WARP is here
I was openly critical of Cloudflare when they announced Warp the first time. My accusations were over-reaching, and I ultimately retracted them. But I&#x27;m still skeptical, and I still won&#x27;t use Warp.<p>Here&#x27;s what still bothers me: Cloudflare is a single company with points of presence all over the world, handling traffic for websites all over the world (including some big ones), and now trying to attract consumers worldwide to proxy their traffic through its network. That&#x27;s a <i>lot</i> of power, and we all know the saying about power and corruption. It doesn&#x27;t matter how conscientious the leadership are. I&#x27;d prefer that the temptation to abuse that power was just not there at all.<p>My idea of a better Internet is a return to the way the Internet <i>was</i> -- a large number of small providers, communicating with each other over open standard protocols. So, yes, I should switch to something other than Comcast here in my apartment. So far, I&#x27;ve been afraid that doing that would leave me with a truly abysmal quality of service. (I&#x27;m in Bellevue, Washington.) But at least I can avoid adding Cloudflare, with its terrifying power, to the mix.<p>Granted, I mostly use the Internet on a stationary computer with a cable connection at home. About the only thing I do on my phone away from a WiFi connection is request an Uber ride. And I do need that to work reliably. But it <i>is</i> working just fine without Warp. So, maybe Warp is just not for me. Still, for the people that <i>would</i> benefit, I&#x27;m afraid of how much more power they&#x27;re going to be giving Cloudflare when they tap that &quot;on&quot; button.