Three years ago, I started building a decentralized web because I was worried about the future of our internet.
三年前，我开始搭建一个份散式网络，因为我担心我们因特网的未来。
The current internet we are using is about gatekeepers.
目前我们使用的网络，重点在于网守。
If you want to reach something on the web, then you need to go through multiple middlemen.
如果你想要到网络上的某个地方，你就得要经过好几个中间人。
First, a domain name server, then a server hosting company, which usually points you to a third party, to a web hosting service.
首先是DNS（域名服务器），接着是服务器代管公司，它通常会将你指引向第三方，一个网页寄存服务。
And this happens every time you want to reach a website on the web.
每当你想要到网络上的一个网站，就会发生上述的流程。
But these gatekeepers are vulnerable to internet attacks and also makes the censorship and the surveillance easier.
但这些网守易受网络攻击，而且他们对审查和监视也越来越随心所欲。
And the situation is getting worse. Everything is moving to the cloud, where the data is hosted by giant corporations.
而情况正在变糟。什么都被放上云端，云端的资料是由大型企业来代管。
This move creates much, much more powerful middlemen.
移动到云端的现象，创造出了许多更强大的中间人。
Now, move to the cloud makes sense because this way it's easier and cheaper for the developers and the service operators.
移到云端是合理的，因为这种方式对于开发者及服务商来说比较容易也比较便宜。
They don't have to worry about maintaining the physical servers.
他们不用担心要维护实体的服务器。
I can't blame them, but I found this trend to be very dangerous,
我不怪他们，但我发现这个趋势是非常危险的，
because this way, these giant corporations have unlimited control over the hosting services.
因为这么一来，这些大型企业对于主机代管服务就有无限的控制权。
And it's very easy to abuse this power.
这种权力是非常容易被滥用的。
For example, last year, a CEO of a company that acts as a gatekeeper for nine million websites decided,
比如，去年，一家公司的首席执行官身为九百万个网站的网守，
after some public pressure, that one of the sites it manages, a far right page, should be blocked.
在受到一些公众压力之后，他决定他们所管理的其中一个极右派网站，应该要被封锁。
He then sent an internal email to his coworkers.
接着，他发了一封内部电子邮件给他的同事们。
"This was an arbitrary decision. I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet."
“这是一个霸道的决定。我今天早上起床时心情很差，但还是决定要把它们踢下网络。”
Even he admits, "No one should have this power."
即使他承认：“没有人应该拥有这种权力。”
As a response, one of the employees asked him, "Is this the day the Internet dies?"
有一位员工回应，问他：“这是因特网的忌日吗？”
I don't think we are actually killing the internet,
我不认为我们在杀害因特网，
but I do think that we are in the middle of a kind of irresponsible centralization process that makes our internet more fragile.
但我确实认为我们正处于一种不可靠的中心化过程当中，这过程让我们的因特网更加脆弱。
The decentralized, people-to-people web solves this problem by removing the central points, the web-hosting services.
分布式，人对人的网络能够移除网页寄存服务的中继点，进而解决这个问题。
It empowers the users to have host sites they want to preserve.
它把权力赋予使用者，让他们能拥有他们想要保存的主机网站。
On this network, the sites get downloaded directly from other visitors.
在这个网络上，网站会直接被访客下载下来。
This means, if you have a site with 100 visitors, then it's hosted 100 computers around the world.
意思就是，若一个网站有一百个访客，它就是由全世界的一百台计算机来代管。
Basically, this is a people-powered version of the internet.
基本上，这是一种以人为动力的新版因特网。
The security of the network is provided by public-key cryptography.
网络安全性是由公开的密钥加密方式来提供的。
This makes sure that no one can modify the sites but only the real owner.
这样确保其他人不能修改这些网站，只有真正的网站所有人可以。
Think of it like instead of getting electricity from big power plants, you put solar panels on top of your house,
可以把它想象成，我们不再从大型发电厂取得电力，改成在你自己的屋顶上装太阳能板，
and if your neighbor down the street needs some extra energy, then they can just download some from your house.
如果你同条路上的邻居需要一些额外的能源，他们可以从你的房子下载一些来用。
So by using the decentralized web, we can help to keep content accessible for other visitors.
所以，使用分散化的网络，我们有助于让内容维持在其他访客可以取得的状态。
And by that, it means that we can also fight against things that we feel are unjust, like censorship.
这么说的意思就是，我们也能够对抗我们认为不公正的事物，比如审查制度。
With the decentralized web, it's not the government that decides what gets seen and what doesn't.
如果有分散化的网站，政府就无法决定什么能被看见、什么不能。
It's the people, which makes the web more democratic.
而是由人决定，这使得网络更民主。
But at the same time, it's hard to use this network to do something that is clearly illegal everywhere in the world,
同时，用这网络来做一些明显犯法的事情会更难，在世界各地都一样，
as the users probably don't want to endanger themselves hosting these kinds of problematic content.
因为使用者可能并不想要因为代管这些有问题的内容而让自己陷入危险。
Another increasing threat to internet freedom is overregulation.
还有另一项对因特网的自由越来越严重的威胁，就是过度规范管控。
I have the impression that our delegates who vote on the internet regulation laws are not fully aware of their decisions.
我觉得我们的代表，对因特网法规进行投票的代表，并不完全清楚了解他们的决定。

For example, the European Parliament has a new law on the table,
比如，欧洲议会正讨论一条新法，
a new copyright protection law, that has a part called Article 13.
