Discretionary P2P networks avoid the social-choice and incentive-manipulation problems inherent in random distribution, which requires collective agreement on a system-wide resource ratio (rs, bs) and thus creates incentives to subvert voting or reputation mechanisms. By allowing nodes to self-select content, discretionary systems need no election schemes, reputation systems, or electronic cash, enabling simpler and more stable designs.
From 2004-danezis-economics — The Economics of Censorship Resistance
· §7
· 2004
· Economics and Information Security
Implications
Avoid global coordination mechanisms (reputation scores, token economies, democratic content voting) in circumvention network designs — each such mechanism is a manipulable attack surface that also increases implementation complexity.
Prefer architectures where each relay's participation incentive is self-contained and locally computable, rather than contingent on network-wide state that must be agreed upon.