The cloud tax is creating a feudal society
Decentralizing AI: Compute Protocols and Proof of Work - Panel Discussion | Proof of Data 2024 (Recall Network)
“What that is trending towards is a feudalistic society that we work so hard as a humanity to escape — few people with the resource that everyone needs have control over those resources and charge a tax. All of us pay a cloud tax without even realizing we are paying a cloud tax: an average 50% of all the income that online services make go to a cloud provider, and these providers are unelected companies with shareholders, profits… as a primary driver.” — 00:07:11
Context: Answering why decentralized compute matters now; he adds that with hyperscalers as GPU gatekeepers, “try getting a GPU from Amazon — it’s impossible.”