There’s a reason Signal became sorta mainstream whereas XMPP and Matrix never have and likely never will. They’re less private, less secure, and much more difficult to use. That’s not to say decentralized systems must be that way, but the computers and internet of today is built around centralization. Trying to work around that is a massive uphill battle, one where you probably can’t reach the top until we resolve more fundamental issues with technology.
Also the writer acts as if having multiple clients and servers gives some sort of strong protection against a central authority, but there’s another 2 points to consider:
- If you want your federated service to be more usable to the average person, you’re gonna need a “default” client and instance. This is how it works for Mastodon and Matrix and it means the majority of people will still be “vulnerable” to the same issues with centralized services.
- Why should people leave Signal for a much less private and secure service (which objectively makes them more vulnerable) in order to prevent some sort of hypothetical attack which we have little reason to expect in the first place?