@leaf yes, there are futures where servers play less of a role than they do today. We are thinking/prototyping on that.

But already today, #webxdc realtime apps eg at https://delta.chat/en/2024-11-20-webxdc-realtime#pixel-app-small-offline-first-and-realtime are using @n0iroh and thus offer a private #p2p network. Here, the rather reliable #SMTP server network is used to bootstrap lots of little private P2P ones consisting of unstable peers. Without this bootstrapping you need central root servers along with DHTs or other mechanism for discovery.