This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/from-walled-gardens-to-world-grid-a-short-history-of-how-we-centralized-the-internet.
From ARPANET’s open roots to today’s walled gardens, explore how we centralized the internet—and why the fight for a freer web isn’t over.
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This story was written by: @ibukun8717. Learn more about this writer by checking @ibukun8717's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com.

The internet began decentralized, designed to survive disruption. Over decades, it centralized into walled gardens and fragile empires. Yet seeds of resistance—open source, peer-to-peer, Bitcoin, IPFS—show the web’s DNA was always meant to be free. This prequel traces the path from bazaar to World Grid, setting the stage for a decentralized future.