and they overlap significantly because they share choices: Windows, Android, Apple, Firefox, various Linux distros.
A contributing factor is that the culture that grew around them makes it uncommon to be able to manipulate your own certificates. If you set up a Web page with your own root cert, you can be sure it will never grow.
Chain of trust is a decentralized reputation protocol and we use it frequently and effectively.