Yes - the original Skype was Peer-to-peer encrypted. Not popular with the TLA-agencies.
First try was eBay (WTF), but they forgot to buy the source and could not break it.
Second try, Micro$oft , and they managed to get their servers in the middle (Peer-M$-Peer) for their friends in Virginia. Now it apparently has no value to keep around and people use Signal or whatever...
I hope that there are mirrors spread out in various places around the globe because of the way things are moving in the US.
Same reason that I now would like to have more information offline: books as well as hard drives with scientific reports, Wikipedia and all the 'data' that I fear might go missing. It will take some time and money and I might well team up with others in the neighbourhood.
...These are not sustainable, particularly because there's a large boomer population in the midst of retiring, and those people still need to live and eat for the next 20 years, and the working age population will have to support them...
Well, if 50 years ago you had said that the replacement rate should be 2.1 children per woman then that would probably have been a resonable target as well. Also, considering our current numbers (2x) where we are now would be seen as totally unsustainable - which it probably also is for a long term scenario.
The thing about younger generations "having" to support the ageing population (the ones that really screwed up any hope of sustainability by their consumption (we)) is not a given.
... Leaving out huge chunks of cost and then claiming your solution is cheaper. Also comparing two completely different product offerings, one of which is more functional than the other, and pretending they are interchangeable, which they are not....
Leaving out huge chunks of cost is actually what has been going on for a long time with regard to traditional fossil fuel derived energy. The resulting pollution has been for free in terms of the energy produced, but of course the cost has just been pushed on to others.
The energy supply and consumption in our societies have evolved from the premise of unrealistically cheap fossil fuels. Realising that we have to change from polluting to clean energy may also lead to changes in the way energy is consumed and distributed.
The energy produced from wind and solar is way cheaper than conventional fossil-based energy if you were to make a meaningful comparison where externalities are included. Adapting the rest of our Energy infrastructure and consumption may certainly have a (significant) cost, but the current massive pollution will not be one.
The faster I go, the behinder I get. -- Lewis Carroll