一条新的版权保护法，其中有一部分叫做“十三条款”。
If it passes, it would require every big website to implement a filter
如果通过的话，它会要求每一个大型网站都要导入一个过滤器，
that automatically blocks content based on rules controlled by big corporations.
它会根据大企业所控制的规则来自动阻挡某些内容。
The original idea is to protect copyrighted materials, but it would endanger many other things we do on the internet:
原本的想法是要保护有版权的素材，但它会危及到我们在因特网上做的许多其他事情：
blogging, criticizing, discussing, linking and sharing.
写博客、批评、讨论、链接和分享。
Google and YouTube already have similar systems and they are receiving 100,000 takedown requests every hour.
Google和YouTube已经有类似的系统，它们每小时会收到十万则要求下架的请求。
Of course, they can't process this amount of data by hand,
当然，它们不可能用人工来处理这么大的量，
so they are using machine learning to decide if it's really a copyright violation or not.
所以它们采用机器学习，来决定是否有违反版权的状况。
But these filters do make mistakes.
但这些过滤器会犯错。
They're removing everything from documentation of human rights abuses,
它们什么都移除，滥用人权的纪录，
lectures about copyrights and search results that point to criticism of this new Article 13.
触及版权的演讲，以及搜寻到的批评这新“十三条款”的结果。
Beside of that, they are also removing many other things.
此外，它们还会移除许多其它东西。
And sometimes, these filters aren't just removing the specific content,
有时，这些过滤器并不只是移除特定的内容，
but it could also lead to loss of your linked accounts:
也有可能会让你失去你链接的帐户：
your email address, your documents, your photos, or your unfinished book, which happened with the writer Dennis Cooper.
你的电子邮件地址、你的文件、你的照片，或你写到一半的书，作家丹尼斯·库珀就遇到了这种事。
It's not hard to see how a system like this could be abused by politicians and corporate competitors.
不难想象，像这样的系统能被政客和企业竞争者滥用。
This Article 13, the extension of these automated filters to the whole internet,
“十三条款”就是在将这些自动过滤器延伸到整个因特网上，
got strong opposition from Wikipedia, Github, Mozilla, and many others,
它遭受强烈反弹，抗议者包括维基、GitHub、Mozilla及许多其他人，
including the original founders of the internet and the World Wide Web, Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee.
包括因特网和全球信息网的原始创始人，文顿·瑟夫与提姆·柏内兹-李。
But despite this strong opposition, on the last European Parliament vote, two thirds of the representatives supported this law.
但尽管有强烈的反弹，在最后一次的欧洲国会投票上，三分之二的代表支持这项法律。
The final vote will be early 2019. The result is important, but whatever happens,
最后一次投票会在2019年初。其结果极其重要，但不论发生什么事，
I'm pretty sure it will be followed by many other similar proposals around the world.
我很确定，全世界会有许多其它类似的提案跟进。
These kinds of regulations would be very hard to enforce through a decentralized web, as there is no hosting companies.
通过分散化的网络，这些规定会非常难执行，因为没有代管公司。
The websites are served by the visitors themselves.
网站是由访客自己来服务的。
I started to build this network three years ago.
我三年前开始搭建这个网络。
Since then, I've spent thousands, tens of thousands of hours on the development.
从那时起，我已经花了数千、数万小时在开发上。
Why? Why would anyone spend thousands of hours on something anyone can freely copy, rename, or even sell?
为什么？为什么会有人花数千小时去做任何人都能自由复制、重新命名甚至销售的东西呢？
Well, in my case, one of the reasons was to do something meaningful.
嗯，就我来说，理由之一是我想要做有意义的事。
During my daily regular job as a web developer,
我平日的工作是网络开发者，
I didn't have the feeling that I'm working on something that had a chance to be a bigger than me.
我不觉得我的工作产出有机会变得比我更大。
Simply, I just wanted to make my short presence in this world to be meaningful.
简单地说，我只想让我在这世上的短暂存在变得有意义。
Last year, the Great Firewall of China started blocking this network I created.
去年，中国的防火长城开始阻挡我创造的网络。
This move officially made me the enemy of the government-supported internet censorship.
这一举动正式使我成为政府支持的互联网审查的敌人。
Since then, it's been really a game of cat and mouse.
从那之后，就成了猫捉老鼠的游戏。
They make new rules in the firewall and I try to react to it as fast as I can
他们在防火墙上建立新的规则，我则是尽快做出对策，
so the users can keep hosting content and create websites that otherwise would be censored by the centralized Chinese internet.
让使用者能够继续代管内容和搭建网站，要不然，就会被中心化的中国因特网给审查。
My other motivation to create this network was worry.
我创立这个网络的另一个动机是担忧。
I fear that the future of our internet is out of our control.
我担心我们因特网的未来将不受我们控制。
The increasing centralization and the proposed laws are threatening our freedom of speech and, by that, our democracy.
越来越严重的中心化以及被提出的法律都在威胁我们的言论自由，进而威胁我们的民主。
So for me, building a decentralized web means creating a safe harbor,
所以，对我来说，建造去中心化的网络就意味着创造一个安全港，
a space where the rules are not written by big corporations and political parties, but by the people. Thank you.
在这个空间中，规则不由大企业和政党所写，而是由人民所写的。谢谢。