I looked into carbon offsets of shipping containers from China to the US as part of my job. I was shocked at how little was emitted per container - Probably cost around $40 of offsets for one 45 footer.

Like you said, the bigger issue is the trucks needed for last mile / between distribution centers.

Whats a good way for me to take the dive into self hosting without getting myself in trouble security wise? I would love something that is basic to build off of as I experiment with it to teach myself the more advanced stuff.

I am more of a business person than a developer, so I approach it from that perspective.

I suspect that we will see different instances using different ways of paying for the service. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least bit if there might be an ad supported instance, donation supported instance, subscription instance, etc. I think this is great because it puts power in the hands of the user to chooser the experience they want. It should strongly encourage the design of a platform that prioritizes the user.

Right now things feel hacked together, but its inevitable that at some point performance issues, onboarding friction, and UX issues will be addressed. I really think its only a matter of time before decentralized platforms talking to each other take over.