Before cjdns a group of us started "project meshnet", inspired by Athens[0], to essentially replace or supplant the Internet. At the time it was an idealistic/anarchic response to the Pirate Bay ruling back in 2009-2010. IIRC cjdns came a bit later and subsumed most of the group.

Who knew that a bunch of disgruntled hackers and software pirates building a shittier version of the Internet wouldn't last?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athens_Wireless_Metropolitan...